CEO Blog

• The power of positive thinking

  Mon 27 Jan 2025
  Last week started with Brew Monday, when our schools focused on bringing people together to build strong and meaningful connections. As we always say in Batley, Community Makes Us, and the unity in community is key.

   

  Batley Grammar School were celebrating their Ofsted inspection, where inspectors commented on the school's strong values. Inspectors praised the quality of education Batley Grammar School provides for all learners, highlighting that “Batley Grammar is a calm and welcoming environment”, with strong shared values of respect, community and resilience, that underpin everything they do. Inspectors saw a wide range of strengths in the school and said; “In lessons, pupils concentrate and work hard,” and “ the curriculum supports the development of a culture of togetherness which is evident across the school.” Inspectors also praised the school's Combined Cadet Force where learners are able to try flying lessons, learn leadership skills and other amazing activities, not usually available in schools. 

   

  Healey holds their Great Winter Get Together this week and we can't wait for that. Last week they were further developing their careers programme with learners visiting a successful local business, Star Coaches. Field Lane held the Speech Stars event which was a wonderful opportunity for young people to engage in discussion and debate about issues pertinent to them, and UBHS are celebrating achieving the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools: Gold Award. UBHS excelled against all eight competencies. Reviewers said; "The school has used the framework and content of the Award to excellent effect to further build and strengthen their previous Gold achievement through the ongoing development of their mental health and wellbeing (MHWB) strategies, structures, and practices." Also; "The holistic curriculum (‘More in Common’) focuses on building confidence, self-awareness and promotes character building and resilience. UBHS has created a values-centric ethos and an environment that is socially, emotionally, and physically rich - where key relationships can thrive and learners feel secure in their learning." They have also been invited to speak at a national conference on mental health later this year. 

   

  Well done Team Batley!

   

  Our Trust family of schools are fantastic places for children to learn and adults to work: Community Makes Us.

  

• The Great Lego Get Together

  Mon 20 Jan 2025

  The sun shone brightly over Batley this weekend. On Saturday the Great Lego Get Together was held at Batley Library and it was a wonderful event. The library is a beautiful Grade II listed building, called Batley Carnegie Library, and it is stunning from the inside and out. On Saturday afternoon it was full of children and families for the Great Lego Get Together. 

   

  The Lego Club runs every week between 12pm-2pm and this week it was coupled with a Great Get Together event to bring people together in a warm, welcoming and friendly space. There was tea, coffee, biscuits, buns and a great atmosphere, with lots of people getting to know each other and sharing stories of Batley from then and now.

   

  Thanks to one of our local MPs, Kim Leadbeater MBE, who managed to secure an incredibly generous donation of Lego, there was tonnes of Lego to go around. Children of all ages were treated to brand new Lego, and the opportunity to create their own masterpieces, now on display in the library. If you are passing through the centre of Batley please pop in and take a look, and if you are not a library member, then do consider joining - it's free! Batley library has so much to offer, and the staff are fantastic. As well as traditional library services traditional, there is access to computers and the internet, and wonderful safe, warm spaces to sit and work or read. It was lovely to see some older members of our community enjoying the gallery working space, and some teenagers there doing their home learning (superb to see on a Saturday - what commitment and dedication!). Plus, the walls are adorned by the original poetry of Batley poets. The library really does have so much to offer, so today on Brew Monday, or in fact any day, why not visit? You may be pleasantly surprised by all that Batley has to offer. 

  

• Community Makes Us

  Mon 13 Jan 2025

  What a snowy and icy start we had last week to the new term and the new year. Batley looked beautiful with a blanket of snow, but temperatures plummeted and ice was everywhere, including black ice, which made travel by bus, car and on foot incredibly treacherous. Our Trust schools, who are always solution focused, quickly shifted to blended learning and our caretakers and site teams (plus staff volunteers) sprung into action to clear the ice and snow as much as possible every day.

   

  Our pastoral staff were also making phone calls to families to check everyone was safe and well. Our teams secured some fantastic winter warming packs and managed to deliver those, along with food hampers, to families who needed them. It really was a fantastic team effort all across Batley with everyone helping out, in any and every way they could, to assist others.

   

  This is what Batley is all about, because we know that community makes us, and it is the brilliant people who live and work in Batley that make it such a great place to be. 

   

  TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More.

  

• Welcome Back!

  Mon 06 Jan 2025

  Happy New Year! I hope you have enjoyed a relaxing Christmas break. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous new year. 

   

  Across our Trust family of schools we are excited for what 2025 will bring, and for all that we can achieve together this year.

   

  Our Trust family of schools continues to go from strength to strength with strong outcomes, excellent attendance, high quality teaching, great behaviour for learning and fantastic community work. The brilliant work of our schools has been recognised in a recently published book called, 'Beyond Boundaries' where our schools feature as a case study for leading great SEND provision across a Trust. Our Smart Academy was described as exceptional by Ofsted, and UBHS has been chosen from over 400 entries to become a UK Education Ambassador for language diversity. UBHS is one of only six schools in the UK to partner with Pocketalk, a global leader in translation technology. The Fields community spaces are doing extremely well, and The Fields at Manorfield has been running a wide range of activities, classes and training sessions to benefit our wider community, as well as our learners and their families.

   

  We are the Trust at the heart of the Batley community. Here's to all that we can achieve together in 2025 and beyond.