CEO Blog

• Every Day Counts

  Mon 24 Feb 2025

  Welcome back! We hope you have enjoyed a lovely half term break. This half term we would like to thank all parents/carers for their hard work in ensuring their children attend school each and every day. In education, Every Day Counts. Our Trust schools achieve great outcomes, and a high-quality education ensures young people have a bright and successful future ahead of them. A great education is a young person's ticket to a great career. This means your child needs to attend school each and every day in order to receive that high-quality education from our expert staff teams. Every Day Counts.

   

  The goal is 100% attendance, as every missed lesson is a missed opportunity for learning. Should your child's attendance fall below 97% then school will be in touch to offer support for you and your child. We know that flights abroad are much cheaper during term time, but every day of missed school impacts negatively on the progress your child can make. We therefore respectfully request that all trips abroad are taken within the 13 weeks of school holidays each year. A flight during term time may be cheaper, but a great education is priceless. Every Day Counts.

   

  We will soon be launching our new attendance video, supported by our local MPs, where our learners explain why they love school and why Every Day Counts. We look forward to celebrating your child's success this summer with great attendance and great outcomes. Thank you to all parents/carers for your support to ensure your child achieves their potential in school. Every Day Counts. 

  

• The most rewarding, engaging and fulfilling job in the world

  Mon 10 Feb 2025

  Last Thursday evening our Yorkshire Rose Teaching Partnership hosted a recruitment drop-in session at Batley Girls' High School for those interested in teacher training to come along for more information, advice and guidance about what their options are and the process involved. As the Trust at the heart of the Batley community we wish to help raise awareness about potential career pathways for the people in our local area. 
  
  The event was organised and facilitated by the brilliant Emma Rodrigues, our Director of the Yorkshire Rose Teaching Partnership. Emma developed this teacher training and CPD arm of our Trust over 10 years ago, and it has been going from strength to strength each and every year since then.

   

  Emma is incredibly passionate and committed to the education profession, and as we always say; 'Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life' (Confucius). Here in Batley we feel teaching is exactly that job!

   

  No two days are ever the same, and there is never a dull moment with a teaching career. Teaching is varied, engaging, fulfilling and interesting. Plus, working with young people is always exciting, enlightening and inspiring! 

   

  The national rhetoric and narrative about teaching never seems very positive, yet there are so many positives we should share more widely. Teaching is the job that ensures young people get the very best start in life. Teachers raise the hopes, dreams and aspirations of young people, and provide the skills, knowledge and resilience needed to make those aspirations achievable. Plus, for teachers themselves, the job is interesting and filled with opportunities for personal and professional growth, such as travel and extracurricular activities, as well as links with industry, business and universities for ongoing professional development; and a good pension when you reach retirement age.

   

  We are looking to recruit people to a teaching pathway who are intelligent, committed and enthusiastic, and who like to think outside the box! Teaching may just be the career for you, and we are the people to train with. Contact us to find out more: erodrigues@batleymat.co.uk

  

• Bringing our community together

  Mon 03 Feb 2025
  Healey School hosted their Intergenerational Great Winter Get Together event last week bringing people together in the community; residents from Charles Jones' Court and a representative from The Kirkwood charity, as well as the families of Healey's school community. The school hall was packed with people of different ages and backgrounds enjoying refreshments, chatting and children playing - there was a lovely Batley buzz in the air! The event was also supported by local businesses who generously donated bhajis and pizza. What a brilliant way for everyone to spend a cold Thursday afternoon in January!

   

  The Great Winter Get Together is all about bringing people together to tackle loneliness, through one connection at a time, and Healey provided the setting for exactly that. Everyone enjoyed a fabulous afternoon tea served by their superb young people, who were taking their roles very seriously and liked interacting with everyone! This annual event provides an opportunity for people from different ages to come together; young people are able to learn from their elders as they hear marvellous stories about their lives, their careers, their families and their hopes and dreams. There are some wonderful stories shared about Batley past and present, with plenty of laughs along the way. This is particularly pertinent as our young people are currently working with the engagement team who are partnering with Kirklees Council on the Batley Regeneration Project. 

   

  One of the beautiful tea sets, used to serve the delicious afternoon tea, was donated last year by a fantastic lady who has lived in Healey for many years. She was so impressed by what the school was doing she donated her china tea set, which had been a wedding gift for her and her husband, along with a wish for it to be used and enjoyed by many generations to come. This is a heart warming example of how these events really do bring people together from across our whole community. 
  
  Community Makes Us and the unity in community is key.