Ark Kings Academy is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

all-through school An all-through school (also known as an integrated school) educates young people throughout multiple educational stages, generally throughout childhood and adolescence. Definition The term "all-through" can be legitimately applied to establis ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

located over two sites in the

Kings Norton Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Worcestershire, it was also a Birmingham City Council war ...

area of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, West Midlands,

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. The school is funded by the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for child protection, child services, education in England, educati ...

and operated by Ark Schools, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

under English law and sponsored by parent charity Ark.

History

Secondary school (Shannon Road)

The Shannon Road site was established as Primrose Hill Senior School in 1967 and was renamed in 1993 as Kings Norton High School, to avoid confusion with nearby Primrose Hill Primary School. In 2010, plans were announced to merge the school with

Baverstock School The Baverstock Academy (formerly Baverstock Foundation School and Specialist Sports College) was a mixed secondary school and sixth form college, located on the southern edge of the Birmingham outer city ward of Druids Heath. Due to its outs ...

to form a new 1,000-pupil school. Although a Statement of Intent was signed by

Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove, Baron Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician and journalist who served in various Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet positions under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rish ...

, then

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

, this was later withdrawn. The school converted to academy status in September 2012 and was renamed Ark Kings Academy. A sixth form provision was opened in September 2017.

Primary school (Tees Grove)

The Tees Grove site was originally established as Primrose Hill Primary School and was later renamed Primrose Hill Community School. In September 2012 the school converted to academy status and was renamed Ark Rose Primary Academy. As both schools were part of the

Ark Schools Absolute Return for Kids (branded as Ark) is an international children's educational charity based in London, UK. Ark is a registered charity under English law. In its reporting year 2017–18, excluding its few subsidiaries, it saw gross i ...

trust, in September 2017 Ark Rose Primary Academy formally merged with Ark Kings Academy, thereby sharing an amalgamated senior leadership and administration team.

Ofsted warning

In 2022, the school was given a funding warning after being found inadequate during an Ofsted inspection. The Ofsted report, published in May 2022, following an inspection in February 2022, said: "Some pupils, particularly those who identify as

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

, experience repeated name-calling and prejudiced behaviour. This means that pupils do not feel safe in the school."

GCSE results

The school has generally had low average percentage for 5+ GCSEs (or equivalent) A*-C incl. English & Maths in the past, with the lowest being 7% back in 2006. Since 2006 however, the average percentage has been either been going up or decreasing by 1% each year. However, before the school turned to an academy in September 2012, the school had a percentage of 41% for the final year as Kings Norton High, beating the previous record of 32% in 2010. However, for the first year of the academy in 2013, the school had a drop to 24% which had been the lowest in 4 years compared to 23% in 2009. This was also the lowest percentage compared to the rest of the ARK network. However, in 2015 Kings achieved 51% which was their highest results percentage ever recorded. This made Kings the most improved academy in the country over two years.

Notable former pupils

* Clive Wedderburn, Actor – Student (Primrose Hill Secondary School) * Zoë Tyler, Singer – Student (Primrose Hill Secondary School)

Notable former staff

* Dene Cropper, Footballer – Teacher (Kings Norton High School/ARK Kings Academy)

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Birmingham, West Midlands Educational institutions established in 1967 1967 establishments in England Academies in Birmingham, West Midlands Kings Academy Primary schools in Birmingham, West Midlands