In April 2017 we received a section 8 Ofsted visit which reinforced our grade as ‘Good’ and we have been building on this success with constantly improving exam results at both A-Level and GCSE. Our students make outstanding progress at both Key Stage 3 and 4, we are in the top 20% nationally. This August 71% of our Year 11 students achieved 5 GCSEs 9-4 including English and Maths. Our Sixth Form has just had its best-ever set of Key Stage 5 results, one-third of A Level entries were graded at A* or A, and the school came within the top 10% nationally for student progress.
We are proud of our newly refurbished listed building, with new indoor and outdoor sports facilities, a stunning art studio, and bright, comfortable teaching spaces. This refurbishment has made our school a truly exceptional place for children to learn. We welcome all students who are ready to work hard and get involved in all aspects of school life.
We are focusing on developing students to be the very best they can be in all aspects of their lives not only through academic progress but also by developing the soft skills that will enable students to be successful in the world such as good manners and the ability to speak confidently combined with the desire to participate through sport, the arts and contributing to charity and community projects.
This can be illustrated by our core purpose, which is to provide students with:
- An appreciation and curiosity for life and learning
- The courage and ambition to unlock and fulfill their potential
- A desire to contribute to society in a positive way
- A sense of self –awareness, combined with the integrity to be compassionate towards others
The main drivers for this are our Six Pillars as listed below. These permeate academy life and can be seen in everything that we do, think, and say at APA. They are also a focus of our assemblies, reflections, and tutorial activities.
At Ark Putney Academy we offer a broad academic curriculum based upon a traditional offer of academic subjects combined with the Arts. We believe that this offer ensures that students can fulfill the requirements of our mission statement, ‘Preparing every student to be a pillar of any community.’ All young people need an excellent command of English and mathematics to ensure their success in all areas of the curriculum. To support this we dedicate extra time to these two areas: giving additional specialist help to students who are not on track to achieve their target grades at the end of each key stage.
At key stage 4, we encourage students to follow the English Baccalaureate (that is, GCSEs in English, mathematics, a humanities subject, a language, and a science subject) as this will help them secure access to the best universities and future employment. However, we firmly believe that every child has talents in various subjects and should be encouraged to make their own choices at GCSE in subjects that they are interested in and will excel in.
At Key stage 5, we offer the full range of facilitating A Level subjects which are required as entrance criteria by the best universities. This is supported by a range of additional subjects such as psychology, media, and sociology.
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