Goffs Academy is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

with academy status located in

Cheshunt Cheshunt (/ˈtʃɛzənt/ CHEZ-ənt) is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, situated within the London commuter belt approximately north of Central London. The town lies on the River Lea and Lee Navigation, bordering th ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England with around 1,300 students. The school's motto was "Sola Virtus Invicta", (which roughly translates from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

to "strength of character alone remains invincible"), in 2006 it was changed to "Respect Confidence Achievement" and in 2020 the motto was changed to "Respectful Resilient Responsible". The school has had seven

head teacher A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management Management (or managing ...

s to date: Colin Hadley, John Versey, Jan Cutler, Paula Kenning, Alison Garner, (who took over in September 2010), Ben Pearce and Mark Ellis. In the most recent

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

report the school was deemed "good."

Houses

Goffs Academy consisted of six houses, each named after an influential person from history: '' Brontë'', '' Churchill'', '' Columbus'', ''

Curie Curie may refer to: *Curie family, a family of distinguished scientists: :* Jacques Curie (1856–1941), French physicist, Pierre's brother :* Pierre Curie (1859–1906), French physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Marie's husband :* Marie Curi ...

'', '' Mandela'' and ''

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

''. The original house names that existed during the Dr Hadley administration were Davies, represented in yellow, Trayhern in blue, Booker house in green and Morgan in red. These houses would compete in inter-house sports and enterprise competitions, and tutorial form and registration sessions would be organised in mixed year groups under each house. However, changes introduced in 2009 have taken emphasis off of the house structure – form lessons now occur in year groups, and many inter-house championships have not been reformed to fit the new system. The six-house structure was introduced in 2002; the original house structure consisted of four houses: Davies, Booker, Morgan and Trayhern. House events often took place including charitable activities towards each house's chosen charity. In 2014 the houses were renamed from ''

Holmes Holmes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Holmes (surname), a list of people and fictional characters ** Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective * Holmes (given name), a list of people * Gordon Holmes, a penname used by Louis Trac ...

'', '' Pratchett'', Branson'' and '' Westwood, to

Hawk Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are very widely distributed and are found on all continents, except Antarctica. The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks, and others. This ...

, Phoenix,

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

and

Eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

''. Inter-house championships and competitions are being re-introduced within this system to reinvigorate community spirit in the school.'' At the end of each year, awards are given to the house with the best achievement, best performance in the weekly quiz, and best attendance level. There is also an overall "best house" award.

Sports

Many of Goffs' sports teams have performed well at the county and in some cases national level. Aside from this, the school often runs inter-house competitions in various sports, such as rugby and a swimming gala in which students and teachers can take part. The school hosts a

sports day Sports Day (British English & Canadian English), field days (American English), or play days (Canadian English) are events staged by many schools and offices in which people participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of w ...

annually, held in the summer, which consists of track and field events. Sporting Facilities at the school include Astro-turf, Sports Hall and a Large Field.

Notable former pupils

* Suzannah Dunn, historical fiction author

Goffs School

* Zai Bennett, television executive * David Bentley, professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

Rebecca Morelle Rebecca Sabrina Morelle is a British science journalist, former BBC News global science correspondent and currently BBC News Science Editor. Early life She attended Goffs School (now Goffs Academy) in Cheshunt in Borough of Broxbourne, south-eas ...

(1990–97), BBC science correspondent

Goffs Grammar School

* Richard Lewis, professional tennis player, Chair of

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

, chief executive officer The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon.

References