Ark Kings Academy
Academy · ages 3–18 · with a sixth form
Below average on every headline measure — 77th of 86 for average grade in Birmingham.
Birmingham · Birmingham · one of 89 state secondaries
Summary
Ark Kings Academy sits 77th of 86 state secondaries in Birmingham for average GCSE grade. 46.7% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 64.2% across Birmingham. 24.2% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject it is furthest clear of Birmingham in music, sat by 34% of the year,, and furthest behind in art and religious studies. Ofsted: Good in March 2024.
It is an academy of 739 pupils, taking ages 3 to 18 and running its own sixth form. 70.1% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 33.3% are on SEN support with a further 1.7% holding an education, health and care plan. 25% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 47.6% entered across Birmingham, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push. 21.4% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, about the same as Birmingham, and 72.1% of its leavers went on to further education.
Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Birmingham, and count as ahead or behind only where the gap is wider than the year-to-year swing that entry group would produce.
The school·Birmingham
Inspection
Good
Inspected March 2024
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Early years
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Quality of education
- Good
- March 2024 Full inspection Good
That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.
Attendance
21% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 21% across Birmingham and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.
GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25
Attainment
25%
Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects
well below average
Birmingham 48% · England 41%
After Year 11
72% stayed in education, 2% started an apprenticeship (2022/23 leavers)
GCSE results by subject
2024/25 · share reaching grade 4 or above · a standard pass, the old grade C
Every bar is on the same 0–100% scale, so subjects can be read against each other as well as against the county and England. A dash means the figure does not exist rather than being zero. The county and England lines cover state-funded schools only, the same schools you can browse here, because independent schools sit outside the Department for Education's subject release and outside this site.
Compare these subjects against another school, side by side.
Maths is the subject most of this year group sat. Maths tutors on Tutorperch.
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What these mean
- Attainment 8
- The average pupil's total score across eight GCSE-equivalent subjects, with English and maths counting double. It is scored out of 90. A score of 50 is roughly equivalent to achieving a grade 5 across eight subjects.
- Grades 4 and 5
- GCSEs are graded from 9 down to 1. Grade 4 is a standard pass and broadly corresponds to the old grade C; grade 5 is what the government calls a strong pass. Grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an old grade A.
- The EBacc
- A combination of subjects rather than a qualification in its own right: English, Maths, the Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography. The figure shows the share of pupils entered for all the EBacc subject areas, so it gives an indication of how widely a school enters pupils for this particular combination of subjects.
- Progress 8
- A measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE, rather than simply what grades they achieve. It takes pupils' prior attainment into account, making it useful for comparing schools with different intakes. Progress 8 is not published for 2024/25 because the pupils concerned did not have Key Stage 2 tests that can be used as the normal starting point.
- Percentage points
- The gap between two percentages. A subject going from 30% to 36% has risen six percentage points, though it has risen by a fifth. We write "pp" to keep the two apart.
- Why some subjects say nothing
- A year group is small. Where a gap is no bigger than the swing a different intake would produce, we say the subjects are level rather than dressing chance as a finding. Two kinds of subject carry no share at all: a vocational award has no 9-to-1 grade to report, and some qualifications are not published on the 9-to-1 scale for a given year group, most often community languages sat outside the school's own timetable.
- Persistent absence
- The share of pupils who miss at least 10% of their possible sessions during the school year. This includes both authorised and unauthorised absence, so illness and other authorised reasons are included. Persistent absence has remained substantially higher than its pre-pandemic level.
- Spare places
- The amount of available capacity a school has compared with the number of pupils on roll. This is different from oversubscription: spare places measure whether a school has capacity, whereas oversubscription describes demand for places exceeding the number available. A school with no spare places may be popular, but a small school can also be full without receiving a large number of applications.
School details
Shannon Road
Kings Norton
Birmingham
West Midlands
B38 9DE
- Principal
- Mrs Caz Brasenell
- Trust
- Ark Schools
- Pupils
- 739 of 1,010 places
- Spare places
- 24%
- Free school meals
- 70%
- SEND
- 33% on SEN support, 2% with an EHC plan
- Progress 8
- Not published · last -0.53 in 2023/24
Other schools in Birmingham
88 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.
