CEO Blog

• Batley Breakfast

  Mon 19 Feb 2024

  Welcome back! We hope you have all enjoyed a relaxing half term break and spent time with family, friends and doing things that make you happy. The Batley Buzz was definitely in the air at the end of last term with a great Batley Breakfast event at Healey School. The Headteacher, Mrs Lang, and her team hosted a super event when they opened their school doors to those in governance roles across our Trust family of schools.

   

  The Batley Breakfast events are a key part of our Trust Governance Strategy. These events enable our team of governance professionals; including Members, Trustees and Governors, along with school colleagues, to have a firsthand experience of our school environments. They meet with the Headteacher and their team to see how the school's vision aligns with the Trust vision and values, and to observe the progress the school is making towards their key priorities for the year. 

   

  These breakfast events also provide the opportunity for those with a governance role to tour the school site, witness the quality of the learning environment and really get a feel for how the school operates, as well as meeting colleagues from across our Trust family of schools.

   

  Those in governance roles have a key leadership role in our organisation, and it is crucial that they know our schools well and are therefore able to make informed strategic decisions when reviewing finances and budgets, site improvement works, and suchlike. They really do play a vital role in our organisation, and as volunteers they give their time so generously. We thank everyone who has a governance role in our organisation immensely for their time, commitment, dedication and ongoing support in ensuring we are the Trust at the heart of the Batley community, and that every young person receives a great education here in Batley. 

  

• Do the next right thing

  Mon 05 Feb 2024

  Across our Trust family of schools so many exciting activities take place each and every day. We work on three main key themes across our whole organisation which are focussed on;

  - our young people

  - our staff team

  - our community

   

  Currently we have just finished external reviews of all our SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) provision with national expert, Natalie Packer, and from that we are designing our Trust-wide SEND provision, which we hope will include an all-new SEND Hub.

   

  Our People & Talent Team are working with stakeholders to further enhance and develop our Trust-wide People & Talent Strategy to ensure we are always the employer of choice.

   

  In addition, our Trust Development Centre is almost completed. This will provide key space for training, development and networking meetings to strengthen our collaborative networks across our family of schools, as well as office space for the central team. We are also at public consultation stage for two new schools joining our Trust family this year. 

   

  Finally for this week, our new Chief Operating Officer (COO) has joined the team, to strengthen our site development so every school is a great learning environment for our young people to learn, and our staff to work.

   

  Our mantra is to always do the next right thing, and do it well. 

   

  Have a great week everyone and enjoy the half term break next week. Stay safe. 

  

• Great Winter Get Together 2024

  Mon 29 Jan 2024

  The Batley Buzz was evident at Healey School last Tuesday. The school hall looked superb, all decked out with red and white gingham for the Great Winter Get Together. Healey School put on a tremendous spread with a huge array of sweet and savoury delectable treats. The school doors were open to the whole community and it was wonderful to see Trustees, Governors, school leaders, staff from all across our Trust family of schools, parents/carers, young people and members of the local community.

   

  It really was an incredibly special event with people sharing their stories about their lives working and/or living in Batley, and people making new connections. One elderly lady donated a beautiful tea set which had been a wedding gift to her and her husband. She wanted to support the school, and help leave a legacy for these wonderful afternoon tea events, which benefit the whole community - young and old. 

   

  This is exactly what the Great Get Togethers are all about - bringing people together through one connection at a time. A HUGE thank you to Mrs Lang and the wonderful team at Healey for such a superb afternoon. Healey truly is a school at the heart of their local community. 

  

• An Important Date

  Mon 22 Jan 2024

  This week a creative challenge from right here in Batley was shared with the world. The wonderful Field Lane Primary School (who really are maths whizz kids) shared a creative challenge that combined maths and art beautifully well.

