After its opening at Underhill six years ago, Ark Pioneer Academy now has its first sixth-form pupils who were introduced to representatives of the High Barnet community.
A-level political students had the chance to put questions to the Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson after he toured the school and saw classes in progress.
By next year’s September intake, the new school will have reached its full complement of 1,300 students.
The visit was an opportunity to show teaching underway at what the Ark’s governors believe is a new school with excellent facilities and which has already become a great educational resource for the people of Barnet.
Head of biology Mags Gee (see above) was conducting a protein test with pupils Nihal Shah (left) and Efe Bulbul during the tour of classrooms.
The first intake of 103 sixth form pupils include 20 from neighbouring schools in Barnet and Enfield.
Tim Goundry, assistant principal in charge of sixth form, said they had been attracted to study at a school which was rated as outstanding by Ofsted and where this summer’s GCSE results were well above the national average.
Mr Goundry (above, third from left) – who was accompanied by members of the sixth form council – showed the facilities in the school library to Melvyn Sears (far right), chair of the Barnet Residents Association.
He said the sixth form team were determined to build on the school’s fantastic GCSE results and ensure that students had access to the very best destinations such as Oxford, Cambridge, other top universities, colleges and degree apprenticeships.
Another class in session was economics being taken by Chris Wyartt, head of economics and year 12.
In his session with political students, Dan Tomlinson thanked Ark’s principal Su Reddy for the opportunity to join community representatives in a tour of the school. Later he joined them for a group photo with Ms Reddy.
This was his third visit to the school since becoming the prospective candidate and then MP and in that time the number of pupils had almost doubled.
He complimented the school on the welcome it was extending to local people. “It is so good to see a school opening itself up in this way and doing all it can to become an active part of the community.”
Claire Barnes, chair of the Ark’s governors, said she hoped local groups and organisations would take advantage of the school’s facilities for meetings and events.
When asked about the application which Barnet Football Club is about to submit to Barnet Council for planning permission to build a new stadium on the school’s playing field, Ms Barnes indicated there was little or no possibility of school agreeing to that.
Ark Academy was built on the site of Barnet FC’s former Underhill stadium – a site which the owner Tony Kleanthous sold when he moved the club to The Hive sports complex at Edgware.
“We have a 125-year lease from the Department of Education for the school,” said Ms Barnes.
“While there might be some possibility of the borough agreeing to the football club moving back to the Underhill area, the current application to build on our school playing field is not the right solution.
“There are alternative sites in the borough but if the club did move back to this area, and if we could work with them, we would.
“However, this approach of building the stadium on our playing field is not an option we could see the school agreeing to.”
