As you enter the head-mistress’s office in the Michaela Community School opposite Wembley Park station the first thing you see is a life-size cut-out of Russell Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator. As I smile, Katharine Birbalsingh — famously called the strictest teacher in the country but having met her, also quite possibly the best — recites the famous pre-battle speech: “Hold the line, stay with me, what we do in life echoes in eternity.”
It’s something she’s always saying to the staff.
