ARK is pleased to announce that our primary schools have beaten the national average for the phonics check by 14 percentage points.
88% of students at ARK schools passed the phonics check, well above the national average of 74%. This is despite ARK academies being located in areas serving many pupils on free school meals.
Three of our schools got 100% pass rates in phonics. ARK Globe in Elephant and Castle, Ark Academy in Wembley and ARK Conway in Acton saw all of their pupils pass the test.
Lucy Heller, Chief Executive of ARK, said: “These figures show that you can get excellent results from pupils whatever their background. We know how important it is to close the gap during the early years of a child’s education. By using our autonomy, ARK has been able to focus on improving early literacy through innovative and targeted interventions alongside high quality teaching.”