The school is located in the Landport area of Portsmouth in the English county of Hampshire.

It began to offer more general secondary education for boys and girls in 1922.

[2] St Luke's went through a period of decline during the 1990s and 2000s, with pupils continuously achieving some of the poorest results in the UK.

They also recruited a team of ex Royal Navy sailors as pastoral support to provide discipline.

Though it is a Church of England school, Ark Charter Academy operates a non-selective intake policy from a catchment area rather than selecting on religious background.