The Batley Buzz

A Trust at the heart of the Batley community January 2024 Edition 5 Our children deserve the best.

No child left behind - ever.

Every school a great school.

Creating remarkable people.

Our Trust Vision Every young person, regardless of their starting point or background, receives a high quality education, including first class care, guidance and support.

Our Infant and Primary News

Key Stage 1 Wellbeing Champions

Stronger Together

Some of our Key Stage 1 children took part in Wellbeing Champion training earlier this month as part of the MHST Wellbeing Champion initiatives.

Stronger Together, our parent/carer forum met again before the Christmas break and our focus was how to keep children busy and entertained during the upcoming holidays. We made pom-pom gnomes and had a chat about different ideas and strategies to keep children busy and engaged.

Six children from each Key Stage 1 class have embarked on their training to become Wellbeing Champions and support their peers in an informal way. As part of their training, the children have gained an insight into their own mental health and wellbeing and how to support their friends. They also know when the issue is too big for them to deal with and when to ask adults for help and support.

In our next meeting we will be knitting, and look forward to seeing many members of our school community here. Everyone welcome.

Owl workshops Our Year 1 children had a visit from the owl workshop before the Christmas holidays, which was amazing!

Chris from SMJ Falconry shared his beautiful owls with us and the children all had a chance to handle the owls. The work that was produced as a result of this experience was outstanding and we know that our children absolutely love these hands on learning experiences.

Year 6 meet Michael Rosen!

Young Voices 2024

As part of the 64 Million Artists’ January

What a start to 2024! Our first day back at school was also the

Challenge, Year 6 were invited to join the

day of the Young Voices Concert 2024.

renowned poet, Michael Rosen for a webinar along with 200 other participants from around the world

MC Grammar and a dance squad, Urban Strides, performed on

(Switzerland, India, Ireland and more). We felt

stage with amazing moves! A special moment was when a young

very honoured to be one of only two schools to

drummer, Nandi Bushell (only 13 years old), performed and was

share our poems and chat to Michael who set the

truly inspiring. Field Lane Voice Club sang their hearts out

challenge for Day 10.

throughout the whole concert along with over 4,000 other choir members from across the country. What an eventful day!

Year 6 set the challenge for Day 17 representing the Jo Cox Foundation.

Farewell Mrs Goodall

Learning with Year 1

Mrs Goodall has been our Learning Resource Centre Manager, more fondly known as, ‘The Librarian’, since 2017.

This term, Year 1 has been learning all about directions whilst making use of the Busy Bee robots.

She has provided a warm welcoming space for our students, and fostered a love of reading in so many of our young people.

Her knowledge of the best reading materials for the right person has been an asset to the school in both primary and secondary phases.

The Library has gone from strength to strength under her tenure, and the library lessons have been the highlight for many students.

We wish her well as she embarks on her new career working for the Home Office.

Split into groups, they explored the Busy Bees and practised using directions and putting them into a sequence. The children were definitely ‘buzzing’ with excitement!

HAF Club

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme helps children to stay active and healthy, boosting their mental and physical wellbeing.

The programme ran from 2-5 January at Healey School, and was well attended by Key Stage 2 children. We look forward to running the next HAF club at Easter.

We are excited to take part in ‘My Happy Mind’, from this term onwards, which builds resilience, and promotes balanced and happy minds at home and school.

The programme is valuable in that it is: ❖ Accessible by every child in the school ❖ Provides ready made science based lessons ❖ Proactive not reactive.

Throughout school, children have been learning about changes. Changes in states of matter in science, changes in the seasons, changes over time in our local area and changes in how we grow and develop. Year 2 have created a display board to highlight the work they have completed so far and Reception classes have thoroughly enjoyed investigating changes in state, through freezing and melting experiments – then what happened?!

It started snowing!

Being the BEST version of yourself has been the focus since our return in January.

Keen readers have been enjoying the motivational stories about being AMAZING, being RESILIENT and being BRAVE. Problem solving, whether it’s independent work or teamwork, the children have been learning that every problem has a solution!

Believe Achieve Succeed

Our Secondary News

STEM Roadshow Year 7 and 8 young people were treated to an interactive roadshow delivered by BAE Systems, The Royal Air Force and The Royal Navy to celebrate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Aligned to the National Curriculum, the roadshow included a performance to inspire and engage young people as well as digital resources to support teachers explore the subject further and develop lessons in the classroom.

