Ark John Keats Academy

We are delighted to introduce you to Ark John Keats Academy. The academy is a 3 to 18 all-through school in Enfield, with a mixed comprehensive intake. We opened our doors to our first Reception classes in September 2013 and our first cohort of year 7 pupils joined us in September 2014.  We currently have over 1700 pupils on roll from Nursery to Year 13.

Ark John Keats is a very proud member of the successful Ark network of schools. Our curriculum is academic, planned to prepare pupils for the best universities by emphasising mastery of knowledge and skills. Our teaching staff are experts in their subject areas and all staff at the academy share a commitment to upholding the highest expectations. We have created an academy that is renowned for its calm, orderly and purposeful environment and where pupils behave maturely and respectfully.

We have developed a character programme to support the development of our pupils, and we ensure pupils develop their wider interests and passions by allowing our pupils access to a variety of enrichment activities, ranging from chess and coding to football and political art. We support pupils in raising their aspirations by helping them understand the structure, importance and value of school. We inspire their thinking about their futures through university and workplace visits and through our external speaker programme, where visitors speak to pupils about their career choices and educational experiences. We are also committed to developing our staff and we ensure they master all aspects of their work and are brilliantly prepared for the next stage of their careers. The academy has first class facilities having undergone an £18 million rebuilding and refurbishment programme that was completed in December 2015.

We are very excited by what we have achieved so far and new staff and pupils will be joining a school with a wonderful ethos, where local children are provided with a first class education. We are intent on developing a school that will match the very best in both the state and private sectors and is a source of pride for the people of north east Enfield.

Principal

Katie Marshall

Primary Headteacher

Emma Penzer

Vision and Values

At Ark John Keats, we aspire for all our children to have the academic knowledge necessary to enable them to progress to university, for pupils to have a love of learning and curiosity about the world, and for them to be polite, well-mannered young people who take responsibility for their choices and drive their own destinies.

The academy’s approach to achieving this is based on our six pillars:

1. High expectations: Every adult who works at AJK believes in the limitless potential of all children.
2. Excellent teaching: Subject specialists plan lessons focused on rigorous content which make pupils work hard and think deeply about the subject, fostering their curiosity and love of learning.
3. Exemplary behaviour: Pupils are unfailingly polite and well-mannered individuals who take responsibility for their own actions and seek to help others whenever they can.
4. Depth for breadth: Our rich, challenging curriculum builds pupils’ cultural capital to ensure they can all be knowledgeable, articulate and university ready.
5. Knowing every child: Our teachers know and care about every child they interact with, proactively building strong and positive relationships between school and home.
6. Always learning: Our continuous professional development, co-planning meetings and coaching ensure teachers feel stretched and supported, able to develop as teachers and leaders in a long-term career at Ark John Keats.

Ofsted and Performance Data

The academy was inspected in April 2015 and was judged outstanding in every area

We see the outstanding judgement only as a validation of the progress we have made to date. We are determined to provide an unrivalled standard of education for local children and know we have more to do to achieve this. Our focus will remain unwaveringly on the further development of exceptional practice within each of our pillars:

• A curriculum that provides challenge, academic rigour, cultural literacy and systematic progression as well as opportunities for pupils to develop key learning dispositions and their literacy and numeracy skills.
• Teaching that is highly effective and high quality support for staff in developing their practice.
• Strong discipline through the highly consistent application of our routines and techniques by all staff. Development of character through the Character programme.
• Raising aspirations through high quality teaching, the speaker programme, university visits and working with external partners.
• Widening pupils’ horizons through a high quality enrichment programme that all staff contribute to.
• Setting high expectations in everything we do and working collaboratively to ensure staff and pupils can meet these expectations.