London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Aug 02, 2025

UK’s ‘strictest headmistress’ fears schools will stop teaching Shakespeare

UK’s ‘strictest headmistress’ fears schools will stop teaching Shakespeare

Katharine Birbalsingh says move to decolonise English curriculum could mean Shakespeare replaced with black and female authors
The headteacher of a school described as the strictest in Britain has warned that William Shakespeare will disappear from classrooms as schools in England come under pressure to decolonise and diversify the curriculum.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the controversial headteacher at Michaela community school in north London, said Shakespeare had already been “lost” in many places in the US and cautioned: “We are following America in this way.”

In an interview with the Guardian, Birbalsingh said schools were under a lot of pressure to change what they are teaching, but stressed the importance of keeping “dead white men” on the curriculum.

Reading lists for GCSE and A-level English literature and drama have recently been broadened to include more black and minority ethnic writers, and campaigners have called for black history to be fully embedded in the curriculum.

Asked about decolonising the curriculum, Birbalsingh said: “I think that dead white men have something to offer us. Shakespeare has been influencing literature for over 400 years. It’s right to teach Shakespeare. The ideas in Shakespeare are universal.”

She went on: “I’m worried about the trend in America that is now influencing what’s happening over here, where eventually we will do away with cultural icons like Shakespeare.”

Currently, pupils in England are still required to study Shakespeare. Students sitting AQA GCSE English literature exams this summer will have studied one of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and Julius Caesar.

“The point is the time will come where I don’t think that will happen any more,” said Birbalsingh. “I think that in America he has been lost in many places. And we are following America in this way.”

Asked what would replace Shakespeare, she said: “Any number of different black and female authors. Maybe they’ll have me in there. The point is I’m a black female author. I would never suggest reading my books instead of Shakespeare or Dickens or any number of other dead white men. My colour and my gender should not be so important.”

Birbalsingh stressed she was not saying she did not want to have any black authors on the curriculum but added: “I disagree with this idea that you can only identify and appreciate an author who is of your skin colour. You should be able to appreciate anyone really, and what matters is how good they are.”

She said that pupils taking A-level English at Michaela study Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island. “I think it’s excellent. So I’m not saying only teach dead white men. I’m just saying don’t campaign to get rid of them.”

Birbalsingh has allowed cameras into her free school for the first time for a documentary on ITV entitled Britain’s Strictest Headmistress, which aired on Sunday.

She founded the Michaela community school eight years ago and it has since become the most talked-about education experiment in England.

But far from being a warts-and-all portrait of a school and its controversial headteacher, it is an authored documentary in which she sets out her vision, not just for education but for raising children and making a better society.

Her manifesto is based on 12 golden rules, which include: don’t give children unsupervised access to the internet, teach them gratitude, keep your standards high, hold the line, and don’t let them listen to grime or drill music because “that’ll ruin their lives”, she said.

“White middle-class people don’t realise that, because their children can dip in and dip out and it’s not an issue. Whereas your black kid in the inner city – it could literally destroy your life.”

Birbalsingh told the Guardian: “This isn’t me saying, oh my goodness, parents are doing a terrible job. This is me saying, these things are going to help us all be better at raising children as a society.”

She first came to prominence at the 2010 Tory party conference where she made a speech about Britain’s “broken” education system, which caused uproar among fellow teachers and cost her her job.

Her school has become famous for its strict “no excuses” behaviour policy and its success – it was judged “outstanding” by Ofsted and in 2019 more than half of all GCSE grades were level 7 or above. Her many fans include Toby Young, Michael Gove and Peter Hitchens.

She was appointed as the government’s new Social Mobility Commissioner and has attacked “woke culture”, engaging in regular Twitter spats on any number of issues including white privilege, racism, Ofsted and original sin. Last month she was criticised after she suggested girls don’t choose physics A-level because they dislike “hard maths”, comments she said were taken out of context.

“People misquote me,” she said. “People say all sorts of nonsense. I spent 20 minutes talking about the cultural issues for why girls might not choose STEM subjects.” Besides, she said: “I don’t think we should fulfil quotas. If I don’t respect my girls well enough at 16 for us to say, ‘No, you must do physics, because we need to have 50% girls doing physics’, I just think that’s wrong.”

Earlier this week Birbalsingh fought off her critics over a quotation painted on an internal wall of the school, which an eagle-eyed observer spotted had been misattributed to Winston Churchill. She can see why people picked up on the mistake. “But demand a public apology? What? For something on the wall in my school? It’s absurd.

“Of course point out a mistake. Laugh at it if you want. I don’t understand what the big deal is. Yeah, we have a misattributed quote. We’ll change it. Like, who cares?”

On white privilege, she acknowledges it exists, but says there are lots of other kinds of privilege, like “pretty privilege”, “tall privilege” and “good family privilege”, and in any case, she says, it’s damaging to black children to keep on about racism and white privilege in school.

“That’s all they ever hear on the outside. We have to counter that somehow. I cannot tell you how debilitating it is to hear as a black child that the world is against you, that everyone’s a racist and that you’ll never make it. This is not helpful to any of us.”

Birbalsingh agreed to the documentary because she wants millions of people to see what happens at Michaela and for parents and teachers to be able to learn from her experience. “I’m not courting fame at all,” she says.

“It’s more that I feel as a society we’re making bad decisions for ourselves, for our children. And many people cannot speak out about it because they’ll lose their jobs or they’ll lose their friends.

“The thing is, I’ve already lost my friends when I gave a speech to a Conservative party conference, so I’m able to speak, and I feel I have a duty to do so.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Threatens Canada with Tariffs Over Palestinian State Recognition
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Trump Sues Murdoch in “Heavyweight Bout”: Lawsuit Over Alleged Epstein Letter Sets Stage for Courtroom Showdown
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
J.K. Rowling Limits Public Engagements Citing Safety Fears
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
×