The theme was electricity; exploring what electricity is and how we generate it. Including demonstrations, such as Mr Dresser (pictured right) cycling to power the windmill.

Thinking Hard A key priority and focus for us this academic year is stretch and challenge. We are working hard to embed the PIXL Thinking Hard Strategy into all lessons across all curriculum areas in order to deepen understanding, support analysis and application and empower all our young people to be flexible in their thinking.

Laura Sawyer (Assistant Headteacher: Teaching & Learning, Literacy) launched 'Monday Motivation’ last term linked to the Thinking Hard Strategy, as a way to thank colleagues for embedding the Thinking Hard Strategy into their lessons and promote collaboration and sharing of fantastic practice of this whole school strategy.

Oh no we didn’t!

Just before the Christmas break we held the annual staff pantomime, which is a highly entertaining event in the school calendar! Every year group from Year 7 to BG6 was treated to a performance.

This year the cast was made up of 21 staff with a production team of three. The cast initially worked together in small groups to rehearse, before the whole team came together for regular after school rehearsals. Our cast make, forage or buy their own costumes and the dress rehearsal takes place the evening before the day of the performances. It really is a solid team effort, and a real celebration for staff and young people alike.

School of Rock The biggest production Batley Grammar School have conducted in over 12 years, School of Rock, saw many of our secondary students come together to bring the hit film-turned-musical production to life.

We are extremely proud of every young person involved; on stage, backstage, the band, and our technical experts who took care of lighting and sound.

We'd also like to thank Mrs Skivington, Mrs Parkes and Miss Mulcahy who we couldn't have done this without. It really was a magnificent performance!

Alistair Hartley, Chair of Governors commented: "Wow - what a superb performance! It was brilliant to see all of the hard work our young people put into the performance.

“Their talent shone through and everyone was so professional. A superb added extra was, that I was lucky enough to scoop up a raffle prize too!"

Grassroots programme

Switch-on Reading

As a school dedicated to improving school culture and learner outcomes through scientific research and practise.

We introduced Switch-On Reading at the start of the year and learners were nominated to take part. The aim of the programme is to increase the learners reading ages.

We are taking part in a trial of the Grassroots programme, a learner-led intervention found to reduce learner disagreement by up to 60% in the USA. This trial is being monitored and evaluated by the Behavioural Insights Team, IOE (University College London’s Faculty of Education and Society) and funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and the Youth Endowment Fund.

Our young people worked exceptionally hard, attending every session and showed enthusiasm and dedication, really trying to increase their reading ages. It has been really successful and positively impacted the learners’ reading ages. To mark the end of the programme, we held a party to celebrate their achievements.

The Grassroots programme empowers learners to reduce discord and positively affect their school climate.

A group of our young people have been chosen by their peers who are felt to best represent learner voice within the school.

Starting earlier this month, an expert will meet with this group of learners and facilitate 10 sessions to help our young people develop positive solutions.

Year 11 mock interviews Independent Challenge Time During Independent Challenge Time staff encourage learners to work on a specific challenge activity independently. They work through the activity under exam conditions and apply previously acquired skills and knowledge to the task.

This is a great way of assessing learners’ prior learning and understanding as well as developing their resilience when working through challenging tasks.

We are invested in development of our young people and recently held mock interviews for our Year 11 learners.

This not only provides them with skills they can use in life beyond school including, how to converse and talk about their skills, but it also gets them thinking about their futures.

Our Sixth Form News

Raised in Yorkshire

Competitive Courses Mentoring

During January we visited Leeds University for two conference days for Raised in Yorkshire, a partnership with the University of Leeds for our aspirant Medic and Dentists.

We have started our Competitive Courses mentoring programme with Year 12.

Our aspirant Medics and Dentists working on the Maths element of their UCAT exam, and the Oxbridge and other competitive course applicants have started their supra curriculum journey by looking at big interesting questions from Oxplore and Staircase 12.

This year-long, real-world research project enables our young people to experience a critical part of higher level study in these competitive courses as well as addressing how looking after healthy teeth is related to good school attendance for our Year 7 cohort.

We're looking forward to seeing bright smiles as they start the education mentoring phase!

