Goffs Academy Newsletter

So, we have come to the end of a very busy but highly successful year. There have been a huge number of amazing events and activities, and very, very many student successes. We have taken Year 11, 12 and 13 students through almost 40 new specifications; a daunting task, but one taken on very positively by our phenomenal teaching staff. The vast majority of students have left their exams feeling really positive, and we look forward to an excellent set of outcomes over the summer. We have seen the induction of our upcoming Year 7s and Year 12s, both which were really positive events, and we look forward to welcoming those students into our community next year. I am confident that, going into next year, the school will continue to go from strength-to-strength.

I wish you all a fantastic and restful summer; please do stay safe, and I look forward to seeing you all again in September.

Ben Pearce

Principal

As the end of our first year as a Multi Academy Trust draws near, our community can look back on a very successful year. Goffs has had a hugely successful Ofsted inspection, with demand for places continuing to exceed anywhere near what we can offer. As one example of many, we look likely to take our highest number of external applicants into the Sixth Form at the end of August. Staff continue to work tirelessly for the benefit of the students in their care, both pastorally and academically, and it is always uplifting to hear so many students speaking about their school with such pride.

Launching an entirely new school in Goffs-Churchgate was a first for everyone involved, and we were deliberately cautious in our expectations as to how the first year would go. However, the successes of the year have exceeded our wildest expectations, with a very strong reputation in the community already established, and next year's Year 7 fully subscribed; we had expected around 90 students to come into that year group, but instead are at almost 120. Whilst we always knew that Goffs-Churchgate would offer children of the area an identical educational experience to Goffs, just on a deliberately smaller scale, we were also aware that it can take years to overcome the reputation of a predecessor school. So to see such success in year 1 is a particular joy.

Many people have been involved in this work to date right across the Trust. I do want to single out for thanks the staff and students. Staff at Goffs-Churchgate have responded with such professionalism and commitment to every challenge placed in-front of them as part of the change, whilst the significant majority of students have embraced increased rigour in work and behaviour expectations. As we expected, some students have found that the standards expected of the school are not for them and have chosen to move on, which was the right decision for them. Whilst we only had just over eight months to catch Year 11 up in the many areas where they needed to make up ground, the majority worked incredibly hard to do so and I am confident that their results in the summer will be far better than they would have been otherwise.

In line with how statutory teacher resignation dates work, July is always the time when every school will say goodbye to staff, and our schools are no exception to this for reasons including promotion, relocation, and maternity leave. We continue to be very fortunate as a Trust in having staff actively seek out employment with us, and I am pleased to say that very strong appointments for next year have been made in both schools.

Thanks to the outstanding financial and income generation work led by Ian Denchfield (Chief Financial Officer) and Kevin Yardley (Director of Income Generation), the Trust's finances remain secure. However, the picture remains an exceptionally difficult one, with challenging and upsetting decisions needing to be made in order to keep the books balanced. The system urgently needs more money in it, and I am grateful to every parent who has taken the time to lobby their MP on this. It is essential that we maintain this pressure.

I am hopeful that the Trust will grow further next year, with more schools who share our drive for delivering the best possible outcomes through mutually collaborative work, coming to join the group. I therefore very much hope to be able to update you on this during next year. In the interim, I thank everyone associated with the Trust in whatever way for their support and commitment, and wish everyone a good summer break.

Alison J Garner

Executive Principal

Generations Multi Academy Trust

Over the last 12 months, the House system has gone from strength to strength, and has seen more House points awarded, more events held and more money raised than ever before! Our school community has really come together and participated in quizzes, fetes, discos, non-uniform days and charity collections, making positive contributions to our local community as well as several charities, including our charity of choice this year – Macmillan. An astounding £10,000 has been donated to charity this year through House events, superseding our £8,000 target by a mile!

The House team have had a particularly busy summer term, assisting with the Creative Community Showcase, where Art, Textiles, Media and Food, to name a few, exhibited some of our best KS4 and KS5 pieces. At Sports Day, the House Captains sold drinks and refreshments to fundraise for Macmillan, and also enjoyed an afternoon of fun on their reward trip to Jump City.

