Welcome

A very warm welcome to Goffs Academy.

 

 

We are a mixed 11-18 comprehensive Academy with approximately 1,500 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.

We have exceptionally high expectations of every student and place a high value on academic rigour. Our wide-ranging curriculum provides students with a rich range of learning opportunities and experiences, enabling students to reveal and develop their inner strengths, and to thrive at school and beyond.

This focus on academic development is combined with an extensive system of pastoral support. Our firm belief is that successful learning takes place when students feel safe, confident, respected and valued. As well as Directors of Learning who oversee each year group, the school has invested in dedicated Learning Mentors to work one-to-one with individual students, and we provide counselling support when students need this, through our partnership with Place2Be.

We also have very high behaviour expectations, underpinned by our school values; Respect, Resilience, and Responsibility. I am very clear with all members of our school community that students have a right to learn, and teachers have a right to teach. We do not tolerate disruption to learning of any kind. We were delighted to see Ofsted’s comments in our last inspection 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.”

We pride ourselves on our sense of community – both within the school itself, in which students participate in a number of Goffs Community Groups, and in the wider locality. We want our students to become good citizens and know how to work successfully with others: our students actively support local charities such as the Isabel Hospice, as well as having an involvement with events at local primary schools and retirement homes.

In January 2017 we moved into a £20 million brand new school building. The building contains world-class new facilities including a suite of high spec Science laboratories, specialist facilities for students to enjoy Music, Art, and Technology, and a host of amazing sporting facilities, including a new 4th Generation Astro Turf, to name but a few. In April 2022, we opened an additional building, with 8 brand-new classrooms (for our Humanities department) along with a professionally-run fitness centre. Our school buildings provide a superb environment in which to work and learn.

We are very proud of our students; the outcomes that they achieve reflect the hard work and commitment of everyone in our community, including our exceptionally dedicated staff body and highly engaged Local Academy Board and Trustees. We are delighted that the vast majority of our students are able to progress to their chosen next step having achieved the outcomes they were hoping for. It is always a pleasure to see them develop into aspirational, enthusiastic and mature young adults.

Hopefully this website will give you a sense of our school ethos and sense of community. However, you are also warmly encouraged to visit and to see first-hand what makes us such a popular and successful school. We look forward to meeting you.

Mark Ellis

Principal