Happy New Year! On behalf of everyone in the Batley Multi Academy Trust family of schools I would like to wish you a very happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

We wanted to start the year with this lovely poem by Paul Cookson, read by a young leader at Upper Batley High School during their annual Presentation Evening at the end of last year. Please click here to see the reading.

We begin the new year with renewed hope, new ambitions, excitement and enthusiasm for what the future holds. As educators, we are excited about what our young people can achieve, if they work hard and are always the best version of themselves. As staff, we model this in all our actions each and every day, and in every interaction we have with all our young people. Let's all set our "sights on high" as the poem states, for the future year ahead!

We know January can be a tough month for many people, and the current economic climate poses challenges for all of us and for our community overall, but we also know that together everyone achieves more. We will work together to support each other, and do all that we can to help others who may be struggling or having a difficult time. We can all feel lonely at different points in our lives and one act of kindness really can help another person - even a smile or a 'hello' can brighten someone's day. Kindness doesn't cost anything. This January we will be taking part in The Great Winter Get Together to bring people together in all of our schools and across our community to tackle loneliness, one connection at a time.

We can all work hard to be positive and to achieve our goals and ambitions - so let's set our sights on high, for the future is in our hands.