Ark Putney Academy

[carmenhf]

We are a family moving from Manchester to London this September.We have been offered 2 places for my year 7 daughter and my year 10 son in Ark Putney Academy. We only have the ofsted reference but we would really appreciate the direct opinion of someone who knows the school.
Thank you,
Carmen

Ark Putney used to be Elliott School - a school consistently in special measures - until it was rebranded and taken over by the Harris chain a couple of years ago. It is still not popular with Wandsworth parents - which is why you have got a Y 7 place there. We have friends who turned it down for their DC last year.

To be fair the Harris chain do sort out some of the problems in the failing schools they take over - usually by excluding the real trouble makers ( often profoundly disadvantaged children) and imposing a ruthless discipline policy. So they may manage to turn it round. My dad went to Elliot ( a million years ago) and it was considered to be a great school.

You are likely to get a better response if you post on NappyValley.net.

Did you look elsewhere for your Y10? You probably do not have much choice for Y7 but there are far better options for Y10 and you should be able to get an occasional place elsewhere.

Look at the distances allocated on the attached and you can deduce which are the sought agter and the non sought after schools. Remember you can also apply out of borough in London. Look at the transport links.

www.wandsworth.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/10455/how_places_were_offered.pdf

Has ARK been taken over by Harris then? ARK is a different academy chain charity to Harris. Wouldn't they rename the school as a Harris Academy, if so?

Whoops, my mistake. I have wrongly conflated Ark and Harris. But pretty sure Ark take a similar approach on discipline etc.

Yep-they have very similar approaches- I thought Harris had started a world domination for a second there

I went to a girls' private school in Putney for all 14 years of my schooling, very nearby to what was then The Elliot, and it had a horrible reputation back in those days (1995-2009). I used to take public transport to and from school and was frequently subjected to verbal (and on a few occasions physical) abuse and a few muggings from Elliot pupils because of the uniform I was wearing. At one stage the targeting of our school got so bad that they had to station several police community support officers on Putney Hill every day at 'home time.'

This summer, my DH played a friendly football match on one of the pitches at the Ark Putney Academy and I went along with him as I was curious to see how it had changed. It was unrecognisable! The facilities are fantastic; I was really, really impressed. The atmosphere was also totally different compared to when it was Elliot. I can't speak to the school policies or quality of teaching or anything, but the facilities following the recent multimillion-pound revamp are top notch and I liked the general feel of the place.

Have a look at Ashcroft Technology Academy, if you are looking for Putney schools - I don't know anything about it directly but it has a very good OFSTED and has just had some great GCSE's, I understand.

I think Ark Putney Academy is trying very hard to shake off its old reputation.

Ark Putney academy is a great school. It has not been taken over by Harris and it has been taken over by ark. It has a great school and is very good it has a great ethos and let’s children learn easily in a great learning environment. This school is thought to be bad due to its old days. However now ark Putney academy is a great school and has now been completely redone the building is modern and has great resources. You can look on the website arkputneyacademy.org . My friends child’s grade went from a 4 when they joined to an 8 when they left they went high above there targets. I know this may be a bit late but I hope you chose the correct school .

Carmenhf, how do you and you kids find the school?