My next guest is Katharine Birbalsingh, known (perhaps unfairly) by many of us in the press as the world’s strictest headmistress or principal. She is head of Michaela Community School, which has rejected woke ‘looking good’ principles for conservative (with a small c) ‘doing good’ strategies. She’s also been in the news for outright rejecting the demand from some Muslims in her school to allow prayer there.
For many of us, Katharine is a hero. But when she arrived at the door to my studio, I was taken aback.
Scroll down for the 3 things that surprised me about Katharine Birbalsingh.
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Watch our full interview on Heretics - out from 7pm UK | 2pm ET.
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1. Katharine Has AURA
Not ‘an’ aura. She simply has aura. In fact, aura aspires to be like her.
I was nervous to meet Katharine, as I waited for her in my Heretics Studio in London. I saw her speaking with the security guard, her trademark hair marking her out from a distance. As she approached, she seemed to grow taller until we met with a handshake, almost eye to eye (I’m 6’4” so that’s something).
The point is this: she looks and acts the part. Katharine is someone who inspires the children at her school to be the best they can be. ‘Not fair?’ she says. ‘Life isn’t fair!’ She repudiates the idea, so often promulgated by the woke left, that you need to accept that the world is against you, and dwell in your victimhood.
As such, she needs to make sure she is setting an example every time she appears on a large platform. She dresses smartly, has excellent posture and speaks eloquently. She is the symbol of Michaela Community School, someone for every child to look up to.
2. She Speaks Old-Worldy
Katharine has a mixed ancestry and grew up living in New Zealand and Canada, before settling in the UK. The result is that she has something resembling a Mid-Atlantic accent. The Mid-Atlantic accent doesn’t really exist, and never really did. It’s the dramatic way of speaking in the 1950’s talkies. It’s called the Mid-Atlantic, because you can’t quite place which aspects of the accent sound more British, and which are more American. The closest I can think of, in modern times, is Frasier Craine. In fact, even more than Frasier and Niles, it’s the protagonist’s agent Bebe who really nails the Mid-Atlantic.
This lends further weight to Katharine’s otherworldly appeal and place as a symbol for the children at her school.
3. She’s Not Scary
Despite all of the media headlines about Katharine being the world’s strictest headmistress, the reality is that she is funny and likes to share in jokes. She also speaks all the time about her ‘love’ for her job and her children. She understands that this sometimes means being tough on the kids, and that that is often the most difficult part of being a parent or teacher. It’s far easier, she explains to me, to simply relax the rules and decline to discipline…but you’re hurting the child by doing so.
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Bonus Points
She invites everyone to take a guided tour of Michaela Community School. I’d encourage anyone visiting London to do so, and I need to get round to taking Katharine up on her offer too. It was on the Tube in London recently that our mutual friend
told me in a fit of passion that I absolutely must go see the school.Towards the end of our interview, Katharine named
and myself as the heretics she admires - those of us creating channels for ourselves and encouraging viewers to support us. It’s the first time I’ve been name checked in that section, and I was all made up. So much so that I suggested I do a talk at her school, which she politely agreed to. I later regretted saying this, because I put Katharine on the spot, and it might be that children have little to learn from me. So I haven’t pressed the matter. We shall see…I hope these behind-the-scenes snippets give you something to think about, as you watch our full interview on Heretics.
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Muslim Extremists Sent Me DEATH THREATS - Katharine Birbalsingh