Ark Blake Academy
Croydon, CR0 6NA · Croydon local authority
Croydon’s School Grade B+ better than 70% of towns in England
What stands out about Ark Blake Academy
- Its own letter, C+: GCSE results better than 44% of England’s secondary schools
- Room to spare: 759 pupils for 1,200 places
- 50% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Good, February 2023 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (115 of 115)
- Homes in its postcode sector (CR0 6) sold for a median £400,000; Croydon’s is £420,500
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 156 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Ark Blake beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 43.5
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 35% of schools · Croydon avg 46.4
Grade 5+ in English and maths 46%
A strong pass · higher than 51% of schools · Croydon avg 46%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26
Attainment 8 for the 83 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools
England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.
How hard is it to get a place at Ark Blake Academy?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2021 (62), 2022 (61), 2023 (46). The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. Ark Schools sets the admissions rules. Apply through Croydon council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places · the 10 most in demand
100% got their first choice
Croydon and Croydon, side by side
2025/26All 23 graded secondaries in Croydon. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Croydon’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coloma Convent Girls' School | A | 28% | 56.8 |
| Riddlesdown Collegiate | A | 14% | 55.3 |
| Coombe Wood School | A− | 31% | 53.9 |
| Harris City Academy Crystal Palace | A− | 39% | 52.9 |
| Harris Academy Purley | A− | 39% | 52.2 |
| Oasis Academy Coulsdon | B+ | 27% | 50.5 |
| Orchard Park High School | A− | 40% | 50.5 |
| Harris Academy Beulah Hill | B− | 36% | 49 |
| Woodcote High School | B+ | 25% | 47.9 |
| The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy | B | 51% | 47.2 |
| St Mary's Catholic High School | B | 34% | 46.7 |
| Norbury High School for Girls | B− | 33% | 46.5 |
| Harris Invictus Academy Croydon | B− | 51% | 46.1 |
| Thomas More Catholic School | B− | 43% | 46 |
| Harris Academy South Norwood | C+ | 42% | 45.4 |
| St Joseph's College | C+ | 39% | 44 |
| Archbishop Tenison's CofE High School | C | 37% | 43.5 |
| Ark Blake Academy | C+ | 50% | 43.5 |
| Oasis Academy Shirley Park | C− | 51% | 40.6 |
| The Quest Academy | C− | 38% | 40.5 |
| Oasis Academy Arena | C− | 54% | 39 |
| Shirley High School Performing Arts College | D | 52% | 38.5 |
| Meridian High School | D− | 65% | 29.7 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025782 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.
Girls and boys
Ark Blake Academy’s letter
Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.
How school letters are worked out
Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.
Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.
Ofsted inspections
Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.
Graded inspection: Good, February 2023.
Living near Ark Blake Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in CR0 6, the school’s postcode sector
Croydon property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in CR0 6 sell for a little under Croydon’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.
Schools within 1.6 miles
38 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Croydon, CR0 6NA
Ark Blake Academy: common questions
Is Ark Blake Academy a good school?
By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 44% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C+), with an Attainment 8 of 43.5 and 46% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, February 2023.
How hard is it to get into Ark Blake Academy?
For September 2026, 115 families put Ark Blake Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 158 places were offered in all.
What is Ark Blake Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (February 2023).
How much do houses cost near Ark Blake Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, CR0 6, sold for a median £400,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (682 sales).
Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.
A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Croydon’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.