- St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School 1.7 km
- King Edward VI King's Norton School for Boys 2.2 km
- Kings Norton Girls' School 2.5 km
- King Edward VI Northfield School for Girls 2.5 km
- Turves Green Boys' School 2.6 km
- Bournville School 3.3 km
- Dame Elizabeth Cadbury School 3.4 km
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls 4.2 km
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys 4.2 km
- Selly Park Girls' School 4.4 km
- The University of Birmingham School 4.4 km
- Kings Heath Secondary School 4.5 km
- Wheelers Lane Technology College 4.5 km
- E-ACT Shenley Academy 4.7 km
- Bishop Challoner Catholic College 4.8 km
- Colmers School and Sixth Form College 4.9 km
- Christ Church, Church of England Secondary Academy 4.9 km
- Swanshurst School 5.1 km
- Queensbridge School 5.4 km
- King Edward VI Balaam Wood Academy 5.8 km
- King Edward VI Five Ways School 6 km
- Bartley Green School 6.3 km
- Hillcrest School and Sixth Form Centre 6.3 km
- Moseley School and Sixth Form 6.6 km
- Hall Green School 6.8 km
- Harborne Academy 7.1 km
- Lift Four Dwellings Secondary 8 km
- Ark St Alban's Academy 8.1 km
- Ninestiles, an Academy 8.1 km
- Ark Boulton Academy 8.1 km
- King Edward VI Lordswood School for Girls 8.2 km
- Yardleys School 8.3 km
- City Academy 8.4 km
- Lordswood Boys' School 8.5 km
- St Paul's School for Girls 8.6 km
- George Dixon Academy 8.9 km
- Holy Trinity Catholic School 9 km
- Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School 9.1 km
- Ark Victoria Academy 9.2 km
- Small Heath Leadership Academy 9.6 km
- Jewellery Quarter Academy 9.7 km
- Birmingham Ormiston Academy 9.9 km
- BOA Digital Technologies Academy 10.3 km
- Starbank School 10.4 km
- Bordesley Green Girls' School & Sixth Form 10.6 km
- Aston University Engineering Academy 10.6 km
- Eden Girls' Leadership Academy, Birmingham 10.7 km
- E-ACT Heartlands Academy 10.8 km
- Nishkam High School 11 km
- Waverley Studio College 11 km
- Waverley School 11 km
- Star King Solomon Academy 11 km
- Aston Manor Academy 11.2 km
- Holte School 11.6 km
- King Edward VI Handsworth School 11.6 km
- Saltley Academy 11.7 km
- Eden Boys' Leadership Academy, Birmingham East 11.7 km
- Rockwood Academy 11.9 km
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys 11.9 km
- Holyhead School 12 km
- King Edward VI Aston School 12.1 km
- Cockshut Hill School 12.4 km
- Washwood Heath Academy 12.8 km
- King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy 12.9 km
- King Edward VI Handsworth Wood Girls' Academy 12.9 km
- Broadway Academy 13 km
- St John Wall Catholic School 13.2 km
- Hodge Hill College 13.7 km
- Eden Boys' School, Birmingham 13.7 km
- Hodge Hill Girls' School 13.9 km
- Prince Albert High School 13.9 km
- Erdington Academy 14.4 km
- Tile Cross Academy 14.5 km
- Stockland Green School 14.7 km
- Hamstead Hall Academy 14.7 km
- E-ACT North Birmingham Academy 15.5 km
- Arena Academy 15.9 km
- St Edmund Campion Catholic School 16.2 km
- Fortis Academy 16.6 km
- Lift Greenwood 16.9 km
- Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School 17 km
- Bishop Walsh Catholic School 18.5 km
- Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls 18.7 km
- Plantsbrook School 19.4 km
- Fairfax 20.3 km
- The Royal Sutton School 20.3 km
- Bishop Vesey's Grammar School 20.4 km
- The Arthur Terry School 22.2 km