Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership

Leading With Conviction | A Conversation with Katharine Birbalsingh

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Aug 4, 2025

Katharine Birbalsingh, founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School in London, discusses her radical yet effective approach to educational leadership. She emphasizes the importance of clarity of vision and authentic conversations in fostering school culture. Katharine shares her intriguing ice cream cone analogy for school improvement and how saying 'no' to good ideas can yield extraordinary results. With insights on autonomy and navigating difficult conversations, she challenges listeners to rethink what true leadership entails.

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INSIGHT

Ownership Trumps Diktat

Autonomy only works when leaders and staff genuinely own the school’s vision.
Ownership turns routine compliance into pride and higher-quality work.

ADVICE

Define Success And Watch The Signs

Be crystal clear about your vision and the signs of success and failure.
Monitor those signs and act decisively when things are failing.

INSIGHT

People Make The Building

Physical resources matter less than the people and culture inside the building.
Treat the school as a living system where people are the blood that makes it function.

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Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of Britain's most talked-about school, reveals the leadership principles that transformed her vision into reality. From her converted office building in London, Michaela Community School has achieved the highest progress scores in England for three consecutive years, with results that rival the country's most elite institutions.

Katharine shares her unflinching approach to leadership - one built on absolute clarity of vision, radical simplicity, and the power of authentic conversation. She explains why autonomy isn't just about freedom from interference, but about creating genuine ownership throughout your organisation, and how saying 'no' to good ideas can be the key to extraordinary results.

Katharine discusses the ice cream cone analogy that will change how you think about school improvement, why she's never used an agenda in a meeting, and how the dating world can teach us about setting standards with parents and staff. Whether you agree with her methods or not, her insights on building culture, having difficult conversations, and leading with unwavering standards offer valuable lessons for any school leader looking to create meaningful change. This conversation will challenge your assumptions about what it means to lead with true conviction.

Links

Michaela Community School - MichaelaMichaela Community School | Welcome to Michaela
E.D. Hirsch's "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them" (1999) - Available on Goodreads - Educational philosophy book that influenced Katharine's approach
Katharine's Books:"To Miss with Love" (2011) - Her memoir based on her teaching blog
"Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way" (2016) - Editor
"Michaela: The Power of Culture" (2020) - Editor

Join Shane's Intensive Leadership Programme at educationleaders.co/intensive

Shane Leaning, an organisational coach based in Shanghai, supports school leaders globally. Passionate about empowment, he is the author of the best-selling 'Change Starts Here.' Shane is a leading educational voice in the UK, Asia and around the world.

You can find Shane on LinkedIn and Bluesky. or shaneleaning.com

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