Head of Year 11 @astreaernulf, Chemistry Teacher, Green Pen Waggler, Mediocre Novice Strongman

Joined January 2025
New PISA data out- and a huge success story. England is now a top-10 education system in the world. Outside of Asia, one of the highest. New PISA 2025 results: Science: 8th in the world, up from 13th Reading: 9th, up from 13th Maths: 10th, up from 11th. While much of the OECD has gone backwards, England has has held its ground while most of the world has gone backwards. Huge achievement by school staff.
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"I think education should be about what you can do, and not what you can’t do." Education is - by definition - about what you can't do. This isn't a semantic point. It is a substantive one. Education should be about taking students beyond the confines of their world. It should be about exposing them to cultural riches and treasures that they would not otherwise have encountered. It is about giving them the knowledge and skills they need to make decisions about their lives and livelihoods. If we take the child as they are, and adjust our curriculum, pedagogy and entire educational system to them and their narrow horizons, then we will surely fail in giving them the ability to make whatever decisions they want. Those decisions might lead them to a local life. They might lead them to one in far-flung fields beyond the dreams of their parents and communities. The actual decisions they make is not Education's concern. Education's concern is ensuring that those decisions can be made from a position of knowledge and ability, and that children can choose whatever it is they want to do. @LucyMPowell
I think education should be about what you can do, and not what you can’t do. Read my full piece in @theobserveruk where I set out my vision for reforming England's education system - from tackling the SEND crisis to reimagining what success looks like beyond exams. observer.co.uk/news/national…
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Early start for #researchED
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Absolutely believe they are scalable, and this is driving our mission at Astrea. Our secondaries are on a journey. All of them (apart from a free school), were Inadequate, x2 RI or RI and are now Good (we had no flagships to add capacity). We are on a mission to get to top 5%!
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Replying to @astreaacademies
@astreaacademies have achieved: ✅their highest A8, Basics 5+, 7+, EBacc APS to date ✅Basics 4+, 5+, 7+, EBacc APS/4+/5+all above national ✅Big ⬆️ in disadvantaged A8,Basics 4+,5+,7+,EBacc APS + all above national for disadvantaged Another step forward. astreaacademytrust.org/gcse-…
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I’m so proud of the work our scholars and staff have put in over the last two years! It’s a privilege to have witnessed Ernulf change so much in such a short time #TeamErnulf
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Today's outstanding results are evidence of our continued trajectory and dedication to ensuring our pupils learn, thrive and succeed ⭐ Another huge well done to all our scholars, their families and our excellent school communities for making this happen! #WeAreAstrea
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All the Athena policies I could find referenced in the Panorama report: 3-2-1 focus ‘repeated by teachers’ Eyes on me/face the teacher whilst they are speaking No toilet breaks first 15/last 15 of lessons First warning, second warning removal 2 lessons+break reflection room Some silent work in most lessons Using a ruler to read line by line as a class “Pens down” Strict uniform policy What makes this school ‘authoritarian’ ‘cruel’ and ‘dystopian’?
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This represents such a fundamental misunderstanding about learning, assessment and thinking. These sentences further betray @LucyMPowell’s underestimation of the importance of teaching & testing knowledge well. This is extremely worrying for the future of schools in England.
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Attendance: down Young people's life satisfaction: down Mental health problems: up We often see people making hard claims about the role of schools and the education system in all this: that the curriculum or behaviour standards or multi-academy-trusts are driving these very real problems. But does the data stack up? >
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Our scholars never fail to impress me with their dedication. For some, they had completed 12 consecutive periods of Chemistry ahead of the paper 2 exam. They still stayed after school for teacher led revision of the content at our last one standing. @MrKeySci @AstreaErnulf
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A big day for us in Science. Great effort from the staff and scholars, embodying our mantra “hard work wins”. Also great to feel the progress with how prepared scholars are in comparison to where we were with Y11 last academic year. Just Physics to go tomorrow!💪
Prepped and ready for 440min for Chemistry paper 2 revision today followed by a “Last One Standing” Aiming for 600min total of teaching time. So proud of our scholars being this committed to their success! They know that #hardworkwins #teamErnulf
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Prepped and ready for 440min for Chemistry paper 2 revision today followed by a “Last One Standing” Aiming for 600min total of teaching time. So proud of our scholars being this committed to their success! They know that #hardworkwins #teamErnulf
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Great to see @astreaacademies in this list. ✅4th for A8 ✅3rd for Basics 5+ ✅4th for Basics 4+ We've got much more to do our journey, but it's good to see this.
Which MATs are the best at improving schools? I've added a Sponsorship page to my KS4 Dashboard to find out
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Useful reading on SEND. Lots of common interventions either have no effect or a negative effect (fidget toys). How did it ever get like this? How did so much money end up being put towards ideas that weren't grounded in evidence, or were shown to be harmful?
🚨New paper released today: 10 Common SEN Mis(Interventions)—An Evidence Summary steplab.co/news/common-sen-m… Supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a vital and growing challenge for schools. But it’s not straightforward. Learning is complex, marketing claims are confident, and the evidence is often hard to access. As a result, we can sometimes end up adopting approaches which are less effective than we initially think. For some, this may well be uncomfortable reading. As a profession, many of us have put time, effort and belief into these things, and lots will have seen students who looked like they were getting something from it. However, it’s essential that we temper our intuition with evidence, because ultimately: our most vulnerable students deserve it. This new paper co-authored with @Barker_J is an attempt to raise the visibility of the best available evidence around several commonly used SEN interventions. For each, we provide an overview of what the research says, offer a more informed approach, and provide a suite of rigorous links to help you get started. We hope it will serve as a useful resource and over time: push us to be even more 'evidence demanding' as a profession. As ever, let me know what you think. If you have pushes or suggestions for how this paper could be better, hit reply and give it to me straight. 👊
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This is one thing our staff do better than any school I’ve worked in. Getting scholars bought in to the value of these sessions. Brilliant work from the maths team! And of course, the scholars themselves #hardworkwins #teamErnulf
Yesterday's Last One Standing session, the evening before year 11 sit their first Maths exam. Foundation and Higher scholars were focusing on high frequency topics that are likely to come up in today's paper. Year 11 scholars, making every minute count! 💪 #HardWorkWins #TeamErnulf
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78 in for our Maths last one standing session this evening! Over 60% of the cohort. YES YEAR 11 ✊️✊️✊️
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Last night it was biology 🧬 And this morning we have 90% of the RE cohort here for a P0 before the exam 🙌 #HardWorkWins 💪 Thank you @CheneyPayne @AstreaErnulf
Over 50 children (almost half the year group!) are still here @AstreaErnulf for our first Last One Standing session of this exam season. Staff and children working in lockstep to maximise outcomes and secure next steps. #HardWorkWins Thank you @MissHackworthK
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Bring on Biology Paper 1! A great turn out and some excellent focus from Y11 this evening. #TeamErnulf #HardWorkWins
Over 50 children (almost half the year group!) are still here @AstreaErnulf for our first Last One Standing session of this exam season. Staff and children working in lockstep to maximise outcomes and secure next steps. #HardWorkWins Thank you @MissHackworthK
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We know GCSE season has truly begun when Last One Standing starts at Ernulf Academy. Today’s session is all about giving every Year 11 student the chance to make every minute count ahead of tomorrow’s Science exam. Good luck Year 11 — YOU ARE READY!💪🧪 #TeamErnulf #YouAreReady
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