Southgate School

Southgate School is an extremely popular and oversubscribed school with an excellent reputation in Cockfosters, North London. Our school is on the border of Barnet and Enfield, a relatively prosperous area that falls within the Outer London weighting for teachers. Every year our examination results demonstrate high performance at all levels and significantly above national outcomes. Our students either go to their first choice of university or to high quality apprenticeships. We support all aspects of the curriculum and are particularly proud of our high-profile performing arts: our regular music concerts, drama performances and art exhibitions from our talented students.

We have an established reputation for academic excellence and the quality of our pastoral care, with visitors always commenting on the happy atmosphere. Ofsted noted in 2019 that all students they met agreed: “There is never a day that I don’t want to come to school.”

We are part of Middlesex Learning Trust (MLT) – a Multi-Academy Trust consisting of three large secondary schools. The key purpose of MLT is to deliver the best possible education for our students, to enable them to maximise their progress, academically, socially and emotionally, ready to take their place in society as positive and successful adults. The Trust and its schools have a long history of maximising the potential of every child. Within the Trust, there is a profound commitment to fostering high aspirations in all students in order to secure the very best outcomes for them regardless of their background.  We are committed to this moral purpose and support each other to secure the very best educational outcomes. Collaboration lies at the heart of Teaching and Learning within the Trust, with opportunities for shared professional development, planning, research and moderation that strengthens the Teaching and Learning in individual schools. An MLT Teacher magazine is published four times a year showcasing best practice within Trust schools, and an evidence-informed Trust Teaching and Learning Handbook is used across the schools to support excellent and up-to-date classroom practice. A Talent Management Framework is also in place to support staff development which includes residency opportunities within and across Trust schools. http://www.middlesexlearningtrust.org.uk/ 

Teaching and Learning at Southgate School is focused on our ‘Non-negotiables’, the five pillars of quality first teaching at Southgate School. These include high quality questioning, challenge for all, high impact feedback, metacognition and clear objectives and outcomes. We encourage students to be independent and to aim high; we make sure students feel consistently challenged as we know that they learn well and make most progress when they are thinking hard. Our Teaching and Learning Team are dedicated to supporting teachers to improve their practice with regular inspiring training and strategies based on current research in the education community. We encourage teachers to develop and show off their ideas and expertise with our regular Show and Share sessions, sharing good practice with all staff. We also offer the suite of NPQs to our staff including the NPQSL, NPQLT and NPQ in Leading Behaviour and Culture, working with a lead provider Ambition. The MLT Talent Management Framework supports teachers at all stages of their careers and offers them a wide range of opportunities to develop.

Our induction for new staff is supportive and ambitious: all new staff receive training on our ‘Non-negotiables’, our school vision of Excellence For All, as well as what it means to be a member of staff at our school. We then offer a programme of training sessions for our new teachers as well as teachers from the thirteen schools that are part of the Southgate Learning Alliance. We work with Ambition and the North West London Teaching School Hub to support ECTs in their first years of teaching to make sure teachers new to the profession make the most of the fantastic training resources provided as well as offering high quality coaching and mentoring from our experienced and dedicated team.

We are a welcoming school community where colleagues are valued and supported. Our recent staff survey showed that overwhelmingly staff are pleased with the work environment and the leadership of their school; our aim is that our staff enjoy their work. However, it is the students themselves who really make the school a pleasure to work in. Time and again they are our best ambassadors: young people who want to get on in life and who take their learning seriously. They are at the heart of all that we strive to do.

More information about our school is available on our website or please contact us to arrange a visit.