Ark primary schools in Brent beat national averages

Ark primaries in Brent are ahead of the national average and outperforming the local average in the borough.

Figures released by the education organisation claims that five-year-olds at its schools are outperforming the national averages by more than a fifth – 22 per cent.

Both Ark Academy in Bridge Road, Wembley, and Ark Franklin in Harvist Road, Kensal Rise, outperformed local authority and national averages by more than 60pc.

At Ark Academy, 84pc of pupils achieved a ‘good level of development’ in the early years, and 80pc of pupils at Ark Franklin, well above the average for all Brent primary schools of 63pc.

This compares well to other schools in the Ark network where the schools were placed third and seventh out of all 19 primary schools in Ark, in terms of outperforming the local authority average, beating schools in Birmingham and East Sussex also run by the academy chain.

Venessa Willms, director of primary at Ark said: “All the research shows how important it is to get the best possible start in the first years of school to do well at GCSEs, A levels and then at university. If we want to close the attainment gap, we need to give young children a secure foundation for the rest of their education.”

A total of 81pc of pupils at the academy network’s primary schools, compared to 66pc nationally secured a ‘good level of development’ in the early years.

Children achieving that level of development are those achieving at least the expected level within communication and language learning, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy and mathematics.