Ark Putney Academy

Ark Putney Academy opened in September 2012 as part of the Ark network in the London Borough of Wandsworth.  We’re a non-selective, mixed secondary school with 750 students, ranging from year 7 through to sixth form. The school boasts exceptional indoor and outdoor sports facilities, plus an arts centre, spacious classrooms and specialist teaching rooms.

We offer a rich curriculum emphasising core academic subjects, whilst providing the facilities, time and specialist staff to ensure students develop across a range of subjects. Music is at the heart of our school, with every student learning an instrument and all secondary students having the chance to be part of our band programme.

In our 2022 Ofsted inspection we were rated ‘Good’ in every category with real strengths in teaching and learning, curriculum breadth and personal development.

Values and vision

At Ark Putney we have a holistic view of educating young people. Our mission statement is;

Preparing every student to be a pillar of any community

By this we mean that 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 fulfil 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. They help to guide us in how we behave, what we do and what kind of people we want to be:

• Effort
• Team work
• Community
• Enthusiasm
• Commitment
• Independence

Alison Downey

Executive Principal