CEO Blog

• Batley Brilliance at Batley Girls' High School

  Mon 26 Jan 2026

  Batley Girls' High School was delighted to host the PiXL Open Day event last week and share best practice with schools across our region. The event was coordinated by the fantastic Mrs Wilby, Batley Girls' Assistant Headteacher, and it was an opportunity for senior and middle leaders from Batley Girls' to showcase their exceptional work on school improvement to other school leaders. Batley Girls' school leaders presented their work on personal development, inclusion, careers and how they develop distributed leadership across their staff team, as well as how they develop and maximise learner leadership opportunities. Mr Scurr presented the bespoke and uniquely designed Batley Brilliance Bucket and how that is used to secure strong attendance, inspire learners to be the best version of themselves every day, and to play a positive and proactive role in school life, and their wider community.

   

  Careers is a golden thread of the entire Batley Girls' curriculum and Mrs Mehat leads this area of school life exceptionally well. Batley Girls' High School was also graded as outstanding by Ofsted for its Personal Development curriculum. 

   

  Feedback from the open day was incredibly positive about how the school builds a culture where the curriculum and wider learner well-being drives high academic achievement and how this is empowered by the distributed leadership model. One learner summed the day up the best when they said; "Learner leadership isn't symbolic - it is a meaningful part of how our school operates."

   

  Batley Girls' High School also received a letter from Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education last week praising them for their excellent results with learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Batley Girls' has been recognised as achieving superb outcomes for these learners. This high achievement places Batley Girls' High School amongst the very best nationally. Really well done to Mr Kibble and the Batley Girls' High School team. 

  

• Attendance Champions

  Mon 19 Jan 2026

  This week we are congratulating Purlwell Infant and Nursery School for their fantastic attendance. Everyone in the Purlwell community has worked very hard to secure strong attendance over many months. As a result, Purlwell are the winning Trust School. Congratulations to all learners, staff and parents/carers for great teamwork in ensuring every learner has excellent attendance. Purlwell is also within the top 5 of all similar schools in the Department for Education analysis. Really well done Team Purlwell! It is great to see the silver trophies on display in your school. 

   

  Mrs Nazam, Purlwell's excellent Headteacher always has attendance as a high priority. School displays are excellent, all communication with children and parents/carers is about attendance and there are lots of rewards and incentives when children attend well. The Friday celebration assemblies are eagerly awaited by everyone! 

   

  Research also proves children make the most progress when they attend well, Every Day Matters. Every absence is a lost learning day, and every lesson counts, even our youngest children need to attend nursery and school every day if they are to reach their potential. This is when children learn the fundamental basics in maths and English, alongside social skills and physical development, and this underpins their learning for the rest of their lives. 

  

• Batley Brilliance

  Mon 12 Jan 2026

  Healey School was absolutely inspirational in their recent Batley Brilliance event. Trustees, governors, school leaders and colleagues from across the Trust family of schools were invited to see what unique strengths and talents Healey School and their superb learners have. Healey School did not disappoint!

   

  Mrs Lang, the Headteacher, shared her vision for the school, and their plans for future progress and development. School Leaders demonstrated the progress made in key areas such as maths, reading, writing and personal, social, health and economic education. 2025 saw great results in Key Stage 2 and even more success is predicted in 2026 and beyond. Every decision Healey School leaders make is child-centred. 

   

  Healey learners then stole the show when the choir performed the Power of Me which was truly inspirational. There was hardly a dry eye in the hall! The school's Attendance Ambassadors then talked about the importance of attendance and explained how they help all children across the school to have good attendance because Every Day Matters. The School's Learner Leaders then talked about how and why they were elected, and what role they play to help others.

   

  The school's values of 'Achieve, Believe and Succeed' shone through in every area of school life and every individual who spoke in the hall. One of the highly talented school governors had also made some absolutely delicious cakes and delicacies, complete with Healey School's logo and values. Well done Team Healey! Truly inspirational. 

  

• Happy New Year - 2026!

  Mon 05 Jan 2026

  Welcome back and Happy New Year! We know 2026 will be a great year in Batley for our Trust family of schools because our brilliant staff team have so many exciting learning activities planned for our young people. 2026 will be a year of high-quality education, inspiring and enriching educational activities which deliver success for all!

   

  Whilst there are so many challenges to face financially within the education sector, issues such as division across the country and the world; and heart-breaking tragedies some people face, we realise at the start of the new year that we can only control the controllables. Rather like the weather, which we cannot change, we also cannot change much of what the world throws at us. However, we can decide how it will affect us and how we will respond.

   

  As the highly acclaimed author Mel Robbins writes; rather like the weather, consider the true nature of the sky. The clouds that once frustrated you can be seen as a larger, ever-changing masterpiece. The storms that once frightened you are now moments of power and beauty, teaching you resilience and strength. The sky's unpredictability is what makes it so magnificent, so endlessly fascinating. 

   

  Therefore, consider that the sky will do what it does - clouds will gather, snow may arrive, storms will come, and the sun will shine when it pleases. You can't control it, but you can control how you navigate beneath it. You can carry an umbrella; you can dance in the rain, you can open schools in the snow and deliver great science & geography lessons about why snow falls (and great assemblies all about resilience and how to overcome any obstacle) and you can chase the sun when you need to!

   

  In Batley, we choose to maximise every learning experience we can. We recruit and retain only the very best staff in our teams, because they will deliver the best education for our children. We train our staff well so they could choose to leave, but we treat them well so they choose to stay.

   

  These great staff teams deliver a super education for all our children and give them the very best start in life. We can see this through strong attendance, high academic outcomes, great careers experiences and educational enrichment opportunities that take learning beyond the school gates. We never miss a learning opportunity. Every Day Matters.

   

  We look forward to seeing our young people believe, achieve and succeed in 2026 and beyond and we will support them to do so every step of the way.