As ever, the different Houses have been competing all year to collect House Points in order to lift the prestigious House Trophy. It is with great pleasure that I can announce this year's House Trophy winner is EAGLE House!

1)Eagles

2)Falcon

3)Phoenix

4)Hawk

The House team would like to thank everyone for their continued support this year and look forward to even more success next year.

Laura Huseyin

Director of House System

After another year of extremely resilient competition at this annual event, our winner is Aleksandra Kolenda in Year 7. Aleksandra performed phenomenally on the day and presented a speech that was memorised off by heart, performed with passion, and projected a strong and fair argument; congratulations Alexsandra!

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the following students for coming first, second or third in their category:

Category One- Year 9 and Year 10

1st Place- Alicia Hall (Year 10)

2nd Place- Abi Budd (Year 10)

3rd Place- Ash Lee (Year 10)

Category Two- Year 7 and Year 8

1st Place- Aleksandra Kolenda (Year 7)

2nd Place- Leah Meek (Year 8)

3rd Place- Jessica Blake (Year 8)

Huge congratulations must also be given to those others who competed in the finals, for both taking the time to prepare for the event, and for their unyielding courage and determination during their performances:

Rhys Dell

Rojin Adin

Ashlyn Harrington

Livvie Simson

Congratulations to everyone involved, and here’s to another outstanding event in 2019.

Have a great summer!

Miss Everist

English Teacher

Whole-School Literacy Coordinator

On another gorgeous evening this summer, the Year 8 Cricket team travelled to Leventhorpe School to contest their District semi final.

Harry Tilley was the captain and lost the toss, with Leventhorpe choosing to field first. Jake Simson (Year 7) opened the batting in a confident manner, along with Harry who was Captain for the first time. Jake and Harry saw off the opening spell of the bowlers well, getting to 50 runs as a partnership, albeit some awarded as extras.

Both Jake and Harry fell in quite quick succession meaning, Morgan Jackson (Year 7) and Jack Coppola came in to carry on our good start. Morgan batted extremely well and both Jack (12) and Morgan (11 not out) played some great shots with both scoring boundaries. Unfortunately, with the overs dwindling, the boys were trying to add to the score and Jack was run out. We ended up on 98 for 4 which is one of our best scores to date.

A rousing team talk about staying tight in the field and not giving away silly runs was given by Mr Ashdown, and Harry set up his field ready for the Leventhorpe’s openers. Harry and Jack opened the bowling and were both rewarded with wickets in their first overs. Wickets continued to fall, but with the Leventhorpe run rate ticking along nicely, it was all about applying more pressure to stop the singles. Nyan Patel and Leo Holland (Year 7) continued the bowling, restricting the extras and bowling tight lines. Ronnie Rouse (Year 7) and Riley Skillett also bowled well, both gaining wickets. However, as we went into the last three overs (18 balls), Leventhorpe required14 runs to win and we knew it would be very close. Ronnie bowled a good over obtaining a wicket but was hit for 4 and bowled a wide, leaving Jack only 8 runs to play with in the penultimate over. Jack bowled three dot balls but unfortunately with Leventhorpe swinging at everything, he went for a further 6 runs, leaving Levnethorpe requiring just 2 runs off Harry’s over to win the game.

When I look back on my teaching career, I will remember how I felt during that final over. My heart rate was going ten to the dozen, and I wasn’t even playing. Nor did I have the ball in my hand knowing that my over was going to determine the outcome of this game. Harry had nerves of steel and bowled his first four balls gaining two wickets and no runs for Leventhorpe to speak of. Their batsman managed to nudge a single off the penultimate ball, meaning the scores were tied. Any mistake in the field, a wide ball from Harry or any kind of bat on ball would result in the single run that Leventhorpe needed for victory. Harry bowled a classic yorker, dislodging the bails and leaving both myself and the teacher from Leventhorpe frantically checking the rule book to find out what this meant with regards to who progressed. The rules stated that the team with the most wickets progressed and having obtained 8 wickets to Leventhorpe’s 4, we went through to the final against Chauncy School!

