The Michaela Community School is a “free school.” Like charters in America, these schools aim to provide more pedagogical options to poor and marginalized communities. They are publicly funded, privately run, and controversial—both for their approaches to education and, critics say, for diverting resources from the public system. Around Michaela’s asphalt courtyard, lines from “Invictus,” William Henley’s ode to grit and perseverance—“I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul”—have been blown up to the size of billboards. The slogan “Knowledge is power” adorns a four-story banner hanging from the building’s brick facade. Another banner reads: private school ethos—no fees.

Michaela has no admissions filters for entrance into Year 7 (the first year of secondary school in Britain) and draws nearly all its students from Wembley, one of the poorest districts in London. Most students are Black or South Asian, and many are the children of immigrants. Yet its pupils perform at the level of their counterparts at the most prestigious private school.