Vice Principal - Behaviour and Safeguarding
Ernulf Academy, St. Neots, PE19 2SH17 days remaining to apply
Closing date
20 October 2025 at 12:59am
Date listed
3 October 2025
Job details
Job role
- Deputy headteacher
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Working pattern
- Full time
Contract type
- Permanent
Full-time equivalent salary
- £80,272.00 - £88,533.00 Annually (Actual)
Vice Principal - Behaviour and Safeguarding job summary
Role: Vice Principal - Behaviour & Safeguarding
Salary: £80,272 - £88,533
Start Date: January 2026
Closing Date: 19th October 2025
About the Role:
Ernulf Academy are building a team of exceptional and highly skilled leaders, committed to driving excellence and improvement in our school. Last year, we improved results by over 10% in multiple metrics, and we’re on a mission to do it again this year! This career-defining role could be for you if:
- You have a clear understanding of how impeccable behaviour, disruption-free classrooms, and effective pastoral systems help to drive great results.
- You possess a deep passion for pastoral work, ensuring every child feels safe, supported, and included.
- You can demonstrate a proven track record of delivering impact.
As the Vice Principal: Behaviour and Safeguarding, you will work side-by-side with the Principal to shape the strategic direction of the school. You will raise standards across the board, ensuring excellence in every classroom. You will play a visible role in all areas of school improvement to drive academic outcomes and foster a scholarly culture, and be respected by staff as someone who upholds the highest of standards and works hard. This role is suitable for an experienced Vice Principal with a track record or a talented and hungry Assistant Principal.
Key Responsibilities:
- Be a big presence. Boss the school and the corridors. Have a mindset of constant and continual improvement. Dismantle and rebuild systems and processes until they work brilliantly.
- Lead constant and continual improvement in all pastoral elements of the school directly and indirectly through line management. This includes: behaviour inside and outside of the classroom, safeguarding, attendance, and internal AP.
- Continue to drive the effective implementation of a Warm/Strict approach. Understand the importance of routines, both inside and outside the classroom, to secure excellent conduct in a calm, ordered, and safe environment.
- Secure excellent conduct in classrooms, ensuring children are focussed and learning at all times - every minute matters!
- Ensure children transition calmly and safely between lessons and at social times.
- Spearhead and continue to develop a culture of kindness and politeness. Inject the school with a sense of joy and belonging!
- Drive continual improvements in pastoral middle leadership, as the engine room of the school.
- Have a laser focus on data that is generated through safeguarding and pastoral systems and respond immediately to support children and stop problems before they arise!
- Use evidence to precisely monitor, diagnose, and evaluate the school. Use this to drive improvement.
- Model and uphold the highest of standards. Ensure others are accountable for maintaining culture, systems, routines, and standards. Robustly tackle underperformance wherever it is identified.
- Line-manage senior leaders and other key areas. Develop expertise within the team, especially with regards to skilful and precise enactment of pastoral systems.
- Be a big voice in driving strategic improvements. Develop plans. Implement priorities quickly.
- Be an excellent practitioner - an example to which others aspire.
About Ernulf Academy:
This is a fantastic time to join TEAM ERNULF on our turnaround journey. We are on a RAPID MISSION to turn our school into one of the BEST in the country! When the current leadership took over, in September 2024, Ernulf had NEVER received an Ofsted 'Good' in ANY category. In January 2025, after just one term, Ofsted rated us 'Good' in ALL categories. Then, in the summer exams we improved our 4+ English and Maths from 52% to 63%! If our rapid improvement and ambition EXCITE you, then join us to DISRUPT DISADVANTAGE by transforming the education of our pupils. We are within an hour's commute of North London, Norfolk, Grantham and Rugby.
We believe in keeping things simple. Our mantra is: WORK HARD, BE KIND. We don't just want children to attain incredible academic outcomes; we also want to help them become great people.
WORK HARD
Team Ernulf don't believe in fads. We know the biggest factor in a child's achievement is how hard they work. That is why we have sky high expectations. We have simple rules, centralised detentions, and we back our teachers - so that our classrooms are disruption-free. We do this to support our children who want to work hard and do well.
A knowledge-rich curriculum, built on ‘powerful knowledge’, underpins our teaching and learning principles. We offer a traditional approach to teaching, following evidence-based research by Rosenshine. Our pedagogy is influenced by Teach Like A Champion (TLAC). Stimulating lessons are delivered by teachers, who we back as the expert in the room.
BE KIND
Team Ernulf is WWF: warm, welcoming, and friendly. We pride ourselves on having a family atmosphere. We teach our pupils empathy and respect and have zero tolerance to bullying. A scholarly approach is at our core, but teaching pupils to be polite, considerate, and caring is just as important.
Our world-class enrichment programme takes learning beyond the classroom. In Autumn term 2024 alone, children visited Cambridge University, The British Museum, The National Gallery, RAF Hendon, Kenilworth Castle, and were on Channel 5 and BBC radio!! As well as this, every week KS3 children have the opportunity to take part in electives such as British sign language, clubbercise, building a robotic arm, chess, girls cricket, and many more!
Interested in Applying?
If you're ready to lead with purpose and make a lasting impact, we’d love to hear from you. For further information or to discuss the role, please contact the Principal’s PA at sarah.mccormick@astreaernulf.org.
Commitment to Safeguarding and EDI
Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All roles are subject to enhanced DBS checks and satisfactory references.
We welcome applications from all backgrounds and are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. We provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to ensure all candidates can demonstrate their abilities.
Ready to Make a Difference?
Join a values-led team where your leadership will shape futures. Apply today and be part of our mission to inspire beyond measure.
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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