   

  Field Lane partnered with the national charity the Jo Cox Foundation, and 64 Million Artists who are sharing a different creative challenge for every day in January to help tackle loneliness. Field Lane provided the creative challenge for day 17, and if you haven't seen it yet please do have a go. I did and it's great fun, both to remember key dates and things that are meaningful in our own lives, but also to turn those dates into a lovely piece of artwork. We can all do this, you just need a pen and paper, and you don't need to be a fine artist (sadly I'm certainly not a great artist but I was proud of my January Challenge task when I'd completed it). 

   

  As a Trust family of schools there can be nothing on the 'too difficult to deal with pile' and people must always come first. Loneliness isn't something that just affects the elderly; we can all feel lonely at some point in our lives. So let's do what we can to help others, by making connections and reaching out to help others, when we can.

   

  Everyone in our community is invited to the wonderful Healey School on Tuesday 23 January between 3.30pm-5pm for our Great Winter Get Together. Coffee and cake for everyone hosted by the superb Mrs Lang and her team.

   

  We hope to see you there!

  

• Great Winter Get Together

  Mon 15 Jan 2024

  This weekend was the national Great Winter Get Together, which all our schools are supporting. Our Trust family of schools are at the heart of our community and the Great Winter Get Together is all about bringing people together to tackle loneliness, through one connection at a time. We can all feel lonely sometimes, and at some point in our lives, and there are lots of different reasons why we might feel the impacts of loneliness. Let's be aware and help each other; no one ever needs to feel lonely or isolated in our community. 

   

  Young people from Field Lane have collaborated with 64 Million Artists to create resources, which have been shared nationally, to support people all around the country in feeling less lonely this January by engaging in daily stimulating creative activities that are both free and fun. See the website for further details: The January Challenge 2024. 

   

  Each day sees a new challenge and on Day 10 young people at Field Lane took part in a webinar, led by the superb poet Michael Rosen, which involved them writing poems and reciting them to him to get his instant feedback. What a truly fabulous learning experience. Michael was really impressed with their poetry and one Year 6 learner said; "It's a once in a lifetime experience. I was really surprised and excited to hear that we were selected to participate in a live session with Michael Rosen. I enjoyed writing a poem and learnt valuable tips." 

   

  So please join us at our Trust-wide Great Winter Get Together at Healey School on Tuesday 23 January between 3.30pm-5pm. It's free, and everyone is welcome for coffee, cake and the chance to chat and meet new people. You never need to feel alone in Batley. 

  

• Welcome Back!

  Mon 08 Jan 2024

  Happy New Year to everyone and here's to an exciting 2024 in Batley, filled with good health, peace, happiness and joy for everyone. We are excited about what 2024 will bring for Batley and our Trust family of schools.

   

  We start the year with much to celebrate already - Batley Girls' High School has been awarded the SEND Inclusion Award. Well done to Susy Ingle and her team for their hard work and dedication. A key element of our Trust vision is that every young person receives a great education and this award shows how superbly well Batley Girls' ensures no child is ever left behind. This award also demonstrates further success in the area of SEND after Teaching Assistant Chloe Llewellyn was awarded TA of the Year last year, for her excellent work with visually impaired young people. Brilliant achievements from the Batley Girls' High School team.

   

  Well done also, to Upper Batley High School, as Mrs Farrar has led the way to the school being awarded a grant from the Wolfson Foundation for over £110,000 to develop their Food Technology facilities. Great work from everyone involved in securing this additional funding. The Upper Batley site is superb and this will only help to further enhance the learning environment for every young person, in every curriculum area. 

   

  What a brilliant way for our schools to start the New Year! As London saw a spectacular fireworks display to bring in 2024, the words of the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah resonated hugely with us here in Batley:

  Ain't it crazy how we we're all connected, 

  Don't you think it's cool how we're linked,

  The one thing we all have in common is life,

  Let's not fall out of sync.

