The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza DBE, joined Sophia Parker, former CEO of Ark Venture Little Village, and Zareen Roy-Macauley, a former Ark Globe Academy student, for a passionate discussion on “how childhood can be rebuilt after the pandemic”.
Ann Mroz, former editor of Times Educational Supplement, chaired the #ArkTalks event, prompting conversation on the Commissioner’s Big Ask, the growing extent and impact of child poverty, the state of students’ mental and emotional health, and the risk of catastrophising childhood.
Venessa Willms OBE has been named as Ark's new Director of Education responsible for work across 38 primary, secondary and all-through schools following the announcement of Rebecca Boomer-Clark's appointment as CEO of Academies Enterprise Trust (AET).
Ark schools have enjoyed above national average levels of student attendance since schools fully reopened in early March.
With national student attendance tracking at 93% for primary and 87% for secondary at the end of the spring term, our primary schools have seen an average of 94% pupil attendance and our secondary schools have seen an average of 90%.
This is a promising increase on the level of attendance our schools saw when they returned in September 2020 when an average 88.6% of our students across primary and secondary were in attendance.
Reception pupil Mia from Ark Franklin melted hearts with her rendition of The Jackson Five’s hit ‘I Want You Back’ and was awarded Best Infants Performance at Ark Music’s Sing into Spring: Stay at Home sing-off competition. With her spirited performance and dance routine, guest judge Ark Burlington Danes
The Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins, joined Ark CEO Lucy Heller and Ark Elvin Academy Principal Becky Curtis for the inaugural #ArkTalks event chaired by Times columnist Rachel Sylvester on 31 March.
Three Ark Elvin Academy students attended the House of Commons’ Education Committee on Wednesday 24 March to share their experience of lockdown with MPs.
Topics discussed at the committee meeting ranged from the challenges of online learning to how the students feel they can best be supported to catch up after lockdown, as well as what it was like to return to school after such long periods away from it, and what more can be done to help students with their mental health and wellbeing.
Ark Music has launched a Youth Leadership programme for 18- to 25-year-olds who are NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) to train them to become music leaders.
On Monday, Ark Start Oval, a new nursey in East Croydon opened its doors to families (1 March).
The nursery welcomed 26 families and their young children into the purpose-built nursery, which is made of recycled shipping containers.
Ark Sixth Formers are to be given the chance to influence future government policy and win prizes of up to £25,000 as part of an initiative by the Heywood Foundation to promote innovation within the civil service.
The foundation – set up last year in memory of the former head of the civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood – has established a Public Policy Prize to encourage innovative policy proposals resulting from the Covid-19 crisis. It is now working with Ark Schools to promote the prize to six formers across our network.
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