Goffs Academy Newsletter

I am pleased to be able to update you on another very successful half term. There is much to celebrate, which you will be able to read about below.

Firstly, we are delighted with our OFSTED outcome. If you are yet to see the report, I would strongly recommend you take a few minutes reading through it as it is a very glowing report about our school. There is much absolutely fantastic feedback about our school, the learning and teaching, and particularly how engaged, motivated and well-behaved our students are. The inspectors note that every student that they spoke with, without fail, was wholly positive about their school. We look forward to continuing to work on our areas for improvement - which we had already previously identified, to ensure that we continue to strive for excellence in every way. You can find the inspection report here.

In addition, this term has seen some great events and initiatives which you can read about below: the fantastic school play the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, our excellent Senior Citizens' Christmas event, winning the Mayor's debate, the Dance showcase, sporting successes and the set up of our Local Academy Body.

As the term draws to a close, we are sorry to be saying goodbye to a number of staff who have had to move on for various personal reasons: Mr Rogers in Science, Ms Ofoma in Maths and Mr Ram in Science. However, I am very pleased to add that a number of staff will be joining us from January: Ms Nicholson in Science, Mr Laya in Maths, Ms Michael in English and Mr McEgan in Science. Parents of students who will have a change of teacher will be contacted directly.

I hope that you have an excellent break and a peaceful Christmas time.

Ben Pearce

Principal

Alison Garner, Executive Principal

As we come to the end of the longest term of the year, we also mark the completion of a full term of operation for "Generations", our Multi Academy Trust. Much progress has been made over the term. All of the legalities regarding Goffs-Churchgate formally joining the Trust are complete and authorised by the Department for Education. Both Ben Pearce and Tom Sparks have seamlessly taken up their respective roles of Principal at both Goffs and Goffs-Churchgate, and continue to demonstrate the extremely high calibre of leadership that they demonstrated as Vice Principals.

Goffs-Churchgate is already very much established as a school in the exact model of Goffs; just on a smaller scale for those students who thrive best in a smaller environment. Both schools had highly successful Open Evenings during September. Initial figures suggest that, as always, we could fill Goffs almost three times over for the 240 places available, and I am also delighted to say that applications for a place at Goffs-Churchgate have exceeded our expectations for our first year of operation. Initial application figures for Year 7 for September 2018 indicate that both schools will be more than full, with a waiting list.

Goffs-Churchgate is thriving, with results for next summer's GCSE results expected to be far more in line with the expectations that we would have for Goffs results. The enthusiasm and commitment of the Goffs-Churchgate staff in rising to and embracing the many changes that have been in place is to their credit. I am very much enjoying working with them.

Staff at Goffs have also embraced the opportunities provided by the Trust and are enjoying working in close partnership with their colleagues at Goffs-Churchgate, sharing resources and ideas. The Trust is also providing staff with career progression opportunities. Liz Allum will move from Goffs to Goffs-Churchgate from 1st January 2018, to take up a position overseeing the Learning Support area. This is an area where Liz has significant skill and expertise and I was so pleased to be able to offer her this move whilst also retaining her many skills for the benefit of the Trust.

My weeks are split between each school, undertaking meetings, learning walks, and monitoring the progress being made against the objectives that we want each school to meet this academic year. In addition, Ian Denchfield and myself, in close partnership with Trustees (formerly Governors) continue to have a sharp eye on the planned growth and business development of the Trust. We hope during this year to be able to update you on plans for the Trust to offer nursery provision - in line with our vision to offer education from 0 - 19 years. We also continue to explore other growth opportunities. In addition, the very deliberate process of income generation for both school has been launched with great success by Kevin Yardley, our Director of Income Generation. I'm delighted to say that as a direct result of Kevin's vision and tireless work promoting the superb facilities at both schools, and just three months into his full time post, we already have over £270,000 of additional income confirmed for both schools over a full year period. This is just the start of our plans and represents a hugely important project for the Trust and our students given the seriously detrimental cuts to education funding.

I wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas break, and look forward to updating you on the progress of the Trust next term.

By Kevin White, Associate Assistant Principal

On Tuesday 5th December, Goffs Academy hosted our annual Christmas party for senior citizens in the local area. The evening was attended by over 80 senior citizens and carers from The Beaumont Centre, Emmanuel Lodge, Fourfields, Highgrove Court, The Friary Centre and Cliff Richard’s Court.

The evening was organised by the Sixth Form Top Team and Prefects along with staff in the Sixth Form team, and was a resounding success. A variety of entertainment was provided by a number of students from Year 7 through to Year 13, including the Goffs Singing Club, Goffs Dance Club and pianists.

The senior citizens were then treated to a traditional Christmas dinner and dessert cooked by the school’s restaurant staff (Cucina) which was served by the Sixth Form students.

After dinner, tea and coffee was served by the students and the senior citizens then enjoyed the raffle draw. Prizes included chocolate boxes, bottles of wine, gift sets and the main prize was Tea for Four at the De Vere Hotel, kindly donated by them.

