Ark Elvin Academy

We want nothing less than a great education for all our pupils. Our motto – ‘dare for greatness’ – runs through everything that we do. We must uphold our core values of integrity, courage, community and mastery.

To create an environment in which your child can become a confident, articulate, culturally aware young adult. Our students will be able to pursue careers they are passionate about, contribute to society and live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

‘We dare for greatness’. To ensure that every pupil leaves Elvin confident, articulate, and culturally aware; able to pursue careers they are passionate about, contribute to society and live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

By the time your child leaves our care, we want them to be able to go on to university or into a career of their choice. That’s why we have set such high expectations in our school community and we make more time for English and maths. These skills are vital not only in performing well in other subject areas, but later in the world of work too.

As an Ark school, we focus on depth before breadth, ensuring that our pupils secure firm foundations in English and mathematics. We prioritise depth in these subjects, giving pupils the best chance of academic success across all their studies. This means that pupils have more curriculum time for these subjects than in most schools, with up to six per week in each, and we have adopted the English Mastery and Mathematics Mastery curriculums.

Ark Elvin is a language specialist school, with a significant focus on the development of literacy for all pupils, English language skills in pupils who speak other languages, and an appreciation of language as a means for communication with and understanding of others. This includes daily reading for all pupils, as research and experience show that this is a great driver of future success in all subjects; we also have a very successful modern foreign languages department.

In addition, all pupils have access to our enrichment curriculum. This ranges from after school and holiday sessions for extra support in core subjects, through to clubs including debating, computer coding, chess, and many more. We also have a number of competitive sports teams, which have been particularly successful in football and cricket.

The focus of the curriculum through Years 7 to 8 is to develop core subject knowledge and a secure foundation on which build upon. More time for English and mathematics is essential as this will underpin understanding in all other subject areas.

In Year 9, we focus on a wide range of skills and will help to foster pupils’ thirst for learning through inspiring and relevant learning experiences. Through the wide variety of subjects, topics and themes studied, pupils will also develop the personal, learning and thinking skills required to succeed in their GCSEs. The curriculum will develop creative, enquiring and independent learners who are adept at problem-solving and team-work, providing a foundation for lifelong learning.

At Ark Elvin Academy we believe that student voice plays an important role in improving every aspect of school life. We actively seek the opinions and perspectives of our students and ensure they are considered in our decision-making process. Students are involved in numerous aspects of school life and regularly undertake activities such as interviewing of new staff, departmental reviews and focus groups. Constant communication is actively encouraged between students and staff through our pastoral model and Character Development lessons.

Students who have been selected based on a rigorous application process are attached to members of the senior leadership team to elicit and feedback student perspectives on how best to make improvements to the school.