Goffs Academy

Welcome to our information pack about Goffs and the Generations Multi Academy Trust. We are a mixed 11-18 comprehensive Academy with approximately 1,600 students on roll, including a thriving and successful Sixth Form. Our Academy is extremely popular in the local area, with an average of over 800 applications annually for the 240 places available, and significant waiting lists for places across the year groups. On intake our students are of an ability level (KS2 APS) significantly above that of the national average. We are, though, a true comprehensive school and welcome a mix of students of all levels of prior attainment.

The school has been awarded the International Schools Award twice, Investors in People status three times, and has Sportsmark Gold and Artsmark Silver. We also hold the Secondary Geography Quality Mark, as well as being a specialist Language College, a designated Leading Edge School, and chairing the national Leadership Partner School network.

Professional Working and Learning Environment

Our school was among those named as part of a £2billion Government scheme, the Priority Schools Building Programme. As a result, Goffs received a completely new build and facilities, and moved into them in January 2017. This significant investment of funds by the Department for Education is a further recognition of the outstanding work being undertaken by the school, and represents another fantastic opportunity for our community. Our new building provides a light, modern, professional and fit for purpose working environment for all.

The Generations Multi Academy Trust

In early 2016, Goffs Academy received a direct approach from the DfE asking that they consider establishing a Multi Academy Trust and work in partnership with other schools. As a result, the Generations MAT, GMAT, was established from 1st September 2016, with Goffs as the lead school within the Trust. Subsequently, the Trust took over the former Cheshunt School and established Goffs-Churchgate Academy, which is now another thriving secondary. Goffs-Churchgate is a fully mixed comprehensive school from 11-16 years of age, with 600 on the roll. Recognising that not all children thrive in large secondary schools, the Trust made a deliberate decision to offer both a larger and much smaller secondary school for local parents to choose between. As such, the decision to cap student numbers at 600 is entirely deliberate, enabling us to maintain a strong sense of community where everybody knows everybody. Both secondaries enjoy extremely high levels of Year 6 applications, with both being fully over-subscribed. Flamstead End Primary joined the MAT from 1st January 2023, and is another highly successful, thriving and nurturing community, rated “outstanding” by Ofsted. All of the schools are within close proximity of each other and share many activities, including CPD for staff. One of the Trust’s fundamental principles is that no one school is in any way more important or successful than the other. As such, CPD and other events are rotated through all schools in the Trust, with everyone learning from and sharing with each other. This collegiate and collaborative approach permeates our Trust.

From Spring 2023, the MAT will open nursery provision on the Goffs-Churchgate site, with subsidised and term-time only places for staff. The nursery is run by Ashbourne Nurseries - https://ashbournedaynurseries.com/

The MAT is extremely clear about its daily purpose, reflected in its motto of “No Set Destiny for Any Child.” All of our schools, leaders and staff fiercely believe in the life-changing nature of education and work tirelessly to that end, day in and day out. There is no set destiny for any of the children in our care; rather, our daily work across the piece allows children to forge new futures and destinies.

The MAT is extremely financially secure. Finances are overseen by a Chief Finance Officer with considerable financial expertise in the private sector, plus a highly experienced Finance Manager. The Trust deliberately created an Income Generation function, and extensive lettings and business development work now takes place across all sites in the MAT. This additional income – now yielding in excess of £500k per annum – underpins generous levels of staffing at both schools, plus many “extras” that would otherwise be unaffordable in the current funding climate. As one example, all teacher loadings were reduced from 19/20 as a direct result of the additional monies coming into the Trust via this income generation work.

We are looking forward to further widening our Trust and to working in partnership with both primary schools and further secondaries. Further information about GMAT can be found here: https://generationsmat.com/

Outcomes

Exam results in 2022 were another year of huge success for Goffs. GCSE highlights include:

• Student progress outcomes which remain above national average

• 75% of students achieved grade 4 or more in English and Maths and 57% achieved 5 or more in both

• English grade 4/5 or more: 89%/72%

• Maths grade 4/5 or more: 79%/60%

• Percentage of grade 7 or more in all subjects: 24%

Crucially, students were well supported in progressing onto a range of exciting destinations. The majority of Year 11 students have continued their studies in the Sixth Form at Goffs, with all others securing a place in further education or training. 71% of Year 13 students secured a university or college place to start in autumn 2022.

At A Level, continuing the upward trend of recent years, students achieved another excellent set of exam results, including an overall 100% pass rate. The wide range of university or further education courses onto which students have progressed include Law, History, Geography, Maths, Finance, Physics and Astrophysics, and Project Management for Construction, whilst many other students progressed directly into employment or apprenticeships. Our Sixth Form has an excellent reputation in the local area, over the past three years the numbers of students applying to join our Sixth Form has continued to increase, such that we now have approximately 350 Sixth Formers within our school community.

