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Description
Information about the Generations Multi Academy Trust
Welcome to our information pack about the Generations Multi Academy Trust and its three schools, Goffs, Goffs-Churchgate and Flamstead End School.
Goffs is a mixed 11-18 comprehensive Academy with approximately 1,600 students on roll, including a thriving and successful Sixth Form. The school 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, students are of an ability level (KS2 APS) significantly above that of the national average although the school is a true comprehensive school and admits a good mix of students of all ability levels.
Goffs-Churchgate is a fully mixed comprehensive school for 11-16 year olds, with 603 on roll. The school has rightly established a very strong reputation for both its academic outcomes and its close-knit, nurturing community, receiving 600 applications for 120 places for 2022 admission. Local estate agents continue to report significant interest in parents moving to the locality with a view to being near Goffs-Churchgate. One of the school's key strengths is its highly cohesive and supportive community. 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 else – if you visit, you cannot fail to be struck by this. It is a very special part of what the school is. Recognising that not all children thrive in large secondary schools, the Trust has made a deliberate decision to offer both a larger and much smaller secondary school for local parents to choose between.
Flamstead End School is a thriving primary school in Cheshunt with approximately 485 children on roll. It has a Preschool, 60-place nursery offering 30 hours provision and two classes per year group from Reception to Year 6. The school has high expectations around achievement and behaviour and is ambitious for pupils. Flamstead End is a 'Therapeutic Thinking' school and seeks to understand and support children's behaviour so that they are able to learn and achieve to the best of their ability. The school is a tight knit community, with a well-established staff who care for one another and the children in their charge.
Professional Working and Learning Environment
Staff and students work in modern, professional environments, with all schools benefitting from recent building projects including a full, £20million rebuild at Goffs. The facilities provide light, modern, professional and a 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. Flamstead End Primary joined the MAT from 1st January 2023, and is another highly successful, thriving and nurturing community, rated “outstanding” by Ofsted. All schools in the Trust enjoy extremely high levels of applications and are over-subscribed. 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 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 our schools, plus many “extras” that would otherwise be unaffordable in the current funding climate. As one example, all teacher loadings in the secondary phase 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
Our strategy for continuous school improvement has had huge success and we are actively committed to ensuring that our very popular and successful schools, continue as centres of excellence in the community.
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. Goffs Sixth Form has an excellent reputation in the local area, over the past three years the numbers of students applying to join has continued to increase to approximately 350.
Goffs-Churchgate secured an impressive set of GCSE outcomes in 2022. Progress 8 outcomes once again set a record result for the school and put the school in the top 20% of all schools nationally. GCSE highlights include:
- Overall Progress 8 score of 0.46 meaning the school is significantly above National Averages
- The proportion of students who achieved Maths and English at grade 4+ was 69%, an increase of nearly 20% in the past two years
- The proportion of students who achieved English and Maths at grade 5+ was 41%, a 24% increase in the last two years
To achieve such fabulous progress in such a short period of time, is testament to the school’s staff and students. Although we know that this success represents just the start of their journey, very exciting times lie ahead.
Both secondary schools 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 colleagues who share that vision, determination and a restless quest for improvement. All of these factors combine to make The Generation Trust a very exciting and rewarding community to be a part of.
With our outstanding track record, we are looking forward to supporting the future success of Flamstead End, the latest school to join our Trust.
Community
Our schools pride themselves on their sense of community – both within the school itself, and in the wider locality. Visitors to our schools unfailingly comment on a very real sense of community, coupled with warmth and pride. Our schools 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.
Goffs and Goffs-Churchgate also benefit from a thriving student leadership programme, with students leading on key development projects of their choice, ensuring strong student voice and participation across the Trust. We firmly believe in every student feeling a strong sense of community, and on entering each school, every student is placed in a House. 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, with students then voting for their chosen school charity and subsequently arranging a variety of fund raising events throughout the school year. Such work is indicative of the ability of students in the Trust 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. Each school’s facilities are used for evening and weekend lettings, including superb sporting facilities, as well as holiday classes, providing opportunities for a diverse range of users including the Greek School, and local dance and sports groups.
Across the Multi Academy Trust a large 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 schools are proud to be truly community-based schools, with students and staff from different religions and a number of languages spoken in each school. As a Trust we recognize 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 schools to enable this to happen.
Care, Guidance and Support
Successful learning takes place when students feel safe, confident, respected and valued, and are engaged. The Trust 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 each school.
We promote positive attitudes towards learning and provide a caring and supportive environment within our community. Continuously nurturing, supporting and developing our students is hugely important to us and significant investment is made in each school’s pastoral structures.
The School Dog
GMAT has a school dog – a 5-year-old cocker spaniel called Huxley.
Huxley belongs to the Chief Executive Officer. He spends time with students at break and lunchtime, undertakes the odd learning walk (i.e., 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
The Trust 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 I chair 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.
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. 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 each week 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
The Trust’s Leadership Academy encompasses both staff and student leadership development through a series of student led groups and staff leadership pathways. The staff programme specifically provides opportunities for:
- Aspiring Middle Leaders
- Aspiring 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:
- Communicating vision and values
- Developing your leadership approach
- Building a high performing team
- Supporting your team
- Leading your team day to day
- Quality assuring effective teaching
- Observation for improvement
- Using data for impact
- Fostering positive behaviour for learning
- Leading and managing innovation and change
Attendance to all training sessions leads to certification by the SSAT. 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 Trust’s commitment to developing future leaders, a number of the existing Senior Leadership Team across both secondary schools gained experience through an ‘Associate’ SLT position before gaining substantive leadership posts.
Trust 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:
- 15% discount for all Trust staff.
- Term time only places are available
- A school day would be 9.00am – 3.00pm
- “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 working environments
- Free use of a range of sports and leisure facilities including a fully equipped gym and swimming pool.
- Occupational Health & counselling support
- Free flu jabs
- Subsidised social events
- 100% attendance reward – day in lieu, taken at each school’s discretion
- Free tea, coffee and milk for staff
Alison Garner
Chief Executive Officer
January 2023