Goffs Academy Newsletter

Once again, half-term has come around at frightening speed. I am reliably informed by others that, sadly, that is a by-product of getting old. Enough said.

Both schools have had incredibly busy first half-terms, and both continue to celebrate the incredibly successful results that they delivered for their students in the summer. The DfE is about to publish the draft Progress data for the 2019 GCSE and A Level results; when you see it, you will, I hope, be as proud as we are. Our Trust continues to deliver great success for the students in our care. Whilst the data and national comparisons are important, what is most important to us is that our students are able to progress to their chosen next steps, be that after GCSEs or A Levels. We are delighted that all of our students were able to make their desired progression this year.

Mark Ellis and Tom Sparks have written to you this week, outlining the Trust's first steps on addressing single use plastics in both schools. No doubt there will be some teething problems as we move over to the new system, but we are all convinced that this is the right thing to do, and are very much focused on solutions not problems. I look forward to working with students on what they would like to tackle next as they continue to drive forward their environmental agenda. I am grateful to Chartwells who have engaged with us in a very proactive way on this piece of work, and who have been incredibly "can do" in their approach to something that, for them, has raised many operational issues.

It has, as you know, been our hope to establish nursery provision within the Trust for some time. Finding the right partner has proved to be more challenging than we expected. However, if things progress as they are currently, I hope to be able to tell you prior to Christmas about our partnership with an exciting provider. If successful, the partnership will offer discounted nursery rates for Trust staff, whilst also offering a very high standard of provision for local families. I will update you once/if the partnership is confirmed.

I hope that everyone has a good half-term break.

Alison J Garner

Executive Principal

Dear Parents/Carers and Students,

Welcome to the October 2019 edition of our newsletter. As you will see as you read on, our students have been busy! I never cease to be impressed by the eclectic mix of activities Goffs students are involved in, both in and out of school.

I will highlight a couple of significant events from recent weeks. On 19th September, we held our annual Secondary Transfer Evening, for prospective parents and students to visit the school. We had over 1,200 visitors on the night, who were well assisted by our student guides. Many parents sought me out on the evening to say how impressed they were by their student guides, and to comment on how our students are visibly proud to be part of the Goffs community. Particular thanks must go to our new Year 7 students, and those Year 12 students who have joined Goffs from other schools, who led guided tours despite only having been at Goffs themselves for two weeks! As I said in my speech on the evening, the school is what it is because of the people in it, and our students continue to be our very best ambassadors.

On a very different note, I spoke to all students and staff last week to inform them of the tragic news that Laura Connolly, who taught Geography at Goffs for many years, very sadly passed away recently. I would like to thank all parents and students for their expressions of kindness and sympathy. Our thoughts are with Laura’s family at this very difficult time. The respectful and supportive way in which students, in particular, have responded, is a mark of the strength of our community. In time, I will speak to students about plans for a memorial within school.

I wish you all an enjoyable, restful and refreshing break over the half-term, and look forward to seeing all students on our return on Monday 4th November.

Regards,

Mark Ellis

Principal

The house team have had an extremely successful first half term. It has been very exciting to see more members of our community wanting to getting involved. In ATM sessions, students voted from a choice of four charities, and I am pleased to inform you that we are going to be supporting CLIC Sargent this year.

CLIC Sargent is the UK's leading cancer charity for children, young people and their families, and fight tirelessly to stop cancer destroying young lives. I hope you agree that this charity is an extremely worthy cause to donate to. There will be plenty of exciting opportunities to raise money for our charity this year and, hopefully, we will see the big difference our fundraising will make.

I also want to say thank you for your support with the Harvest Food Collection. Students and staff donated a phenomenal amount of food, with 768 items donated in total to Broxbourne food bank. The Houses battled it out to collect the most items and to receive the top place, gaining the 10,000 House point prize.

• In 4th place, collecting 117 items, was Hawk House;

• In 3rd place, collecting 142 items, was Eagle House;
• In 2nd place, collecting a whopping 237 items, was Falcon House;
• Therefore, in 1st place for the second year running was Phoenix House, collecting an astounding 272 items.

All Houses will be rewarded with House points. However, Phoenix have won the 10,000 House points for coming first. Thank you to everyone who donated!

