Over the past two weeks our Trust family of schools have been taking part in a wide range of Great Winter Get Together activities. These have included lessons during curriculum time about how to build stronger communities, as well as intergenerational coffee mornings and so much more!

At Healey Junior, Infant & Nursery School, the Batley Buzz was infectious, with their main hall packed full with children, families and members of their local community. This was a wonderful opportunity to share memories and ideas, and for people young and old to get together and share all that is fantastic about their town, and the people who live and work here.

At Upper Batley High School, learners from Year 7 to Year 10 took part in an art project; The World Reimagined. This project was designed to transform young people’s understanding of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on everyone. The school explored their shared history and engaged with ideas around how we can make racial justice a reality in the future - as well as young people’s power to create change, and have their voice heard. 

Young people looked at the impact of events like the Transatlantic Slave Trade on modern life today; discussing their school community, their wider community and their own experiences. These thoughts and ideas were developed into written and visual representations and applied to a fibreglass globe sculpture to communicate a message of social justice and strength for their community. The finished globe was varnished and then displayed in The Tetley in Leeds, during the summer.

The globe has now arrived at Upper Batley High School to be showcased during the Great Winter Get Together, and celebrate how we all have far more in common than that which divides us. The sculpture is on display outside the school’s main entrance to continue to share the young people's message of hope for the future, and for a 'World Reimagined.' One of the key messages featured is that we can all 'be the change we wish to see in the world.'