Ark Charter Academy

About Ark Charter Academy

Ark Charter Academy is a Church of England secondary school in Portsmouth, part of the Ark academy chain, and sits third out of eight schools in the local authority when ranked by Progress 8. That puts it ahead of Admiral Lord Nelson School but behind Trafalgar School and the nearest outstanding-rated school, St Edmund's Catholic School, which is just 0.3 kilometres away. The school is oversubscribed for 2025/26, receiving 321 applications for 180 places, with 105 first-preference offers made. It serves a notably high proportion of disadvantaged pupils, with 60.7 per cent eligible for free school meals. The headteacher is Christian Down, and the school caters for mixed-gender pupils aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form provision. Its most recent Ofsted inspection in December 2024 judged the school Good across all graded areas, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in July 2022.

Academically, the school's Progress 8 score of -0.32 is classed as Below average nationally and sits just below the Portsmouth local authority average of -0.31. The Attainment 8 score is 40.6, and 55.5 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths, dropping to 35.3 per cent at grade 5 or above. The EBacc average point score is 3.69, with 63.6 per cent of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects, though only 19.1 per cent achieved the benchmark at grade 4 or above. Progress in English and the EBacc subjects is -0.3, while maths progress is notably weaker at -0.51. The school ranks 334th out of 461 schools in the South East region and 2,295th nationally out of 3,141 schools. Parent feedback from 73 respondents in the 2024/25 period shows 64 per cent would recommend the school, with strong agreement that children are happy (33 per cent strongly agree) and that the school has high expectations (33 per cent strongly agree).

The school offers a range of facilities including science labs, an astro turf, gymnasium, tennis courts, a theatre, dining hall, and a chapel. Sports provision includes dance, hockey, cross country, cricket, rugby, tennis, gymnastics, and rowing, while clubs cover art, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, gardening, drama, and eco club. SEND support is available for a broad spectrum of needs, including specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. The school is oversubscribed with a ratio of 1.78 applications per place, so families should be prepared for competition. This school will particularly suit families looking for a state secondary in Portsmouth that has shown clear improvement under recent leadership, serves a diverse and disadvantaged intake, and offers strong extracurricular breadth despite academic results that sit slightly below the local average.

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