House Captain interviews took place on Monday 23rd September, with a strong field of applicants, who had some exciting and innovative ideas for fundraising and school-based competitions. The new captains for this academic year are below. Sixth Form Heads of House will be announced after half term.

Students selected to work with CLIC Sargent

Charity representative –Charlotte Williams
Charity representative – Josie Lewis

Phoenix

Riley Skillet – House Captain
Marianna Theodorou – House Captain
Fatma Guven – Deputy house Captain

Eagle

Meryem Tutuman – House Captain
Aleksandra Koldena – House Captain
Jessica Buburuzan - Deputy House Captain
Victoria Townsend – Deputy House Captain

Hawk
Caitlin O’Brien – House Captain
Lexi Ambrose - House Captain
Jessica Jones – Deputy House Captain
Ruby Mozdzen – Deputy House Captain

Falcon
Livvie Simson – House Captain
Jess Marlow – House Captain
Mollie Smith – Deputy House Captain
Sharon Hood – Deputy House Captain

Ashlee Willett in Year 9 has positively represented the school this half term, completing an impressive sponsored swim. It was fantastic to see that Ashlee had chosen to raise money for Essex and Herts Air Ambulance (EHAA), our chosen charity last year.

EHAA wrote on their website:

“Ashlee Willett is a pupil at Goffs Academy, who last year chose Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) as Charity of the Year. After the year of fundraising came to an end she wanted to keep supporting EHAAT and so decided to take part in the Swim Serpentine. She doubled her fundraising target, and has so far raised £330.42, with more due in. Thank you for your support, we can’t fly without you!”

The last week of this half-term has been a 'spooktacular' affair with the Year 7 Halloween Disco, which was a night full of tricks and treats. The students who were brave enough, took on the Haunted Walk, and the majority of them left running out the other end screaming in fright! The costumes were some of the best yet and it was evident the students had gone to a lot of effort.

Winners of Costume Competition

Runner up - Albert Bickerton

Runner up - Alexia Guacci-Bristow

Runner up - Ellie Mae Scola

Winners - Molly Bartup and Tululah Barnes-Smith

'Guess the name of the Pumpkins' Competition

Neve Littlefair, Robert Daniels, Daniel Williams, Lakshya Chowdhary

'Guess how many sweets in the jar' Competition

Helin Koyupinar

Ellie Myers

Director of the House System

The Lower Participation Neighbourhood (LPN) Summer School at Cambridge University was an incredible opportunity for me to develop as a scholar and future university student. The purpose of the Summer School was to encourage students from lower participation areas to apply to Cambridge University and other leading universities. The application process was highly competitive, with 130 spaces available for the 450 applicants. The Summer School offered a variety of courses, with many of the friends I made there doing either Maths or Bio-Chemistry. They also offered History and English. I myself was taking the Law course, where I attended 3 academic sessions, each lasting an hour and a half, led by Cambridge Law professors and current PhD students. Each lecture covered a different aspect of Law; one session focused on criminal law, another on tort law (which is both incredibly finicky and fun) and the final on contract law which, surprisingly, was by far the most interesting and quite comical at times due to the absurdity of certain laws. Overall, the Cambridge Summer School was genuinely one of the best experiences I have had during my time at Goffs - the people I met there were amazing, the lectures were interesting and truly gave an insight into how university courses are taught and there were lots of opportunities to ask questions of either staff at the college or students themselves, allowing us to learn a lot about Cambridge itself. Cambridge now seems less of a daunting prospect and one that I have set my sights on for the future!

Owen Moss

Year 12 student

Selected Year 7 students were invited to take part in a summer school in July. This was a fantastic opportunity for our new Year 7 students to get to know each other through fun team activities. Students were taken to Edge Outdoor activity centre and took part in archery, the high ropes course and zip wire, as well as other fun games. Students also took part in a team-building and fitness coaching afternoon, and participated in a drama workshop with Stagecoach.

We ended the week with a talent competition, and many rewards and vouchers were given to the students for their positive contribution and energy at summer school.

Well done to all of our enthusiastic students who got involved and made the summer school a very enjoyable week.

Kelly McBride
Director of Learning - Year 7

Nervous, worried, scared - these are the words I would have used to describe my feelings before I started at Goffs. Now, nearly finishing my first half-term, I realise there was no need to fret. As soon as I walked through the doors, I felt very welcomed as I could see lots of smiley faces gazing at me. At first, the size of the school can be very daunting, but soon enough I found my way around. I found it easier than I thought I would. Within a week, I knew my way around the school like the back of my hand! After the first day, I couldn't wait to go back to school to see all of my new friends and learn many more exciting things.

