Ark Greenwich Free School

About Ark Greenwich Free School

Ark Greenwich Free School sits at the very top of the secondary school rankings in the London Borough of Greenwich, coming first out of 15 schools in the local authority. Its Progress 8 score of 1.43 places it well above average nationally — 11th out of 3,141 schools across England — and 7th out of 487 secondaries in London. The nearest similarly-rated Outstanding school is Leigh Academy Blackheath, 1.8 km away. The next highest-ranked peers in Greenwich are St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive School (0.74), Woolwich Polytechnic School for Girls (0.40), and Harris Academy Greenwich (0.35), all of which trail by a significant margin. The school is a mixed, non-denominational state secondary for pupils aged 11 to 18, with an executive principal, Rhys Spiers, and a head of school, Tehrim Valibhai. It has capacity for 600 pupils and currently enrols 601, with 37.2 per cent of students eligible for free school meals.

Academically, the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023 rated it Outstanding across all categories: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. This is an upgrade from its previous Good rating in 2016. In the 2023/24 exam results, pupils achieved a Progress 8 score of 1.43, meaning they made well above average progress compared with peers nationally. The Attainment 8 score was 63.6, and 93.5 per cent of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in English and maths (the basics measure). The EBacc average point score was 6.01, with 73.8 per cent of pupils entering the EBacc and 68.2 per cent achieving a grade 4 or above across the suite. By contrast, the local authority average Progress 8 score is 0.1, so the school’s performance is dramatically higher than the Greenwich norm.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 1,139 applications for 113 places, an oversubscription ratio of 10.08. Of those, 293 were first-preference applications, and 90 first-preference offers were made. Facilities include a theatre, art studios, playing fields, a swimming pool, astro turf, science labs, a sports hall, an ICT suite, and a sixth form centre. Sports offered include badminton, rugby, martial arts, rowing, rounders, and athletics. Clubs range from coding and choir to Young Enterprise, film club, newspaper, and gardening. The school has a broad range of SEND provisions, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, visual impairment, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. This is a school for families who want exceptional academic progress in a state setting, but given the intense competition for places, early and determined application is essential.

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