Welcome to Ark Charter

Welcome to Charter Academy, a school that has high expectations for all who attend. Charter is a special place. We are an academy with heart, with heritage and most importantly an academy where faith is important. A Charter child is ambitious, they have moral purpose, are influential in their community, show love toward one another and strive to achieve all that they can be in the world.

At Charter we understand that to be successful, we must provide our students with the highest level of challenge and the highest expectations of behaviour. Our academy is disciplined, never shying away from being responsible for our actions. At Charter our vision is that our students grow to be confident, articulate and resilient young people, assured in their strength of courage, value of justice and necessity of respect.

We offer an ambitious academic curriculum that exposes all students to the richness of education and allows them to experience a diversity of subjects. This exposure allows our students to identify their strengths, discover their passion and sets them on the path to university or the career of their choosing.

Charter academy is a proud member of the successful Ark network of schools. A UK-leading Trust, the Ark network gives us access to outstanding support and guidance, participation in world-class teacher training opportunities and a sense of collective belonging as schools regularly come together to participate in academic, sporting and musical events.

"Encourage one another, bear with one another and build each other up."  1 Thessalonians 5:11

"Encourage one another, bear with one another and build each other up." 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Through our Christian values of Truth, Compassion and Respect, we aim to enhance the lives of our school family and the wider world. We will learn to thrive through the teachings of Jesus to empower, enrich and educate so that we all flourish and explore life through our faithful community. We embrace all faiths and none and commit to making everyone welcome and a valued member of our diverse community.    

Being a Church of England school, we live out our Christian values every day in several ways. One of these is through our Collective Worship programme. Collective Worship allows us to take time every day to engage and reflect on our ethos and values. We gather every day to pause and consider the world around us. 

Our vision recognises that our students have challenges to face, and they need to be able to flourish through the education they are provided. As a diverse community, we needed to recognise that some of our cohort are faithless so our vision strives to ensure that despite this, we can help them explore their spirituality and live with one another in a happy and safe environment 

Everyone at the academy promotes and reflects our values, leading to high achievement for every student: 

• Staff believe that every child, whatever their starting point, can succeed in education.
• Staff do ‘whatever it takes’ for their students to succeed, and students develop the same attitude for themselves and for others.
• Responsibility is shared: staff and students are always ready and willing to help each other.
• The Academy values and feels part of the Ark network.
• The Academy has its own strong sense of identity, with its own distinct uniform and wider branding which is used consistently.

Every day students are engaged in enjoyable, worthwhile and meaningful activities. We know we are doing our jobs if students have a sense of pride in themselves and the academy.

Ark Charter Academy: how is our school distinctively Christian?

Our theologically-rooted Christian Vision

Through our Christian values of Truth, Compassion and Respect, we aim to enhance the lives of our school family and the wider world. We will learn to thrive through the teachings of Jesus to empower, enrich and educate so that we all flourish and explore life through our faithful community. We embrace all faiths and none and commit to making everyone welcome and a valued member of our diverse community.  Encourage one another, bear with one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Our value of truth allows students to empower themselves, through meaning what they say and saying what they mean. This gives them true choices and allows them to explore life through our faithful community.  His mission was to declare the truth, whatever the consequence. Our value of compassion shows that we understand that some of our community face real challenges and we teach kindness and patience to our students.  Our value of Respect underpins all relationships. As an Ark school, we embrace and explicitly welcome diversity and this helps our children encourage, bear and build our happy community.

Our Christian ethos guides the decisions we make so children can flourish academically, emotionally, socially and morally. These values underpin all we teach and do at Charter. We follow a liturgical calendar, and our Empowerment Programme embeds these values. Our Empowerment Programme guides pupils in asking, and then answering with increasing confidence and precision, six big questions supported by our specific bible teachings and in line with the liturgical calendar.

Autumn 1  How can I be the best me? (Creation)  

"So God created man in his own image". Genesis 1 verse 27

You are made in God's image, full of potential. Our friends are made in God's image.

Questions we reflect on: How can we develop our own gifts? How can we value and encourage one another to develop theirs?

Autumn 2 How can I give to others (Advent)

Waiting for the arrival of Jesus.

About a thousand years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Isaiah foretold his birth.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9 verse 6

The people of Israel had to wait for thousands of years for this promised gift to the world. We may have to wait, but God never fails on His promises, and his timing is always right.

Question we reflect on: How can we give hope to others at Advent?

Spring 1 How can I keep myself physically, mentally and financially healthy? (Epiphany)

An 'epiphany' is a revelation. The wise men were distinguished and learned foreigners. They studied the stars, and had seen a star in the east which they knew revealed the whereabouts of a great, new King, so they went on a very long journey to find the King and worship him. It led them to Jesus.