Since starting the school, my favourite lessons are P.E and drama. I have joined lots of after- school clubs such as dance, football, netball and, after Christmas, I will hopefully be starting drama club. Also, on Tuesdays and Fridays after school, I stay and do homework club with my friends in the library. I think it’s a good idea because there is nothing to distract me like mobile phones or my dog. The teachers and coaches who teach the clubs are kind and caring. They support us and help us advance with the activities we are doing.

Starting clubs at Goffs is not the only new thing to me; I have also joined the House team. Every Wednesday, at lunch time, we meet up and discuss ideas to make the school a better place. I have recently been given the responsibility to be Deputy House Captain. With this comes a lot of responsibility, sharing ideas and listening to other people’s ideas and putting them into action.

So far my time at Goffs has been jam-packed, fun-filled and exciting, but that's only my first half term. I can’t wait for many more life changing terms like this one.

Ruby Mozdzen

Year 7 student

My first week at Goffs was a new experience for me but a great one. I settled in 'like a glove' and I made lots of new friends very quickly. I was a little bit nervous at the start but my teachers and new class friends helped me to settle in. We have a great rewards system and I have loved receiving reward points for excellent work. The older students are also very helpful as they helped me to find my way around when I got lost. My favourite part of Goffs is that I don’t have the same teacher for every lesson. We have lots of teachers who are strict but also very funny, kind and caring. Goffs has already been better than primary school because of all different lessons we have on our timetable and we have such great facilities like the fitness suite, astroturf and music rooms with a great variety of instruments.

Luca O'Hara

Year 7 student

I would like to congratulate all Year 7 students for making a very positive start at Goffs Academy. The enthusiasm of the students has been tremendous and is something that I expect to continue throughout the year.

Well done to all students who worked extremely hard over the summer break to complete their summer transition projects. It was clear to see that a considerable amount of time and effort went into their work.

The summer projects give the students a fantastic opportunity to start thinking about some of the work that they will be doing when they start at Goffs. The work is linked to the topics and skills that the students will be exploring during their first term.

It was an extremely hard decision to make when judging the projects, as they were of a very high standard. Our Year 7 2019 transition project winners are:

Daniel Williams

Alexia Bristow-Guacci

Serena Vaccaro

Amelia Kowalewska

Neve Littlefair

Lila Keene

Emily Savva

Meliz Ormandji

Sasha Ball

These students have been awarded with a £20 voucher and they were also invited to have lunch with Mr Ellis on Tuesday 9th October, to show off their fantastic work. Students were provided with refreshments and were awarded with certificates and House points for their outstanding projects, some examples of which you can see pictured below.

Kelly McBride

Director of Learning- Year 7

This year, as part of our Curriculum Enrichment activities, we introduced a team building day for Year 7. This took place on Tuesday 12th September, and the aim was for students to get to know each other better, having joined Goffs from a range of primary schools. As you will be able to see from the images, the students had a fantastic time. Their comments below sum up their experiences of the day. Given the success, we are looking to make the Year 7 team-building day an annual event, each September.

We took part in a number of team-building activities, including: moving a hoop around in a circle without letting go of each other; tying your team in knots and untying them without letting go; making a tower over 60cm tall out of shoes; and arranging you and your team in different height orders. Whoever completed the challenges the quickest won a crystal and, at the end, the form with the most crystals would be victorious.

George Styles, 7E

The Team Building Day was really fun. My group came first in most of the challenges because we were very quick when it came to finding out about each other. We did three more challenges and at the end of the day we found out who won. My form came 3rd with 15 points, 6 behind the winners. Even though we didn’t win, it was still a great day.

Jasper Skillett, 7A

There was a tricky activity where we had to hold hands in a circle to try and get a hula-hoop around us without letting go. My team won twice so we got two crystals. Our last activity was the best as we had to get in order of our ages and birthdays. My form won 18 crystals but we came second just behind 7Q with 19!