  

• Award winning again in 2023

  Mon 18 Dec 2023

  Well, this is it, the last CEO blog of 2023! Oh, what a year we have had raising standards across our Trust family of schools, and we are absolutely delighted to end 2023 on a high, where our Trust has achieved another award. We are proud to announce we are now a Disability Confident Employer.
   

  Our people really matter to us and we are the employer of choice locally. We recruit only the very best people for every role, in every school, because our children deserve the best. We are also an inclusive learning community and we treat everyone with respect. Our superb People & Talent Team have rigorous and thorough recruitment procedures. We ensure all individuals have equal access to the roles we advertise and use inclusive processes and practices. We really are thrilled that this good practice has been recognised with this award. 

   

  We would like to thank our whole community for their ongoing support for our Trust family of schools throughout 2023, and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

   

  This week our schools are busy with end of term concerts, nativities and celebration assemblies - we hope to see you there! We are also delivering hampers and food bank parcels across our community, and activities are running at Healey School during the holidays.

   

  We are a Trust at the heart of the Batley community. See you in 2024, for another exciting year in Batley.

  

• Recycling Hero

  Mon 11 Dec 2023

  This week we are celebrating the wonderful achievements of Liam, our gardener (and more), who was awarded a Recycling Hero Award by Kirklees Council. Liam is a creative genius; there appears to be nothing that he cannot design, make or build, and he is transforming the outdoor and indoor learning spaces at both Field Lane and Manorfield. He handcrafted the most spectacular library at Field Lane, and built from scratch an amazing climbing frame at Manorfield, as well as resources for their sensory room. 

   

  The judges' criteria focused on those who had demonstrated that they'd gone over and above expectations, and who had not only put in the hard work themselves, but who had inspired others to take steps to tackle climate change and reduce waste. Liam inspires our staff and young people each and every day, not only via his gardening and design expertise, but by the type of person he is. He is creative, humble, hard working, intelligent and one of the kindest, most selfless people you could ever hope to meet. 

   

  Liam's amazing creative pieces ensure that our school buildings and grounds are innovative and inspiring learning environments. We are extremely fortunate to have Liam on our staff team.

  

• Lighting up our town

  Mon 04 Dec 2023

  The Batley Buzz was evident in Batley town centre on Friday evening, when three of our super schools collaborated to form a schools' choir and bring a little festive cheer to Batley, as part of the Christmas Lights switch on ceremony.

   

  A huge thank you to Batley Girls', Healey and Upper Batley schools whose young people all sang superbly well and helped to generate a real air of excitement in our community. Also, a massive thank you to Mr Rodwell, the music and More In Common leader from Upper Batley High School for coordinating the choir; and to our Trust Headteachers who came along to support.

   

  On Sunday, our festive hamper packing continued, with Emma Rodrigues and her team continuing to put together the festive food and toy hampers ready to be delivered across our school community this winter.

   

  Our Trust family of schools really are at the heart of the Batley community.

  

• The Batley Great Debate

  Mon 27 Nov 2023

  Last week Batley was delighted to host The Great Debate on behalf of the Historical Association. Mrs Wilby, the Assistant Headteacher at Batley Girls' High School, planned the event superbly well and the judging panel came from the universities of Huddersfield, Leeds and Newcastle. It was an extremely tough contest to judge with truly fantastic presentations from young people from Batley Grammar School, Batley Girls' High School and Upper Batley High School.

   

  Each young person taking part selected a particular focus from the local history of Batley which could be a business, a person or a particular point in time. They carried out thorough research and then presented their case as to why they felt this event/person/place should be remembered in history.

   

  It was a truly fascinating morning and we are all incredibly proud of all our young people and their superb contributions to the debate. The winner of the Batley heat was Lindsay from Batley Girls' High School and she goes through to the national finals. Well done to everyone involved.

   

  Teaching our young people about the crucial life skills of discussion and debate have never been more important and their mature, intelligent and articulate presentations were absolutely brilliant to hear. Well done to everyone involved and good luck to Lindsay for the national finals.