Questions we reflect on: How can I use my time at Charter wisely? What decisions and choices will I make today which will help me and help others find our way?

Spring 2 How can I ensure I have healthy relationships? (Lent)

Lent is the period of 40 days leading up to Easter. It's a time for honest self-reflection, and a time to reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus who gave up his life so that we could be forgiven.

"We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way. But the Lord has put on him the punishment for all the evil we have done." Isaiah 53 verse 6

Questions we reflect on: When can we spend some time to reflect on what things are most important? How can we make a new start when we make mistakes?

Summer 1 How can I look after myself? (Pentecost)

Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. The resurrected Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit who would remain with them always and empower them. The disciples waited together in Jerusalem, as instructed. Then the Holy Spirit came - like fire and wind- giving them power, courage and even the ability to communicate to the crowds of people in languages that they had not learnt!

Questions we reflect on:

The Holy Spirit in us develops 'fruits' of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. (Galatians 5 verses 22-23). Which of these 'fruits' do you most need to grow? How can you focus on developing this?

Summer 2 How can I have healthy relationships? (Growing green shoots/hospitality)

Not just a packed lunch, but a party!

The idea of hospitality is central to the Christian faith. Jesus is God’s over and abundant gift to anyone who will receive Him. No one is excluded, everyone is invited to the Banquet, if they want to come.  In the parable of the Great Banquet Jesus tells of a man who sent invitations to his friends to come to his celebration, but all declined, they had other priorities. So, he sent his servants far and wide to urge anyone and everyone,In Luke chapter 14 Jesus demonstrated this abundance in the feeding of the 5,000. Thousands of people had gathered to hear Jesus speak and now they were hungry. One boy offered his meagre ‘packed lunch’ of 5 small loaves and 2 fishes to Jesus. Jesus blessed it and thanked God, then the food was distributed to the crowds, and after all had eaten there remained baskets full of leftovers!

It’s not how much we can offer to God and to others, it’s what He can do with the little bit we give Him, and that is abundant and unlimited.

Question: What can we offer today to make someone feel welcome at Charter Academy?   

Who are we?

Ark Charter Academy is a co-educational medium size secondary Church of England school in the centre of Portsmouth. The students who attend are aged between 11-16. Ark Charter has a diverse population, within an area of high deprivation and a significantly above national average percentage of disadvantaged students. Staff and leaders at all levels do not accept deprivation as an excuse and have high expectations and ambitions for all our students, irrespective of context, background, prior attainment or need. We continue to improve our school through an inclusive Christian ethos based on our chosen values of Truth, Compassion and Respect alongside high expectations for every child to succeed.    

We are a school within Portsmouth City Council but are also part of the Ark Trust. We are also supported through the Portsmouth and Winchester Diocese Education Board.  We enjoy a close relationship with St Luke’s church who are attached to the school and our Vicar Annie Mcabe plays an active role in our school, encouraging and guiding us to make a positive contribution to God’s world.

What are we doing here?

We believe that all children regardless of background should have access to a quality education underpinned by Christian values. The vision of our trust is clear. Ark works to make sure that all children, regardless of their background, have access to a great education and real choices in life. Our Christian ethos guides the decisions we make so children can flourish academically, emotionally, socially and morally. Gov visit “I can see the children genuinely caring for one another and helping one another. I am so impressed with them.” We encourage, build and believe in all our students which allows them to go on to achieve once they leave us.  

Ark Schools is an education charity that exists to make sure that all children, regardless of their background, have access to a great education and real choices in life. Matters of social justice, especially those relating to the consequences of inequality are therefore central to our work. We use our Charter Challenges, our Topical Tuesday and our Collective worship, alongside our taught curriculum to educate our students, following the example set by Jesus.

We are lucky to have a supportive and flourishing relationship with the Diocese and St Luke’s in particular. Our community is diverse, so Respect is incredibly important to us. Our vision captures what we want for our students, underpinned by our Christian values. We work tirelessly to bring this vision to life through all we do. Our vision recognises that our students have challenges to face, and need to live with truth, compassion and respect so they can flourish through the education they are provided. We recognise that some of our cohorts are faithless so our vision ensures that despite this, we can help them explore their spirituality and live with one another in a happy and safe environment. Through Collective Worship and the teachings of Jesus, we guide our community to make the right decisions and to embody our values. Our vision and values are visible throughout our school day. We build them into the curriculum we teach, through our daily Collective Worship, through our rewards system and in all interactions. We also use our verse to remind students of how we treat each other as a community. This is underpinned by our Empowerment Curriculum where we show students how they have the power to make positive contributions to God’s world.  Our work with St Luke’s is very important to us. We work closely to provide opportunities to work in partnership so that we can flourish. As Vicar Annie wrote to parents. The relationship between Ark Charter and St Luke’s is a strong one. We are delighted to partner with students, staff and parents as we seek “to encourage one another, bear with one another and build each other up”.  