It was a great effort from all involved. In a team game, it is about winning as a team and losing as a team, but it would be unfair of me not to mention the unbelievable effort from Harry Tilley to win the game at the death. To bowl so consistently and to deliver when it mattered the most, shows a mental toughness beyond his tender years.

Richard Ashdown

Head of PE

On 11th to 13th July, we were delighted to display the fantastic pieces created by many of our talented students over the course of the year. Parents, students, staff and external visitors were free to circulate the exhibition and were hugely impressed with the quality of the work. We will show you more of the pieces in detail in our next newsletter, but the photo below will give you a flavour of the exhibition.

Thank you to all staff and students involved in setting up the exhibition, and in particular to Miss Crichton, Mrs Sapsford and Mrs Southey who created a wonderful array of sweet and savoury canapés.

Two of our most able Year 11 students, Antonio Constantinou and Mitch Massiah, have been accepted to attend a 3 day summer school at Christ’s, Sidney Sussex and Murray Edwards College Summer School in August 2018. Competition for places was fierce, with 650 applicants across the country for 100 places. Mitch and Antonio will attend undergraduate lectures, participate in research workshops and have the opportunity to be mentored by current Cambridge students in their chosen fields of interest (Maths and Physics). This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to gain an insight into life at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and one which will open many doors to them as they prepare themselves for Sixth Form and life after Goffs.

The opportunity was open to all Year 11 students at Goffs and a total of 10 students applied for a place – well done to all who put themselves forward, and particularly to Mitch and Antonio for being so successful!

Cheryl Poag

Associate Assistant Principal

On Thursday 7th and Friday 8th June, 77 students from Goffs Academy took part in the annual Dance Show. This year, the theme was ‘Goffs Tours America’, which saw the talented students dance and sing to well-known American artists and conductors. The show was packed with a variety of dance styles including street, tap, modern, ballet, contemporary and jazz. The show was extremely successful as students smiled their way through all of their numbers and danced with such enthusiasm! This was all down to the students’ hard work in rehearsals throughout the year. The students attended Dance Club every week and even gave up many of their lunchtimes and time in Half Term to recap their choreography! On the show night, refreshments and raffle tickets were sold to raise money for charity. This year’s chosen charity was Blood Wise, a charity that helps fund research for blood cancer. Thank you to anybody that donated towards this charity, it is greatly appreciated.

A massive well done and thank you to the following students who have been involved in choreographing and leading Dance Club alongside Miss Ball:

Megan Hall (year 13)

Jodie Mateides (Year 13)

Taylor Middleton (Year 9)

Grace Hagan (Year 10)

Alicia Hall (Year 10)

Below are some comments from some of the students who took part in the dance show:

“I really enjoyed the dance show this year because of how much effort and support everyone put into it. Every week we all had rehearsals to learn new, quite tricky choreography to make the show better than ever. Everyone was very professional and excited for the show and with the makeup, costumes music and lights, we all made 'one hell of a show!'”

Charlie Clowes – Year 7

“I have been in every dance show since Year 7 and this was the BEST one yet! I enjoy performing to my friends and family as dance is one of my hobbies. Grace’s favourite number was Crazy. This was because I enjoyed the style and got to show off my own choreography skills. Lucy’s favourite was Cell Block Tango. This is because the dance told a story and I got a chance to act as well as dance in the number.”

Grace and Lucy – Year 10

Well done again to all of the performers. You all did exceptionally well and made both Goffs and the audience proud. I am so pleased that we have such talented students at this school who can showcase their amazing capabilities. I look forward to seeing the next dance show!

Many thanks

Miss Ball

Second in PE

This year Technology students have been asking clothing retailers ‘who made my clothes?’

Mrs Abazi has chosen a variety of student postcards and sent them to major brands- see below.

The sportswear brand Ellesse has written to Ela Cakiroglu (year 7) with some excellent information about how their clothes are made, and has very kindly gifted her a baseball cap and waist-pack bum bag! Thank you very much Ellesse.