Lily Barber, 7E

The activities really helped with our bonding and we started to talk and have fun together. We were quite shy before the team building, but now we know each other quite well. If we didn’t do this, I don’t think we would be as close as we are. It was very exciting and I am thankful that our school provided this opportunity for us to bond. I couldn’t have enjoyed it more!

Nicole Večere, 7T

Friday 28th September, saw the Super Speaker lecture by Andrew Clarke, our Chair of Trustees, on becoming a Judge. One of the most interesting and educational subjects of his speech was how to spot a liar. We found this very useful as we would like to work in Law one day, and would both like to be barristers when we're older.

We found the speech very factual and engaging, and Mr Clarke stated the journey to be a judge, what subjects are useful to study for Law, and interesting things he's seen in court. Overall we learnt how argumentative and confident you'd have to be in your findings to fight a case. The speech really helped us understand these things and we are really glad we attended it.

Eryn Delieu (8A) and Brooke Davis (8E)

Student work was showcased in the main hall from Art, Photography, Product Design, Food, Textiles and Media.

As always, it was a fantastic exhibition showcasing the best work across Years 11, 12 and 13.

The next show will be in July 2020. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

On Thursday, 3rd October 2019, the Art Department took 17 members of Year 10 GCSE Art students to the Victoria and Albert Museum, in South Kensington.

The purpose of the trip was to gather research for their independent projects. Some members visited the Fashion rooms, whilst the rest spent time in the Ceramics rooms.

During this time they photographed and recorded pieces using drawing. Students will be using these to develop part of their projects further.

Tiff Brown

Head of Art & Photography

During London Design Week, the Year 12 and 13 Product Design students visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Serpentine Pavilion and the Design Museum. Along with undertaking much research and investigation to support their future projects, they took part in an augmented reality exhibit.

Melanie Fusco

Head of Design & Technology

Year 7 Boys

The Year 7 boys football team won their first competitive fixture 6-0 at home against Hertswood Academy. The game was extremely close for the first 20 minutes until an excellent passage of play down the right hand side enabled Lenny Brown to score from just inside the 6 yard area. The boys will now play against St Clement Danes or Tring in the third round of the County Cup.

Three boys from our Year 7 Football team, Liam Maunders, Freddie Norman and Ata Tanak, were also recognised for their great ability and attitude and have been selected for the Year 7 District team.

Year 8 Boys

After losing 4-2 to Monks Walk in the third round of the National Cup last year, the boys were keen to make amends and did so by sheer hard work and determination. The game was immediately end-to-end with both schools creating a number of chances. However, neither could break the deadlock to find an opener. Just before half time, Thomas Whitworth opened up the scoring by an excellent solo run. Goffs went on to win the game 4-2 to go into the next round of the County Cup.

Jude Bell

Teacher of Physical Education

Year 9 District Football

We are very lucky to have such a talented year group and this has been demonstrated by no less than 9 students selected for the District Representative side of Lea Valley. The side are undefeated having beaten Dacorum, Watford and Mid Herts with only St Albans District left to play. The students involved are Anwar Moutawafiq, Reef Cole, Haydn Gray, Kaya Hansson, Riley Warmerdam, Ediz Ibrahim, Lemachi Nwanna Skeet, Tommy Patrick O’Brien and Alfie Smith. Well done to all.

Richard Ashdown

Head of Physical Education

Netball this year has got off to a positive start with over 50 girls attending netball club. We are really pleased with the number of Year 7 girls who have attended and we have enough numbers for our 3 new teams: Panthers, Jaguars and Cheetahs. All teams have made an excellent, determined start at training and demonstrate excellent team spirit, which identifies our focus on sportsmanship with Year 7 this year.

So far the Year 7 Panthers and Jaguars played against Chauncy. The Panthers worked hard and well as a team, considering it was their first game and they narrowly lost 11-7. Even though they lost, the team showed great potential and are excited for their upcoming games. The Jaguars team won 4-0 against Chauncy and, for their first game, they have already established a team connection as their encouragement towards each other was outstanding.

Players nominated for players' player and coaches' player were:

Leila Abid, Jessica Taylor, Emily Edgecombe and Hannah Danso.

Lynsey Hague

2nd I/C of Physical Education

A mixed 11-18 comprehensive Academy with approximately 1450 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: goffs.herts.sch.uk
Location: Goffs Academy, Goff's Lane, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross, UK
Phone: 01992424200