How do we facilitate worship?

Collective Worship is very much valued by staff and students at Charter. Our Acts of Worship run alongside the key events, and we explicitly include the teachings and stories of Christ with our theme of the week. For example, the story of Jesus and the fishermen when talking about working hard and not giving up. We aim to ensure it is invitational, inclusive and inspirational and follow a liturgical calendar. We ensure that our worships are taught by a range of adults who have a range of backgrounds and styles of worship and are delivered through a range of opportunities. Gatherings take place in year groups and as a whole school body. We pray every day together. Children have a good understanding of the different festivals in the Church calendar, as well as other faiths which creates a culture of respect.  This is also taught explicitly through RE lessons. Because all teachers lead worship, this helps to make it part of our everyday lives. 

Our intention is for worship is to be inclusive in that it involves meeting, exploring, questioning, and responding to input from others and, for some, to God. It grows out of our diverse local context and out of our pupils’ experiences, including their cultural backgrounds. We aim for worship that is invitational, where there is no compulsion to ‘do anything’. It provides the opportunity to engage whilst allowing the freedom of those of different faiths and those of no religious faith to be present and to engage with integrity. Our collective worship is intended to be inspiring and ambitious and allow students to gather, engage, send and respond.

The regular features of collective worship at our school include:

• Reading of our school prayer or another prayer, relevant to the theme of the activity
• A period of silent reflection where pupils and staff spend time thinking about a specific topic, or a written reflection
• A period of reflection accompanied by a musical piece
• Charitable actions
• National and international days of reflection

How does the school’s theologically rooted Christian vision create an active culture of justice and responsibility?

We explicitly provide through Topical Tuesday opportunities for students to debate and discuss the world around them, so they learn truth, compassion and respect. In May, all students looked at how we challenge discrimination and then reflected throughout the week on their part to play in this through Daily Reflection. All students have signed a pledge to stand against discrimination. We also run a Charter Challenge each half term which looks at justice and responsibility which we link to our theme of the week. For example, during Holocaust Memorial Collective Worship, we looked at stories of people who stood up against the persecution of minorities. During International Women’s Day we studied stories of black, female gamechangers who actively campaigned using non-violent direct action.  

We have an active student leadership team who help drive justice through student voice, such as writing our #WeareCharter principles, they chose to actively eradicate discriminatory behaviour. Their voices are heard so they experience the meaning of truth. We also have a very active Year 8 membership of COPs (City of Portsmouth Council). Our SALT team drive many of our initiatives.   We also live out our vision daily through accepting that we have a responsibility to respect each other's views and beliefs. Our Empowerment Programme supports our taught academic curriculum, in enrichment activities and through discussion. Our pupils are aware of British values and their significance, and they know how these can be considered alongside moral or ethical considerations when making decisions or forming beliefs and opinions. Increasingly, and particularly for older pupils, opportunities for pupil leadership and volunteer roles in school have allowed pupils to demonstrate an ability to take responsibility. Pupils have developed skills and qualifications in recent months as mentors, counsellors and sports leaders and put each of these to work in the service of others. Pupils have also demonstrated initiative in identifying charitable causes and undertaking events and activities to both raise awareness and funds. We explicitly enable students to demonstrate justice and responsibility.

All pupils learn RE at our school as part of our core offer.  Leadership is committed to ensuring RE has sufficient time in the curriculum. Students are explicitly taught RE at both KS3 and KS4 by subject specialists. The school RE curriculum is Ark aligned. RE has dedicated co-planning time, 90 minutes weekly. RE also has regular learning walks as part of the lesson drop-in schedule.  Our 23-24 RE results saw 82% of students gaining a Grade 4 or above which shows our curriculum is effective and allows students to flourish.  

Lord God creator of all things, we pray for our school Ark Charter Academy. We thank you for what it is, what it stands for and everybody associated with it.  

We thank you for the opportunities you give us to encourage each other, bear with each other and build each other up.  

For all those who have passed through its gates, those who are here and for those yet to enter, may we all be part of its history, heritage and success. 

Bless each of us as we spend time, working, learning, sharing and caring to become the best versions of ourselves.  

In all we do, may it be the best we can do and help us to look out for each other. Help us live as a faith filled community. We pray that we continue to be guided by the school values of truth, compassion and respect and look forward to your continued favour over Charter Academy, its staff, students, families and the community of which it is a part. 

We pray this in your name 

Amen.