Mrs Abazi

Head of Fashion

On Thursday 28th June despite there being a 'low profile' England match on (we lost anyway!) - GAPA had their Summer Showcase performance in G08. To a lively audience, students from Year 7 and 8 performed short scene extracts from plays such as 'Blood Brothers', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and original devised pieces the students had created themselves. GAPA is all about the students building their blossoming talent and having opportunities to have fun, whilst preparing for and performing on stage. The showcase really showed these attributes in abundance.

The evening was certainly entertaining and well worth missing the match for... Our homegrown talent was MUCH better.

Miss Holland and Miss Myers

Drama Department

The 2017/18 academic year has seen many different students across all year groups have success in several sports, either individually and as part of a team. As a PE department we are immensely proud of all the success our students have had, this year and it just shows how dedicated they are to succeed by attending regular training sessions and competing throughout the academic year.

In Year 7 we had some key students who stood out this year. Caitlin Saunders did exceptionally well to represent Team GB for Gymnastics, which is a great achievement. Riley Warmerdam represented Barnet FC throughout the whole season and captained the Year 7 Football Team brilliantly. Much like Riley, Mason Rolfe contributed fantastically well to Year 7 Football Team by transferring his experiences from playing for Stevenage FC, where he has had a great season. Anwar Moutawariq, who again played a vital part within the Football Team, was picked for a trial with Barnet FC, which again is credit to how hard he has worked throughout the year. Finally, Hayden Gray had a great season representing West Ham, which involved many football tours to different countries and he contributed very well to the year 7 Football Team.

In Year 8 we had three students who really stood out. Ronnie Ortega Bohlin did extremely well to reach the Taekwondo national finals where he just missed out on gaining a medal. Both Andy Aguilar and Liam Warder were both picked up to represent the Football County side and helped contribute to the team’s season.

In Year 9 we had several girls who had great success in Football. Paige Pryor, Sofia Santangelo and Billie Grayston went on to the win the Under 14 County League and cup double in their first main season together. This is a huge success for the girls who have showed a great desire to work hard throughout the season. Furthermore, Paige and Sofia went on to win the FA Peoples Cup for their age group, which again is another fantastic achievement. Two more girls who had great success this year are Mia Andrews and Abby Hockney who reached the Netball National finals but unfortunately lost in a tight well contested final, still a wonderful achievement!

In Year 10 we had some excellent success in Football from both our boys and our girls. James Green, Harvey Marks and Robin Attard were all selected to represent the County team and were very successful within their teams. Harley Grayston has been selected to represent England in the World Cup of Dance, which is a fantastic achievement as she has worked extremely hard to get to this stage and deserves all the recognition she gets.

In year 11 two girls stood out for their excellent achievements within their specific field. Amy Rule reached the Netball Nationals and ended up winning in the final; Amy has produced excellent performances throughout the year and this is credit to her hard work. Kate Ortega-Bohlin got to the Taekwondo National finals and came away with a silver medal. Like Amy she has worked exceptionally well throughout the year and got her rewards with a silver medal.

From the Sixth Form, Beth Forrow has been an outstanding performer this year, representing GB in her canoe slalom. She competed in the Junior World Championships over the summer, finishing an impressive 4th. She qualified for the Senior European Championships in Prague in June, finishing 9th overall in the individual event, but gained an unbelievable Gold medal in the Senior team event. For a 17 year old to be involved in a Senior GB team is an achievement in itself, but to win a Gold medal takes her to another level. We wish her all the best for her continued development, and are extremely proud of how she has been able to manage her BTEC Sport studies while jet setting off around the world to compete to the highest level in her discipline.

Ben Spaul

PE Teacher

Goffs arrived at the Museum at about 10:00am on a quite chilly Friday morning. The Museum was quite small but the corridors and rooms were filled up with loads of retro tech, like old computers from the 90’s, and some of the first ever games like Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Pacman and loads more.

Quiz Time: What Was the First Computer Ever Invented Called?

A) Difference Engine

B) Windows 10

C) IMB 5100

Anyway, let’s not get too off track. We were sent to a tiny room in the centre of the Museum, and we stayed there for about 30 minutes until it was finally our time to start. Everyone was handed a really old piece of equipment such as a LARGE CD, video tape, and old pieces of code on paper to have a cheeky look at, until we were finally asked whether we knew what certain objects were, what they did, who invented them etc.

