Principal consultant. Cold water swimming enthusiast and reluctant parkrunner.
London
Joined September 2009
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Julia Bellis retweeted
If you're a parent and the draft Conversion Practices Bill doesn't terrify you, you haven't yet understood what it could do to you and the people you love best.
I *loved* the new Sense and Sensibility. Yes there are some odd things but overall one of my favourite adaptations ever. I loved how Devon was so entirely unlike Sussex.
Julia Bellis retweeted
These are results we should be hugely proud of. They are down to the work of brilliant teachers & hard won evidence-led reforms.
English pupils among the top ten performing groups of students in the world for reading, maths & science. We are punching well above our weight.
Meanwhile in Scotland & Wales where the same reforms were not enacted, pupils have fallen back in the international rankings, recording their worst results in maths and reading.
Lucy Powell seems intent on leading a campaign of national sabotage against our education system. It is bonkers to undo reforms that have raised standards and helped children. Focussing on academic outcomes increases opportunity.
Another example of us getting stupider as a society? Waiting at the baggage carousels at Heathrow everyone pushes as far forward as possible so that nobody can see if their luggage has arrived. Or safely lift it off the belt.
Julia Bellis retweeted
Female means possessing the reproductive system that produces eggs instead of sperm. It is irrelevant whether said system is defective, immature or surgically altered.
I just described every female on earth.
Julia Bellis retweeted
How 'Britain's strictest head' is proving her critics wrong: As her school gets top GCSE results again, Katharine Birbalsingh on the dangers of 'gentle parenting' - and why Labour will 'obliterate standards' | Daily Mail Online dailymail.com/news/article-1…
Julia Bellis retweeted
I've long been baffled by the hate for this woman and her school. One of the greatest societal crises of our time is that kids are failing basic reading & maths, and here's a school where they excel.
Not an expensive private school, but a state school where most students are inner-city minorities, yet. Why isn't everyone celebrating her success? Why aren't we all building on her model to turn the problem around, in the US as well as the UK?
Michaela has two grammar schools nearby - one for boys and one for girls.
At 11, top set kids don’t get in. The ones who might have had a chance, sit the exam and don’t pass it.
Then they attend Michaela: we are their consolation prize.
But 5 years later, they get, on average, more than 2 grades higher on their GCSEs thanks to what they and their teachers do: work hard, no excuses, traditional values and teaching, warm/strict discipline, drive, ambition, and above all, the ability to ignore the haters.
They get GCSE grades that compete with Eton that costs over 50k per year.
They (and other lower ability Michaela kids) then do their A levels, do so well to compete with Winchester and other big boarding schools that cost a bomb.
In a school building with no trees, no grass, no sports hall, no car park for the staff to park their cars! With the trains so loud next to us that the heads of year can barely be heard in the asphalt yard.
Then their headteacher posts a ‘Hooray’ online with a few videos of them getting their results.
Happy kids. How lovely. 🥰
But what do the haters do?
ATTACK!
Over and over.
How dare I be happy our kids have done well! Apparently saying ‘hooray’ is ‘crowing’ and ‘over the top’ and I should shut the hell up. How dare I say anything: I should hang my head in shame apparently.
Without irony, these same people post about Jason Arday and how the hate sent his way was unforgivable.
But your hate for me has no bounds.
I said ‘Hooray’.
ONE WORD. ONE F’ing WORD.
You people are the worst hypocrites imaginable.
Inner city kids do incredibly well and you dare to criticise this as some kind of abomination.
Do some inner soul searching.
God knows, you need it.
When our GCSE results come out on Thursday, I expect the hate to come again. That will be despite the comprehensive intake given to us by the council like any other school, kids starting below their chronological reading ages etc.
The hate is always the worst in August: because that is when results come out.
Nothing you all hate more than seeing inner city kids succeed. Videos with brown and black kids celebrating.
You just can’t stand it.
Depraved and disgusting.
That’s what you are.
Julia Bellis retweeted
Looking forward to Lucy Powell explaining how these results will be deterimental to the children involved.
Julia Bellis retweeted
If only we devoted as much time & attention to the schools that are letting pupils down as we do to criticising those improving outcomes.
We have a school inspection system in this country which is how we judge performance, it is unacceptable that an academy trust has been hounded out of providing high quality education.
Julia Bellis retweeted
It is a bizarre time isnt it when an Education Secretary (in her first week) deplores “an over focus on academic outcomes”
We must recognise that an over‑focus on academic outcomes has left too many young people behind.
The revolution happening in post‑16 technical and vocational education will soon be matched for 14 to 16‑year‑olds.
I look forward to making it happen.
gov.uk/government/news/pm-fr…
Julia Bellis retweeted
Focus on academic outcomes at school raises children up.
We must recognise that an over‑focus on academic outcomes has left too many young people behind.
The revolution happening in post‑16 technical and vocational education will soon be matched for 14 to 16‑year‑olds.
I look forward to making it happen.
gov.uk/government/news/pm-fr…
The first ball girls were at Wimbledon in 1977. wimbledon.com/en_GB/the_cham…
Julia Bellis retweeted
To @TomSteyer --
What about the girls? Don't they matter?
Julia Bellis retweeted
A farmer dies in April 2026.
His son inherits the farm. The farm has been in the family since 1847.
The farm consists of: 300 acres of grazing pasture, a farmhouse built in 1892, a barn, a milking parlour, two tractors of varying ages, a Land Rover that runs about 70% of the time, and a herd of 180 Hereford-cross cattle.
On paper, the farm is worth approximately £3.2 million. This is because land near him has been bought recently by a London hedge fund looking for carbon credits, which has dragged the comparable value of every field within forty miles upward to a number nobody local can justify.
In cash, the farm produces a profit of about £28,000 a year in a good year. In a bad year it loses money. The son also works as a fencing contractor three days a week to keep the operation viable.
The inheritance tax bill on a £3.2 million estate, even at the reduced 20% rate, comes to approximately £140,000 after the increased threshold is applied. The son does not have £140,000. The son has never had £140,000. The son has £4,200 in his current account and an overdraft.
The son sells 60 acres to a developer to pay the tax. The developer puts solar panels on the 60 acres. The remaining herd cannot be sustained on the reduced land. The herd is sold. The barn becomes a holiday let.
A different family eats Brazilian beef this Christmas without knowing why the price went up.
The Treasury collects £140,000.
The land never produces British food again.
Julia Bellis retweeted
Judicial Review
"Protect Streatham Hill".
crowdjustice.com/case/streat… #Streatham
My morning coffee today. Mug is @denbypottery 2026. Jug is @denbypottery 1972.
Julia Bellis retweeted
I'm reading "Dombey & Son", & hate this mentality with a passion.
I have zero in common with Florence Dombey: my ethnicity is different, my experience is different. But Dickens makes me care for her, & feel for her grief & loneliness. That's what literature is about.
GCSE English is still dominated by white male authors – and simply adding new books to set text lists isn’t enough to bring genuine diversity in the curriculum, writes @NoSchoolSexism’s Rachel Fenn
tes.com/magazine/teaching-le…