We are, of course, very proud of these outcomes. Equally, we are clear that they reflect the start of our journey, not the end. As such, we target set in the top 10% of all schools nationally and strive at all times to meet ambitious targets. We are committed to a cycle of continuous improvement and aspiration and are keen to appoint a colleague who shares that vision, determination and a restless quest for even higher outcomes. All of these factors combine to make Goffs a very exciting and rewarding community to be a part of.

Community

Goffs prides itself on its sense of community – both within the school itself, and in the wider locality. Visitors to our school unfailingly comment on a very real sense of community, coupled with warmth and pride. We are members of Cheshunt Extended Services (ChExS), offering a variety of extended school and community based activities for both students and parents. Our students actively support local charity work such as the Isabel Hospice, and maintain strong links with our local primary schools particularly through our MFL Specialism. In addition, our young Sports Leaders regularly work in primary schools. Goffs runs a G-Involved Volunteering programme, where every Sixth Form student completes 20 hours volunteering during the course of the academic year. Students are rewarded through our annual Pride of Goffs Awards evening.

We firmly believe in every student feeling a strong sense of community and on entering the school, each student is placed in one of four Houses: Eagle, Falcon, Hawk and Phoenix. Each House is led by a team of student House Captains and has a clear sense of identity. Regular competitions and assemblies strengthen this sense of community. Each year the House Captains decide on a possible group of charities to support; students in every year then vote on their chosen school charity. Students within each House then arrange a variety of fund raising events throughout the school year. The House which raises the most money in the year for our school charity is awarded the Charity House Shield. Such work is indicative of Goffs students’ ability to empathise with the needs of others, and further develops their capacity to work successfully in a variety of social settings.

We regularly bring visitors from the community into school to work with students, and maintain strong links with our local secondary schools as a partner school in the South Broxbourne Partnership. The school building is used for evening, weekend and holiday classes through the Broxbourne partnership, providing opportunities for a diverse range of users including the Greek School, and local dance and sports groups.

The Goffs Student Leadership Academy actively encourages leadership development through a series of student led groups. We currently have students enrolled in the Leadership Academy from Year 7 to Year 13, with groups including:

 Student Parliament

 Digital Leaders

 Community and Charity Leaders

 House Leaders

 Sports Leaders

 Learning Leaders

The student groups each have a member of Student Parliament who is responsible for coordinating the group and their projects. Students regularly report back on their work and the impact that it is having both in and outside our school community.

A variety of annual school trips give students the opportunities to sample different cultures, whilst an extensive programme of off-site visits provides opportunities for students to experience the diversity that exists within the UK including theatre, galleries and museum visits. Our overseas trips have included Germany, Spain, USA, Czech Republic, Paris, Berlin and Reykjavik, in addition to a student exchange with a school in Beijing, and annual ski trips to countries such as Italy, Andorra or Austria. In addition, we regularly host students from Spain as part of our specialism work.

Goffs is proud to be a truly comprehensive school, with students and staff from different religions and a number of languages spoken in the school. We recognise and celebrate what makes us unique and different, and acknowledge that we are also part of one community. Our aim is for everybody to feel valued and respected and we strive hard to ensure we create a positive culture within the school to enable this to happen.

Care, Guidance and Support

Successful learning takes place when students feel safe, confident, respected and valued, and are engaged. Goffs believes in supporting and nurturing all students in their quest to become successful learners. As such, we place a high value on pastoral care as an integral part of the life of the school.

We promote positive attitudes towards learning and provide a caring and supportive environment within our community. We were delighted to see Ofsted’s recent comments that “students’ behaviour and attitudes are outstanding” and that “students feel very safe, because bullying is extremely rare and they are very confident that any incidents that concern them will be dealt with swiftly and effectively.” Continuously nurturing, supporting and developing our students is hugely important to us and significant investment is made in the school’s pastoral structures, including our investing in dedicated Youth Workers for the school.

Goffs School Dog

GMAT has a school dog – a 5 year old cocker spaniel called Huxley.

Huxley belongs to the Chief Executive Officer and is based in her office at Goffs whenever she is on site. He spends time with students at break and lunchtime, undertakes the odd learning walk (ie romp), is available at the start of exams to help keep anxiety low, and also spends time in Learning + with our more needy students. Huxley has developed an obsession with pepperoni pizza, courtesy of his student partners in crime, and has also proved himself to be adept at playing Frisbee and football, although less adept at giving the Frisbee and football back….He is also available for staff cuddles as desired, and is very happy indeed to oblige, particularly if you’ll play with him. Staff who do not want any contact with Huxley of course do not have to have any. Full risk assessments and insurance are in place for Huxley.