The penultimate event was bingo with winning lines receiving a box of chocolate/biscuits and full house winning a bottle of Pimms. Finally the evening was finished off with some dancing to Christmas songs. At the end of the evening the senior citizens were sent home with a gift pack of gingerbread men cooked by the school’s Food Technology students.

Thank you to CHEXS for providing transport for some of the senior citizens, helping to finance the event and providing accessories. Thank you also to the De Vere Hotel for providing crockery and for donating the main raffle prize.

A big thank you to all of the staff and students involved in organising, setting up and supporting the event; from talking to the senior citizens, washing up, serving or providing entertainment. Particular thanks go to Maxine Padgham and Lisa Hardwick for their outstanding organisation of the event and many integral roles carried out on the evening.

The whole evening was an absolute joy to be part of and all the guests were very thankful as they left. Many comments of gratitude were shared from some of the senior citizens, including “this is the highlight of my Christmas”' and “this is the best party I have been to in years!”

We hope to run this event as successfully next year.

Congratulations to:

These students either achieved in the top 10% at UK Bebras Computing Challenge 2017 and/or were entered to compete in the Oxford Computing Challenge for 2017. This now makes them eligible for entry into the Oxford Computing Challenge 2018. The students above will compete in this prestigious competition in March 2018. Good luck.

This November, as part of Broxbourne Council’s World War One commemorative programme, a display of ceramic remembrance poppies was installed at the Cheshunt Old Pond roundabout over the Remembrance Day weekend.

Year 9 Motiv8 Art groups comprising of 36 students created 204 Poppies for the installation. Each student designed their own, following observational drawing of different Poppy species and maquette making.

On Friday 15th December, GAPA - Goffs Academy of Performing Arts- saw over 50 Goffs pupils participate in the whole school production of ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’. This production was special as we had students from year 7 up to year 13 acting, directing and running our technical and backstage teams. Due to this diverse cast and crew, the show was a genuine pleasure to rehearse for and organise, whilst the audience were wowed by some truly stand out performances.

Depicting what starts out as tempestuous sibling rivalries that later evolve into strong family bonds, Max Roper, Lewis Harrington, Jessica Ghenta and Ashlyn Harrington did an outstanding job as the Pensieve children, who become the eventual Queens and Kings of Narnia.

The audience were also amused and enthralled by the straight talking Beaver family, the monstrous White Witch and the mighty Aslan. All of our cast were engaging and captivating and the audience were impressed by the professionalism demonstrated by the cast.

Special mention must be made to Isabelle White our assistant director who directed many key scenes and even took on the role of ‘Mother’ when a cast member had to drop out. Further Thank-yous must also be made to Gabriella Ricotta, Tom Fitzsimmons, Connor Fitzgerald and Rebecca Finch, as this was their last show as Goffs students and they will be sorely missed.

Students are now in the middle of their Personal Investigations. Having chosen their own personal themes such as ‘Government Control’, 'Embellishment’, ‘Attract, Defend, Attack’ and ‘Fear’; students have been gathering research, drawing and developing in lots of exciting ways using exciting media and processes.

We will keep you informed of their work as it develops. Here are a couple of highlights.

Since we came back in August Goffs students have had two key successes that we are very proud of and we would like to share them with you!

Mayor’s Debate Success

On Wednesday 22nd November six team members from Goffs competed in the yearly Mayor’s Debate at the Broxbourne Council Offices from 6:30-8:30pm. This year the topic was whether litter and waste disposal problems in the area were the responsibility of the council or the individual.

Our team worked tirelessly over a course of six weeks, giving up two and half weeks of lunchtimes in the final throes of preparation, in order to polish and refine their performance for the evening. Their content and delivery was superb and both demonstrated the calibre of students we have here at Goffs as well as blowing the counsellors' and the Mayor’s socks off!

Their performance was truly inspirational and their hard work paid off as we were crowned winners of the Mayor’s Debate for the third year in a row!

We are incredibly proud of the following students for their dedication and achievement in this event and we look forward to next year’s debate:

The New LRC Layout and Lessons

Over the October/November half term break the LRC layout was redesigned and we had new shelving, tables and seating put in. This allowed the LRC to be more beneficial to all students, especially those in Year 7 and 8 who have their literacy lessons in this area on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

With these changes, the way the LRC lessons are running also changed. All LRC teachers now follow a new lesson style and this allows time for students to engage in their own reading book and their spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) workbook, as well as engaging with a nineteenth century text (Alice in Wonderland or The Jungle Book).

The workbooks allow students to test, practice and build their spelling, punctuation and grammar skills which are used to prepare them for their English GCSEs that now have a 20% SPaG weighting.

The LRC looks great and the changes to these lessons have been really positively received by students. Below are some images that capture our students working within the new LRC environment.

