Ark Greenwich Free School

No Nonsense Culture

AGFS is renowned for its sky-high standards and no-nonsense culture. This means interventions may be used and we are a strict no mobile phone school. Scholars are expected to be kind, organised, and to try their best every day.

Good order and discipline help to create a safe learning environment where children can flourish. Mobile phones are an unwanted distraction and, alongside gaming and social media, tend to be the root cause of most stress for children.

Innovative classrooms

An AGFS classroom looks and feels different to other classrooms. Teachers engage 100% of scholars in the learning process by ensuring there are no hiding places. Everyone has an important contribution to make, and this should be delivered ‘loud and proud’. Teachers systematically check for understanding before moving on. Lessons are pitched at a high level and support is scaffolded to ensure everyone reaches this bar. A primacy is placed on the acquisition of the most important knowledge and skills across the curriculum. Assessment is frequent, cumulative and builds in complexity over time.

Maintaining traditional values is central to our approach, but we also pay close attention to research in the field of education. We are committed to remaining at the forefront of best practice by utilising techniques for teaching, learning, curriculum design and assessment that lead to rapid and sustained academic progress. We don’t believe in gimmicks or flashy one-off lessons. Rather, we believe exponential progress happens when provision is consistently strong every single day.

Enrichment and Rewards

We invest heavily in rewarding scholars who always do the right thing. Our golden ticket reward system, Wednesday afternoon enrichment programme, extra-curricular provision, and range of 12 drop down day excursions per year are highly valued by scholars.

Access to culturally enriching opportunities through school trips and extra-curricular activities help to ensure children become well-rounded individuals – it’s also great fun to spend time with teachers and friends outside of lessons. Rewarding scholars who always do the right thing is an important way of recognising their hard work.