Then we learnt about codes. We were taught about Caesar Cipher, Number Cipher, Roman Geezer and loads more. Then to finish off we looked at an Enigma machine and how it was put together and used to send and crack codes during WW2. Then, the tour began…

THE TOUR

We were separated into two groups, and then the tour began. As we went around the Museum we saw loads of different things including Enigma Machines, type writers and very old computers, and then we finished in a room where we all learnt how someone during WW2 would send another person a message through Morse Code. We even learnt how to crack it! Then things got a little more complex. We were told that any enemy would crack that code in seconds, so we used another type of code to send our message: numbers, dots and shapes. It was a really long process but if that’s what it took during WW2 to send an unbreakable message to your allies, then so be it! We then swapped over with the other group to learn about the more interesting stuff: MATHEMATICS! We were shown a very old calculator that sadly couldn’t do fractions, but could do times tables up to millions. It was a really complex machine that took some time to understand but back then it would have been astonishing!

Then we went to the games section where we all played really old retro games like Space invaders, the first Simpsons game and Mario kart. It was so fun to see that the first games that came out were good considering the technology they had back then.

Quiz Time: Who Created the First QWERTY Keyboard?

A) Alan Turing

B) Steve Jobs

C) Christopher L. Sholes

PRACTICAL

To end the day, both groups carried out two practical tasks. One of the tasks was to code a game on a really old computer, and try to get it to run properly with no mistakes; then to eventually add things onto the game like sounds, scores and more. The aim of this was to see who out of everyone in the school could code it first/the quickest, and also to see who could get the highest score out of the groups and out of everyone who has tried the activity before. The highest score was over 1,000 seconds (17 mins), but Goffs students managed 782 seconds (13 mins)!

The second practical was to see if we could get a computer to pass the “Turing Test”, which is a test about whether a human can detect if they’re talking to a human or a machine. We had a pre-made script that we could use and we could fill in any answer we wanted the computer to give us; it could be funny, sad, make-believe or anything we wanted. Then, using python, we ran the code and sure enough, the computer answered the set questions we gave it. Then after about 7 mins of playing with the code, we all got to swap computers and see if our friends’ code could make their computer pass the Turing Test.

Overall it was a great experience going to the museum, as it was a fun place to explore, it had really interesting things to see and do and we all had a fantastic time learning about the history of computing!

QUIZ TIME: Who Invented the First Calculator?

A) Jeff Bezos

B) John Mauchly

C) Blaise Pascal

By Lucas Bie-Moran

Year 9

Answers to quizzes: 1:A, 2:C, 3:C

On the week commencing the 9th July, Goffs students partook in a variety of sporting events for Sports Week. This consisted of tutor group dodge ball and rounders competitions, and all of the athletics field events for Years 7, 8, 9 and 12.

The standard was set very high from the first Year 7 boy's game to the last Year 9 girl's match. The tournaments allowed each tutor group to play at least three games of dodge ball and rounders, and score points based on where they finished in the overall tournament. The games through all year groups had high levels of intensity and the skill levels which were shown were of an excellent calibre. The encouragement and attitude shown from the students throughout the week were tremendous, and the behaviour of all students throughout the year groups was at the highest levels. A big congratulations to all of the students, as everyone got involved to work towards gaining points for their specific House.

On Friday 13th July, we also held a whole school sports day for Years 7, 8, 9 and 12. This afternoon allowed students to compete in all of the track events in athletics. The crowd of students and teachers were extremely enthusiastic throughout the afternoon and cheered on all of the competitors. The sporting talent that we have at this school is at an outstanding level, and all students that took part in any race should be extremely proud of themselves.

It goes without saying that all students that demonstrated excellent sportsmanship deserve to be branded as winners; however one particular house did score an amazing amount of points. This year’s Sports Week positions are:

4th Place: Hawk

3rd Place: Falcon

2nd Place: Phoenix

1st Place: Eagle

Many thanks to all students and teachers who got stuck into the biggest competition! Bring on next year where we hope to see the same intensity and nail biting moments as the students cross the finish lines!

Carla Ball

Second in PE