The Year 7 football team played the 4th round of the National Schools Cup in a short away trip to Leventhorpe. The boys went into this game unbeaten from the last 3 rounds and brimming with confidence after scoring 16 goals and only conceding two. However the boys knew that this would be a much harder game now going into the 4th round and would need to be at their best to progress. The conditions were tough with the wind being very strong and the uneven pitch not helping the Goffs style of play. The boys started slowly, having to ride the early pressure from the opposing team. George Hilder made two tremendous saves to keep us in the tie early on. The boys then started to grow into the game and some smart football between Riley Warmerdam and Hayden Gray led to Mason Rolfe running through on goal to make it 1-0. The boys didn't look back from this moment which led to the best goal of the game with Reef flying down the left hand side, switching the ball over to the right hand side to Kaya Hansson-Ramis, who whipped in a glorious ball for Jake Simson to head home. Minutes later Jake Simson added a 3rd goal and his second of the game with a neat finish around the keeper. As the first half ended the boys were comfortable with their 3 goal lead and they then took this confidence into the second half where they dominated the game and should have scored more goals. They only managed the one which came through the talented Kaya Hansson-Ramis with a smart finish over the top of the keeper. The boys are now into the 5th round of the National cup which is a great achievement and will do their best to progress through to the next round.

On Wednesday the 13th December the Year 9 BTEC class put on a dance showcase along with selected students from year 7 & 8.

The eight year 9 girls were asked to choreograph a 10 minute performance based on the stimulus ‘time changes everything’ and they came up with a theme of a friendship group falling out. The dance piece showed a group of friends falling out and their journey of making up. They actually went on to create a whole 1 hour dance show with the help of other students and the standard was amazing.

Miss Ball & Miss Fleet are unbelievably proud of the girls and what they have achieved. They made all of the posters, tickets, music and it was all finished to such a professional standard that the girls should be so happy with what they created.

Well done to everyone that performed in the dance show, especially to the year 9 BTEC class: Eve Perkins, Scarlett Thorn, Amaya Doolan, Nicole Aravis, Kate Davies, Eva Minden-Parker, Emily Panayiotou and Millie Rudd.

A big thank you to these other students for getting involved too:

• Sam Edwards – Lighting
  
• Sophia Warder & Lauren Gray – Sound
  
• Ella Warmerdam & Beth Sizer – Photography
  

By Mr Pearce, Principal

I am pleased to introduce you to the members of our new Goffs Local Academy Body (LAB). Meeting termly, one of the main goals, in support of our Leadership Team, of the LAB is to offer independent insights across a range of areas affecting the day to day operation and future of the Academy. A key focus during the early stage of the LAB's development will be stakeholder engagement to ensure the broad views of the Goffs Community are represented. As a result of the nomination process at the end of the Summer 2017 term, the LAB membership comprises the following Trustees and volunteers:

Martin Jackson: has been a Governor at Goffs Academy for over 4 years and in addition to his role on the Trustee Board is Chair of the Generations MAT Pastoral Committee and the Goffs Local Academy Body. Martin has a background in Human Resources and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. As a parent with two children attending Goffs, Martin is keen to ensure the highest standards of discipline, safety and well-being and that each student has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Lisa Clowes: is a newly appointed Trustee on the Generations MAT Board. Lisa has a background of Retail and Human Resources and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Lisa's experience is in workforce analysis and the different generations, looking at ways of working to build an agile and adaptable workforce. Lisa currently has one child at Goffs and is looking forward to sharing her learnings and experience with the team, ensuring the Academy continues to drive forward the standards of education and creates future leaders by enabling every child the opportunity to have a promising future.

Imran Safdar: holds an MBA and a degree in Electronics Engineering. Imran’s background is working for Siemens and IBM in Sales, Marketing and Client Relationship roles having also worked with large as well as SME industry groups, including launching a program for SMEs to help employees get involved in charity work. Imran is a member of the CMI (Chartered Management Institute) and AMBA (Association on MBAs). Imran has two children at Goffs and is motivated to work with the other team members in supporting Goffs realise the best potential of its students.

Maria Bavetta: has worked across all sectors and finds most satisfaction working with communities from town centre regeneration to mental health service improvements. Maria is currently working on a Comic Relief project where there are clear parallels and learning that can be brought into the education sector. As a parent of two children (one currently at Goffs), Maria is delighted to be working in a team to help support further improvements for all Goffs stakeholders including students, all staff and parents.

Savvas Efthimiou: has a background predominately in the IT industry within the financial sector and is also the Chairperson for the Parent Committee of the Greek School operating out of Goffs Academy building on Saturdays. As a member of the Goffs LAB and with one child attending the Academy, Savvas relishes the opportunity to work with staff and contribute to raising performance and helping ensure our students achieve their potential both academically and creatively.

I hope that you all have an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas period.

A mixed 11-18 comprehensive Academy with approximately 1300 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.

Email: admin@goffs.herts.sch.uk
Website: http://www.goffs.herts.sch.uk
Location: Goffs Academy, Goff's Lane, Cheshunt, United Kingdom
Phone: 01992 424200
Twitter: @GoffsAcademy