In the last CEO blog of the year we have SO many truly amazing achievements to celebrate this year. Batley=Brilliance.   Last week we held our inaugural Book Quiz - masterminded by two inspiring learners from Field Lane School. The exam hall at Batley Girls' High School was transformed into a Harry Potter themed wonderland with; escape rooms themed to each of the houses, a potion making station, its very own platform 9 3/4 and sorting hat, as well as real-life owls for learners (and colleagues!) to hold, under supervision of course.    The quiz itself consisted of three rounds of questions, each round focusing on four books from the 12 book reading list. Books included; The Wizards of Once, The Light Hunters, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Wild Robot. There were winners after each round (Park Road won the first round, Field Lane won the second round and UBHS won the final round) with each team member being rewarded with a Harry Potter bookmark and quill pen. The overall winner was Lydgate, with UBHS coming a very close second (just two points in it!), both teams received medals and Lydgate took home the trophy this year and will return it for next year’s quiz, as this will now become an annual event, which is fantastic. Each team who managed to escape from all of the rooms (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff) without succumbing to the deadly dementors was entered into a prize draw.   This event was just one of many opportunities to showcase how talented and creative learners in Batley are. This year our Trust family of schools has achieved so many tremendous successes - winners of National Awards (Young Green Briton, and Modeshift STARS for school travel and environmental sustainability); great attendance, leading the way on community engagement and last week - superb SATs results! Well done to all our colleagues, parents/carers and our community for your support throughout this year. Most crucially, well done to our learners who continue to inspire us all, each and every day! We wish you all a fun-filled, happy, safe and relaxing summer. Have a wonderful break. We will see you in September for another fantastic year in Batley.  Batley=Brilliance. 

We are delighted to announce that UBHS has been crowned as Young Green Briton Champions in the national finals held last week in London. Well done Team UBHS! UBHS also holds the award for National Modeshift STARS Secondary School of the Year. All of this great work around environmental sustainability is testament to the hard work of the fantastic learners, our proactive community and the brilliant leadership shown by Lisa Woods who coordinates this area of work in the school.   Lisa pulled together a team from across our Trust family of schools last Friday to support new local business, Heeleys, with their Keep Batley Tidy campaign. Learners and staff from across our Trust family had their litter pickers at the ready, put on their Community Makes Us social action high-vis vests, and set off to support Heeleys (and lots of other community like-minded people) to clean up the streets of Batley. It is crucial we all have pride in the town we live and work in. Well done Team Batley!