Staff Development

Goffs has an extremely strong reputation for staff development both teaching and support staff. Developing the next generation of school leaders, both middle and senior, and future Headteachers for those who wish to pursue this, is a responsibility that we take very seriously.

We have a full suite of staff leadership development which staff can join be they an ECT or highly experienced colleague, whilst Alison Garner, Executive Principal of the Generations Trust, chairs the national Leadership Partner School network, a group that brings together schools dedicated to developing outstanding leadership skills throughout their communities, and which allows us to visit other network schools, to attend national conferences and to share best practice.

During our most recent inspection, the team described our whole staff CPD programme as “outstanding” and “the best they had seen”. In addition to innovative whole staff training days, we disaggregate a number of hours for training every year. This allows staff development to be highly personalised as staff can opt for the training which best meets their needs, including the opportunity to do a research project in partnership with Cambridge University. All staff complete peer observations to observe best practice, and use our Iris camera technology as part of evaluating and improving their own teaching. Many use their disaggregated time to coach others or to receive coaching. Moreover, there are specific training sessions for ECTs and other interested staff which run every Wednesday after school.

We also place a lot of emphasis on ‘on the job’ training and support. A thorough induction scheme is available to all new staff, and mentors/buddies are assigned to guide you through those new routines. Finally, external courses can of course be booked if, on very rare occasions, we cannot cater for a particular training need in house.

Leadership Development

Goffs Leadership Academy encompasses both staff and student leadership development through a series of student led groups and staff leadership pathways. The staff programme is made up of three levels of entry: Bronze, Silver and Gold:

• Bronze: Aspirant Strategic Leaders

• Silver: Leading Strategically from the Middle

• Gold: Aspirant Strategic Senior Leaders

All pathways are personalised for the individual and staff receive one to one support from a mentor alongside working on a whole school project. Both support staff and teaching staff are welcome to join the Leadership Academy at any point in their career.

A full suite of leadership training is offered with a range of sessions including:

• What makes a good leader?

• Leadership and staff motivation

• Leading and managing change

• Being a Lead Practitioner

• Strategic pastoral leadership – being a Director of Learning

• Strategic curriculum leadership – being a Head of Department

• Coaching and mentoring

• Using data in leadership

• Resilience in leadership

• How to make your applications stand out

In addition, we encourage aspirant Senior Leaders to take part in the SSAT ‘Stepping Up to Senior Leadership’ training programme, which includes four external sessions throughout the year. As part of the school’s commitment to develop future leaders, a number of the existing Senior Leadership Team gained experience through an ‘Associate’ SLT position before gaining substantive leadership posts.

Staff Benefits

Alongside our very strong focus on outstanding professional development and promotion opportunities, we also offer a range of benefits including:

Competitive base salary with a tailor made development plan aimed at enhancing your future [earnings] potential through:

• High quality, personalised CPD

• Bespoke leadership development programmes

• Subsidies for Masters and Degree courses

• Secondment and shadowing opportunities

• As part of our Multi Academy Trust, “Generations”, potential to work across more than one school to develop career enhancing skills and knowledge

• Supported Nursery provision with Ashbourne at any of their nurseries in the Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Bedfordshire area:

o 15% discount for all Trust staff.

o Term time only places are available

o A school day would be 9.00am – 3.00pm

o “Sundries” would be applied to a child taking up a funded only space (e.g. 30 hours funding only). This covers the cost of: meals, snacks, nursery resources and consumables

• Onsite car valeting at a reduced price for Trust staff

• Substantially discounted membership to Lifestyle Fitness’s state of the art purpose built gym, at Goffs Academy

Additional financial incentives and tax efficient benefits, including:

• Exam marker payment of £400 plus 2 days paid leave to do the marking (1st year)

• Payments for staff taking weekend sporting fixtures: staff paid £200 for leading a minimum of six Saturday fixtures plus 6 weekly training sessions

• A daily allowance of £50 for school trips taken over a weekend or any school holiday

• A £1,000 Employee Referral Scheme (i.e. finder’s fee) for any qualifying positions that you refer the successful candidate for: £500 on the person starting, and £500 if the person is still at the school 12 months later

Access to a wide range of health and well-being resources including:

• New, professional and fit for purpose £20million working environment

• Free use of gym

• Occupational Health & counselling support

• Free flu jabs

• Subsidised social events

• 100% attendance reward – day in lieu, taken at the school’s discretion

• Free tea, coffee and milk for staff