CEO Blog

• Sharing Batley Expertise

  Mon 23 Feb 2026

  Welcome Back! We hope you enjoyed a great half term break and plenty of time to relax, unwind and see family and friends. Our Trust family of schools have been busy over the break with lots of exciting site development work underway to make all our schools the very best learning environments for the children we serve. The school holiday periods are when the magic happens! A huge thank you to all our caretakers and site teams who work really hard and take enormous pride in our school sites. Ramadan has also now commenced and we wish everyone taking part, Ramadan Mubarak during this holy month. Ramadan is a time for giving, sharing and spreading kindness.

   

  We would also like to congratulate Upper Batley High School and Assistant Headteacher, Mr Sherrard who was asked to join a panel of experts to share his best practice work on careers education in a national webinar for practitioners and school leaders to discover the latest research from The Skills Imperative 2035 Programme, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Mr Sherrard leads Upper Batley High School's work on careers and the excellent use of Skills Builder. Learners develop essential skills, and track how they use these which helps build their knowledge, skills and expertise and prepare them for the world of work as well as make them highly employable when they leave Upper Batley High School and enter the working world. Careers is the golden thread of our Trust school's curriculum from Early Years right through to our adult education programmes, and the hook to engage all our learners regardless of their background or starting point. Great careers education and guidance helps young people to know the skills and qualifications they need to achieve their goals. Our goal is for all learners to believe, achieve and succeed in their education and their lives. 

  

• Batley Celebrate Success

  Mon 09 Feb 2026

  Batley Girls' High School are celebrating real success with one of their highly skilled and talented learners winning the semi-finals of the Historical Association's Great Debate 2026.

   

  Afeefah has won the semi-final and secured a place in the finals in London. We are all incredibly proud of Afeefah and this fantastic achievement. She is already a winner in our eyes and a shining star of Batley.

   

  In the semi-finals, Afeefah competed against learners from 12 schools all across the country, many of whom are from private schools. Afeefah was superb! We now wish her every success in the finals, and we are all so incredibly proud of her achievement to reach this stage of this prestigious competition.

   

  Congratulations also go to Mrs Wilby, the Assistant Headteacher from Batley Girls' High School who coordinates this work with the Historical Association and coaches the learners to help prepare them for the competition. Batley Girls' High School has had two learners reach the finals in the last 3 years.

   

  Our whole Trust family of schools now wishes Afeefah every success, although she is already a winner in our eyes.

   

  Good luck, Afeefah!

  

• Every Day Matters for Every Child

  Mon 02 Feb 2026

  Manorfield Infant  and Nursery School has designed and shared with their families a great new poster to remind everyone how important every school day is, especially for our youngest learners. Attendance in nursery is just as important as attendance in every other year group. Some may argue attendance in nursery is even more important because this is when children learn the foundations of academic knowledge and skills, social skills and physical development.

   

  These skills underpin their learning and development for the rest of their lives. Learning is much like building a house, if you get the foundations right then you are ready for success, but if the foundations are weak then whatever goes on top of them will simply crumble.  

   

  Every Day Counts.

   

  Every child, and every adult in our Trust family of schools has an attendance target of 98% because lost learning days impact negatively on a child's education. Children will not make the required progress, and they may even lose their place in nursery or at school. Poor attendance also does not reflect well in a reference to another school, college or employer. 98% may sound like a lot, and if you achieved 98% as a test score you would probably be quite pleased with that. However, 98% attendance means you have already missed 4 days of learning and that's about 28 lessons. That's a lot of lost learning, so 98% is a minimum expectation, not a target. 

   

  Always remember Every Day Counts. Try not to miss any days.

   

  High Attendance = High Achievement.