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Leadership

Investing in leadership development is a vital driver for improved student outcomes and school transformation.
School leaders meet at Ark Kings Academy in Birmingham

Ark leaders drive ambitious outcomes: setting the direction and leading positive change, with students at the centre of all decision-making. They nurture their people through excellent line management, providing opportunities to work with others within school and across the Network, and through focused professional development. Ark leaders lead with respect, act with integrity and build buy-in by modelling the values. 

The main shift when we became an Ark school was the focus on staff development. The investment in us as people, in our confidence, in our belief in ourselves as teachers. Whatever we aspired to, there was training for us to grow into it.

Kate Woolley Kate is Principal at Ark Little Ridge, where she was a teacher before it became an Ark school

Through the Ark Learning Institute, our leaders have access to high-quality leadership development. Our leaders are always learning and are committed to working as One Ark.

75%
Seventy-five percent of Ark principals are homegrown. Since 2016, all senior leaders across Ark’s three Hastings primary schools have been homegrown talent and in 2025 the three schools won the award for ‘Transformation and Impact’ at the prestigious MAT Excellence Awards.