Assistant Principal - Director of English & Whole-School Literacy
Ernulf Academy, St. Neots, PE19 2SH14 days remaining to apply
Start date details
January 2026 or sooner
Closing date
6 October 2025 at 12:59am
Date listed
22 September 2025
Job details
Job role
- Assistant headteacher
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Working pattern
- Full time
Contract type
- Permanent
Full-time equivalent salary
- £65,090.00 - £71,694.00 Annually (Actual)
Assistant Principal - Director of English & Whole-School Literacy job summary
Are you an ambitious English leader ready to shape the future? Ernulf Academy are looking for a passionate, driven Assistant Principal: Director of English & Whole School Literacy to join our Senior Leadership Team.
At Ernulf, you’ll lead a talented English team, drive curriculum excellence, and champion whole-school literacy. You’ll play a pivotal role in our mission to deliver exceptional outcomes for every student—combining strategic influence with hands-on classroom practice.
What You’ll Do:
- Lead and inspire the English department, promoting outstanding teaching and learning.
- Oversee curriculum planning, resourcing, and progression for all students.
- Drive the Astrea Reads programme and targeted reading interventions.
- Ensure every student reads at or above their chronological age by the end of Year 8.
- Contribute to whole-school improvement and sit on the Senior Leadership Team.
Why Ernulf Academy? We’re rewriting our story. In January 2025, we achieved our first ever ‘Good’ Ofsted rating—and we’re not stopping there. Located within easy reach of North London, Norfolk, Grantham, and Rugby, Ernulf is a school where ambition, simplicity, and kindness drive everything we do.
Our Ethos: Work Hard, Be Kind
- Work Hard: High expectations, disruption-free classrooms, and a knowledge-rich curriculum delivered through evidence-based teaching.
- Be Kind: Warm, welcoming, and inclusive. We teach empathy and respect, with strong pastoral care and zero tolerance for bullying.
World-Class Enrichment Our students enjoy trips to top universities, museums, and cultural sites, plus a wide range of electives—from robotics to British Sign Language.
What We Offer:
- Collaborative planning and centralised resources
- Disruption-free learning and a warm/strict behaviour system
- Pay above national scales and 8 INSET days per year
- Whole-class feedback to reduce workload and increase impact
Ready to Make a Difference? If you’re excited by rapid school improvement and want to be a key player in our success, we want to hear from you. For more details or to arrange a visit, contact Sarah McCormick at sarah.mccormick@astreaernulf.org.
We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications—so don’t delay, apply today!
Commitment to Safeguarding and EDI:
Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All posts are subject to satisfactory background checks, including references and enhanced DBS checks. We value diversity and encourage applications from candidates who are underrepresented in our workforce, including people from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people, and LGBTQI+ communities. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to promoting a culture that ensures there are no barriers to the recruitment, development, and progression of disabled staff across the trust. We provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure disabled job applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.
Flexible Interview Dates:
Please note that interview dates are flexible, and the academy reserves the right to interview shortlisted candidates during the application window.
Ready to Make a Difference?
If you're ready to take the next step in your career and contribute to our dynamic and forward-thinking team, apply today and be a part of our mission to create a positive impact!
Further information about the job
Commitment to safeguarding
Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All posts are subject to satisfactory background checks including references and enhanced DBS checks.
Applying for the job
This school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
View advert on external website (opens in new tab)About Ernulf Academy
- School type
- Academy, ages 11 to 16
- Education phase
- Secondary
- School size
- 743 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 16
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Ernulf Academy website
Principal’s welcome – Ernulf Academy
Welcome to Ernulf Academy, an 11-16 secondary school in St.Neots located in North Cambridgeshire. The academy is part of Astrea Academy Trust, a highly successful multi-academy trust of primary and secondary academies in Cambridgeshire and South Yorkshire.
Ernulf Academy is a school fully committed to an inclusive, comprehensive curriculum for all, which is underpinned by our five core values: scholarship, curiosity, tenacity, responsibility and respect. These values are at the heart of our vision for the school and the important qualities and characteristics we want all pupils to develop. Our pupils are encouraged to develop confidence, independence and resilience. We strive for them to be ambitious and ‘be the best they can be’, whilst being considerate, tolerant and willing to contribute positively to the wider community.
Work hard
We firmly believe in a disruption free learning environment and as such we have established nine core routines which form the basis of our academic day. A knowledge-rich curriculum, built on ‘powerful knowledge,’ underpins our teaching and learning principles. We offer a traditional approach to teaching and learning following evidence-based research by Rosenshine and Teach Like A Champion (TLAC) which lead to inspiring and stimulating lessons. Our enrichment provision aims to take learning outside the classroom and we offer an extensive range of extra-curricular activities including sporting activities, residential visits and educational experiences.
Safeguarding is at the heart of what we do and we recognise the challenges that our pupils face. Therefore, we have a dedicated pastoral team with a Head of Year and Pastoral Co-ordinator for each year group and a ‘Wellbeing’ team including our school therapy dog.
Be kind
Ernulf Academy is a friendly and supportive school, which prides itself on treating everyone as individuals and having a ‘family’ atmosphere. We teach our pupils empathy and respect, and we have a zero tolerance to bullying. A scholarly approach is at our core but enabling our pupils to have a holistic education, preparing them for life in the 21st century and becoming global citizens is just as important.
School location
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