Poetry is learned by rote, times tables are drilled relentlessly and minor misdemeanours are punishable by detention. 

Good manners, respect and kindness are taught. 

Depending on your point of view the no-nonsense approach at Michaela Community School is either visionary or a return to the dark days of education, treating children like robots. 

Even visitors are issued with a code of conduct the moment they step through the front entrance in a converted office block not far from Wembley Stadium in northwest London. 

Michaela divides opinion but appears to be getting results.  

This year it was rated “outstanding” in all areas by Ofsted and while the school has yet to post GCSE pass rates, having only opened in 2014, the first batch of exam entrants are expected to excel. 

What’s even more impressive is that four in 10 children there have English as their second language and more than half are on free school meals. 

In other words, Michaela is a school that might normally be expected to struggle. 

Because it is a free school there is much greater scope to set its own rules and methods. 

It doesn’t use standard text books, there’s no drama or IT and limited PE. 

Michaela’s founder and head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh, 44, is herself a controversial figure. 

At the 2010 Conservative Party conference she caused an outcry by speaking scathingly about the state of England’s schools. 

Among her comments was: “The system is broken because it keeps poor children poor.” 

That effectively put paid to her time in mainstream education as a vice-principal of an academy in south London. 

The launch of free schools in 2014 by then education secretary Michael Gove gave her the opportunity to put her radical ideas into practice.  

The school, which caters for boys and girls, is named after a close friend who died of cancer. 

It currently has about 360 pupils but will eventually educate more than 800. 

Before enrolling every child must attend a week-long “boot camp” at which they are taught a series of commands. 

Among them is the call of “slant” – the signal for pupils to sit straight, arms folded and with eyes firmly on teacher. 

Eyes must be directed at the board, the page or the teacher, while there’s a detention director who oversees punishment for errant behaviour. 

Detentions can be handed out for arriving one minute late for classes, not completing homework, for scruffy work, not having a pen or ruler and reacting badly to a teacher’s instructions by tutting.  

Corridors are completely silent, as pupils walk between classrooms in single file. 

By moving quietly, pupils are said to arrive calm and focused for the next lesson. 

To help keep them on the straight and narrow single black lines are woven into carpets or painted down the middle of corridor floors. 

The ethos is very much on learning and retaining knowledge but the school has faced criticism for turning out “robots”, with one pupil stating: “You become an automaton but not in a bad way.” 

Birbalsingh, who has a Jamaican mother and Guyanese father, grew up in Canada but came to the UK in her teens and attended Oxford University. 

After becoming a teacher she became disenchanted with state schools but didn’t want to go into private education.  

She’s a mother and sees a close relationship between parenting and teaching, saying: “You have to make sure they understand the reason you insist on a lot from them is because you love them and want them to succeed. 

“People often think discipline means that it is oppressive at our school, but actually it is liberating. 

"Children love being in a safe environment. 

They are excited to come to school and we think children do better in a structured environment.” 

It is claimed that bullying is non-existent at the school, which has the motto Work Hard, Be Kind, and the head teacher says: “It is about habit change and constantly reminding pupils to be respectful.  

“We teach kindness and gratitude because we think children should be kind to each other and teachers and be grateful for everything we do for them. 

"You will find in other schools children are not kind at all, they are horrible. 

"And they are horrible because nobody has taught them how to be kind.” 

Pupils are encouraged to open doors for adults outside school and give up seats on buses and Tubes. 

Birbalsingh insists her pupils are happy but the school has many detractors. 

It’s been picketed, while the founder has received vile hate mail.  

Despite basing many of its core principles on modern education research, there’s much in common with a typical 1950s grammar. 

A big sign in the school hallway, in bold yellow letters, declaring “Us Against the World” suggests a siege mentality exists. 

But educationalists from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Michaela to study its techniques. 

Birbalsingh insists it is not a case of discipline for discipline’s sake but because good behaviour is the key to learning. 

The school points to studies that suggest pupils will retain more knowledge if they are concentrating and their attention is fully on the teacher and the lesson. 

So each child is given an identical clear ruler which they use to track the text in class reading.  

At lunch time pupils eat their meals in small groups, designed to replicate a family unit. 

Last year Michaela hit the headlines when it emerged that pupils whose parents had not paid for school lunches were made to eat in a separate room.

Make-up is banned and there are no mirrors in the toilets. 

However the head teacher claims it is too easy to use poverty as an excuse for poor achievement in state schools and it is said that this greater emphasis on discipline is gradually finding its way into classrooms in other under-privileged areas. 

Teachers at Michaela tend to be young and share the founder’s zeal.  

They have even published their own book, Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Teachers, in which they outline their methods.  

Some critics claim it’s more like a religious text but Birbalsingh says that in contrast to many state schools, her staff feel valued. 

As a consequence they enjoy the job so everyone benefits. 

In its first Ofsted report inspectors praised the school for its “lively and engaging teaching” and “exemplary” attitudes to learning among pupils.  

The inspectors added: “Pupils typically commented that they feel part of a close-knit family. 

"The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.

"Pupils are polite, well-mannered and very respectful.”

Birbalsingh is said to be considering opening another school. 

Her methods might not be to everyone’s taste but if she gets her wish we might just be witnessing the start of a classroom revolution.