Last year ARK Schools launched Mathematics Mastery, a new approach to maths teaching and learning for primary and secondary schools. Drawing on good practice from ARK, the UK and abroad (in particular Singapore, which regularly leads international league tables), the programme seeks to address England’s under-achievement in maths by using a more focused approach to teaching.
How it works
On 1 March, seven young apprentices from Isaac Newton Academy Ilford took part in an airline-themed business challenge at top international consultancy firm Oliver Wyman. Students were tasked with choosing a new destination for a struggling airline; developing a marketing strategy and advertising campaign, and increasing profit margins by creating a new in-flight menu.
ARK Schools is pleased to announce the appointments of Helen Thurston as head teacher of ARK Rose Primary Academy in Birmingham and Amy Baird as primary head of school designate of ARK John Keats Academy in Enfield, which opens this September. Announcing the appointments ARK Schools’ Director of Education, Sophy Blakeway, said: “We are delighted that Helen Thurston and Amy Baird have been appointed to lead ARK Rose and ARK John Keats Primaries. Both heads bring excellent track records to their new roles and are enthusiastic and highly skilled school leaders."
On 7 March at Chitungwiza Central Hospital in Zimbabwe, Health and Child Welfare Deputy Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora joined ARK's Chief Executive, Lucy Heller, to launch a programme to save the lives of Zimbabwe's mothers and babies.
The Safe Arrivals programme, in which ARK has invested £1.5 million, aims to radically improve maternal and newborn survival rates by training frontline health workers and installing cost-effective, life-saving equipment in hospitals.
On 5 March, ARK Schools launched the Reflections on Leadership series with a lecture and Q&A by former Foreign Secretary and Schools Minister, the Rt Hon David Miliband MP. Hosted by the University of London and introduced by Professor Sir Adrian Smith, the event is part of ARK Schools’ wider leadership development programme, which is designed to inspire current and future school leaders.
Friday, 1 March was "National Offer Day" for secondary schools, when parents find out the school to which their child has been allocated. ARK Schools offered 1,920 Year 7 places at 13 academies for this September, including at ARK All Saints in Camberwell, the founding year group of the new academy. In total our academies were nearly four times oversubscribed.
The Department for Education today confirmed ARK Schools’ sixth GCSE results, covering the five ARK academies which had a GCSE cohort in 2011/12. Since each school opened as an ARK academy the average annual increase in pupils achieving five GCSEs at A*-C including English and mathematics is 6.6 percentage points.
The DFE data confirms that 56% of ARK pupils achieved five A*-C grades including English and maths in 2012, compared with an average of 19% in the predecessor schools seven years ago.
The Financial Times has analysed the relative performance of different academy groups in raising the attainment of children with low, middle and high prior attainment when they come to secondary school. The FT has conducted a detailed analysis and concluded that ARK academies have the greatest success in raising the attainment of those pupils who start secondary school furthest behind.
THIS CONSULTATION HAS CLOSED
ARK Schools is consulting on an amendment to the admissions policies for each of the schools within the ARK Schools network, for September 2014 intake. The admissions policies and the proposed amendments can be viewed online at each respective school website. Links to ARK Schools websites can be found here.
Comments on the proposed amendments to the policies should be submitted either by email to admissions@arkonline.org
ARK Schools is pleased to announce the appointment of Jerry Collins as principal designate of the new ARK all through academy to open in Enfield in September 2013.
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