Goffs - Churchgate Academy, Waltham Cross

Ofsted's report card from its 16 June 2026 inspection grades Goffs - Churchgate Academy on 6 areas: 6 expected standard. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Achievement - Expected standard. "Pupils often come to school with a range of barriers to learning."

Attendance and behaviour - Expected standard. "Pupils usually enjoy coming to school."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "Leaders have an accurate understanding of the effectiveness of the curriculum and teaching."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "Leaders and staff are ambitious for every pupil to be the best they can be, whatever their starting points."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "Leaders have taken highly effective steps to raise expectations of what pupils can do, and to create a positive sense of community."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "Leaders have built a personal, social, health and economic education curriculum that meets the needs of pupils."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure that checks on pupils' learning are used systematically to identify gaps in pupils' understanding and to inform subsequent teaching"; "Leaders should build on their work to ensure that pupils achieve highly across the curriculum"; "Leaders should continue to widen the enrichment programme to develop pupils' independence and resilience and broaden their interests"; "Leaders should build on their work to raise attendance with a specific focus on improving the attendance of key groups".

In its own words: "Respect : To have a positive attitude toward oneself and one's community. We do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do. Aspire : We have high expectations in everything we do. We dream big with concrete and deliberate goals. Achieve : Every day, we seize the chance to learn."

From the headteacher's welcome: "This is a community I care deeply about. It is a privilege to lead a school that is so integral in shaping the future of young people, which it does by fulfilling our shared vision of 'no set destiny for any child'. Goffs-Churchgate is a smaller than average secondary school, and that is one of our greatest strengths."

In 2026, pupils at Goffs - Churchgate Academy averaged an Attainment 8 score of 44.2, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 50.6 in Hertfordshire and 47 across England.

42% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 53% in Hertfordshire and 47% in England.

That is up from 42.6 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was 0.37: pupils made above average progress compared with pupils nationally who started secondary school at the same level. Progress 8 was not published for 2026.

Disadvantaged pupils averaged an Attainment 8 of 34.6, against 47.9 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 13.3 points.

Pupils sat GCSEs in 21 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were Combined Science, History and Business Studies.

For September 2026 entry, 91 families put Goffs - Churchgate Academy as their first choice and 456 named it as one of their preferences, for 110 places offered. It had fewer first-choice applications than places. 12 families who put it first were not offered a place there.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Goffs - Churchgate Academy are St Mary's Church of England High School (VA) (0.6 miles, Good, Attainment 8 42.8); Goffs Academy (0.6 miles, Good, Attainment 8 50.6); Haileybury Turnford (1.1 miles, Good, Attainment 8 46.2); and The Lea Valley Academy (1.4 miles, Good, Attainment 8 34.4).

Goffs - Churchgate Academy's 2026 results were higher than 2 of these 4 schools.

Goffs - Churchgate Academy is one of 4 schools run by Generations Multi Academy Trust, an academy trust.

Of the 110 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 91% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 50% to a further education college, 2% to an apprenticeship and 1% into work.

34.2% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the average state school (25%), according to the 2026 school census.

In 2026, 142 pupils (24.4%) received SEN support and 55 (9.5%) had an education, health and care plan, against 16.2% and 4.6% at the average state school. The most common need among them is social, emotional and mental health needs.

The nearest railway station is Theobalds Grove Rail Station, about 0.8 miles away in a straight line.

5 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is The Crocodile PH (near), 140 metres away.

In August 2026, police recorded 304 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting. That is well above the typical figure around schools in Hertfordshire (138), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, Goffs - Churchgate Academy issued 248 suspensions, 41.4 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and 5 permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to Goffs - Churchgate Academy are Dewhurst St Mary CofE Primary School (0.3 miles), Burleigh Primary School (0.4 miles), Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School (0.6 miles) and Bonneygrove Primary School (0.6 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.