The Great Get Together weekend is almost here. Across our family of schools a wide range of activities and events are taking place to help bring our community together. As we always say in Batley, Community Makes Us, and it is the unity in community that is key.

 

The Great Get Together events started after our MP Jo Cox was murdered in 2016.  A group of Jo's friends and family came together and wanted to do something to honour her memory and continue her legacy. From there the Great Get Together was born and what started as a coffee morning in Batley became an international movement with coffee mornings taking place all across the world to bring people together to tackle loneliness and celebrate diversity in communities.

 

Jo was a true humanitarian and she believed the world could be a fairer and kinder place. We work hard across our family of schools to continue Jo's legacy and make this dream a reality. The Great Get Together takes place on the weekend closest to Jo's birthday so that's 24-26 June this year and events in Batley commence with the Batley Bake Off on Friday 24th June at 10am at Upper Batley High School. People of all ages and all talents bake a birthday cake for Jo and the standards are incredibly high! The competition is judged by Jo's family - her inspirational parents Jean and Gordon and her sister Kim, who is now our MP. Jo always loved a piece of cake, to meet new people, and make new friends.

 

We bring our community together to celebrate what unites us, to bridge divides and tackle loneliness. In Jo's words "we have far more in common than that which divides us". There is a big community wellbeing day on Saturday at Wilton Park, and the Run for Jo at Oakwell Hall on Sunday. Plus, special assemblies are taking place in all of our schools so our young people can continue to lead the way in making our world a kinder, fairer and better place to live for everyone.