Ark Blake Academy

Ark Blake Academy is a thriving and successful academy based in East Croydon.  Opened in September 2020, we are now consistently oversubscribed in every year group with students in Years 7-11 and are becoming the school of choice in the local area.  Our first cohort of students successfully completed their GCSE studies in Summer 2025 achieving strong passes in Maths and English, significantly above national averages.

At Ark Blake you will find:

Behaviour that is built upon our ‘work hard, be kind and take responsibility’ ethos

Learning that is nurtured through our calm, purposeful and warm environment

Academic excellence that is achieved through high quality teaching by passionate subject experts

Knowledge rich, bold and innovative curriculum that equips students for the future

Enrichment that develops lifelong skills and unlocks hidden talent

In terms of what drives our school culture, it is based around the simple but powerful belief of ‘work hard, be kind and take responsibility’. We aim to become a leading school in London as quickly as possible by living out this day-to-day belief and ensuring our students leave with the ‘master key’ that opens any door for the future progression. We never accept that background determines outcomes, and we work relentlessly to reinforce this with our student community. We also aim to be exceptionally supportive of our fantastic staff body and have a genuine and meaningful approach to staff wellbeing and workload that means they are free to focus on what really matters for the day-to-day student experience.

From the start of September 2025, we have proudly become a mobile phone free school. This enables our students to fully concentrate in lessons and throughout the school day and allows our teachers to focus on delivering a first class education.

What we offer our staff?

• Collaborative planning, centralised or shared resources
• Clear and consistent behaviour systems
• Knowledge rich curriculum and traditional T&L approach
• A Behaviour Policy that supports disruption-free learning
• Highly visible supportive leaders who have your back
• Centralised daily detentions
• Realistic and manageable feedback policy
• Excellent CPD opportunities – internal and within the network
• A thoughtful and impactful meeting schedule and protected time for co-planning on Friday afternoons following earlier student dismissal
• Our staff can take advantage of our on-site fitness suite
• A free breakfast daily

Our team have the opportunity to grow with the school and within the network. We provide one-to-one support, coaching for every teacher and extensive network training including access to high quality, professional development for future leaders including nationally recognised qualifications such as NPQML and NPQSL.

In addition to our welcoming working environment and professional support all employees are eligible for Ark Rewards, a scheme that offers discounts at over 3,000 major retailers.

Ark Blake Academy is part of Ark, one of the UK’s most successful school groups, with a network of 39 schools in 4 locations across the country.

As a proud member of the network we offer:

• Salaries that are 2.5% higher than the main pay scale
• Twice as many training days as standard
• Generous pension schemes
• Access to Ark Rewards - a scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers
• Interest-free loans - up to £5,000 available for a season ticket or to buy a bicycle
• Gym discounts of up to 40%
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme providing free, confidential counselling, legal advise and a range of different support