Hi folks, I'm joined by Catherine Berbilsing, the founder and headmistress of the Michaela School in Wembley, London.

And this is a remarkable school because it is expressly founded on very conservative principles, should we say,

and sort of traditional levels of discipline, which a few years ago caused a bit of a stir in the media, didn't it?

Well, we're always causing a bit of a stir, I think, in the media ever since we tried to open. It took us three and a half years to open and we eventually opened in 2014.

Right, right.

And I got into lots of trouble because I spoke at the Conservative Party conference in 2010

and then was essentially kicked out of the profession

because you're not allowed to side with the right when you're a teacher.

Or a conservative.

Okay, so would you like to just tell us a little bit about the school itself, just for anyone who doesn't know about it?

Yeah, so there's three things I'd say that really distinguish us. We have traditional discipline,

traditional teaching and traditional values. And we take all of that stuff very seriously. We have traditional discipline, traditional teaching and traditional values.

And we take all of that stuff very seriously.

So people say I'm the strictest headmistress in Britain, which I'm quite happy to be known by that name.

People sort of think strict means that you'll mean.

I would say that it means you love the children enough to keep your standards really high for them,

and that discipline is what's needed in all of our schools.

And then traditional teaching, again, I think that's what's needed in all of our schools.

And it used to be the case, 60, 70 years ago, what I'm saying was perfectly normal 60 or 70 years ago.

Nowadays, I'm a complete radical for expecting that children should do as they're told

and do their homework and turn up on time.

And they don't all have some variety of need that needs to be met

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