# State school run by Britain’s strictest head gets 70% A/A* grades despite Lucy Powell claiming disadvantaged students are being ‘let down’ by focus on academic subjects

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/state-school-run-by-britains-strictest-head-gets-70-a-a-grades-despite-lucy-powell-claiming-disadvantaged-students-are-being-let-down-by-focus-on-academic-subjects/
- Published: 2026-08-13T13:04:23+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-24T05:18:06+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16049903/State-school-Britains-strictest-head-grades.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Americas, Business, Cricket, Geopolitics, Markets, Politics, Sport, UK, World

## Key points

- Michaela School hits 70% A/A* grades, beating national average
- Comes amid row over Powell's comments on academic-focused schools
- School's discipline-focused approach rivals top private schools like Eton

## Summary

Michaela Community School in Brent, north-west London, run by headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh, has achieved nearly 70 per cent A and A* A-level grades, more than double the national average of 28.5 per cent, despite serving one of the country's most deprived communities. The results come days after new Education Secretary Lucy Powell argued that schools prioritising academic subjects were "letting down" disadvantaged pupils, prompting Conservative education spokesperson Laura Trott to challenge Powell to explain how such outcomes could be seen as detrimental to pupils.

A third of Michaela's entries were graded A*, against a national average of 9.6 per cent, with 10 per cent of pupils achieving all A*s and two winning places at Oxbridge. Around 90 per cent of entries were A* to B, students averaged AAA overall, and Birbalsingh said 11 per cent of pupils would study medicine and 85 per cent would go to Russell Group universities. The school's results now approach those of Eton College, and its success has been attributed to a strict "no excuses" discipline ethos, including a behaviour "boot camp" for new pupils, though critics on the left have accused Birbalsingh of focusing too narrowly on academic subjects.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.