Russell Group University Visit We had the great pleasure of taking 51 Year 12s to the University of Sheffield to experience our next local Russell Group University.

Students had the opportunity to discuss student living, finances, course choices with undergraduate ambassadors, as well as meeting teaching staff in a range of disciplines.

Our Curriculum Enrichment Forest School Café Development at UBHS Forest School not only allows the young people to express themselves in creative and constructive ways outside of the classroom, but helps them to learn other skills such as teamwork and listening skills.

This has been enhanced by the further developments to the Forest Café site enabling young people to challenge themselves further, by supporting the preparations for the build. This connects young people with nature and supports their overall wellbeing.

Field Lane take on The January Challenge As you’ll have already read Field Lane partnered with the national charity the Jo Cox Foundation, and 64 Million Artists, who are hosting The January Challenge.

Its purpose is to use creativity to spark confidence, conversation and connection sharing a different creative challenge, from a different source for every day in January.

Year 6 provided the creative challenge for Day 17: An Important Date, which brings memories and creativity together. Being part of an initiative like this, that can also be shared with others, is an enriching and engaging experience for anyone taking part - young or old.

Our Staff Super Heroes

Alison Calvert and Heather Green

Melanie Bowen

Debbie Dobson

Mark Hopkinson

Kate Ellis

Amina Lambat

Huge congratulations to colleagues from Batley Girls’ High School who have recently completed their NPQSL. Your hard work, dedication and commitment is superb, and developing evidence-informed practice is so important in our schools as we provide a great education for all our young people.

Melanie began her career here as the Finance Officer in 2001 so 2024 sees 23 years’ service.

She is a key member of the Trust finance team and provides support and training to colleagues across the Trust family of schools, as well as assisting the Trust Finance Manager and Chief Financial Officer.

Debbie is celebrating 20 years’ service at Upper Batley High School. She is a vital pillar in the business support team and turns her hand to many different tasks, including distribution of Fareshare food to those who need extra support in our local community.

Mark is the Aspens Manager at Batley Girls’ High School and has made significant improvements in catering management and food development.

The young people now enjoy a wide range of nutritious and delicious meals.

He couldn’t have done this without his amazing team!

Kate is Assistant Head responsible for Key Stage 1 at Manorfield. She is an all round brilliant member of the team and recently did a fantastic job organising the visit to Huddersfield Town Hall so the young people could engage in the Royal Opera House visit.

Amina is HLTA at Manorfield and she always sprinkles positivity wherever she goes. She is always flexible and incredibly positive.

Our Community Work … really means a lot to us, and we see our Trust and our schools at the very heart of our community. Community Makes Us and it is the unity in community that matters.

The Great Winter Get Together We came together at our Trust-wide Great Winter Get Together at Healey School this week.

We had a great turn out from Trustees, Governors and staff across the Trust as well as elderly members of the local community and young people. Everyone enjoyed a hot drink, some tasty food and an opportunity to chat and meet new people. It was a lovely way to end a wild and windy Tuesday!

Our Trust family of schools are at the heart of the Batley community and are strong supporters of The Great Get Together events in both the winter and summer months. The Great Winter Get Together is all about bringing people together to tackle loneliness, through one connection at a time.

Thank you to everyone who joined us; you never need to feel alone in our community.

Careers work Join our Community Careers Convention!

Thursday 29 February 2024 at Batley Town Hall We will shortly be sending invites with a QR code so you can register your attendance for this event.

Young people from our Trust family of schools will be attending during the school day. Then, from 4pm, we open up the event to the wider community welcoming families and any local people who would like to join us.

It's your opportunity to meet and network with education providers and employers from a range of industries. Offering free information, advice and support to inform you about a variety of career pathways for young people as well as adults.

Employability Skills

Our wider links Our family of schools Works closely with the BBEST Hub. Check out their website for details of local services, support and activities.

https://bbesthub.uk/About-Us/

We are proud to lead the Yorkshire Rose Teaching Partnership - providing high quality primary and secondary teacher training in West Yorkshire.

This consortium includes 15 local schools, Exceed SCITT and local Higher Education Institutions.

Our schools play a key role in the Calderdale & Kirklees Teaching School Hub. This Hub offers support to over 400 schools across our region.

The purpose of the hub is to provide high-quality professional development for teachers and leaders.

https://www.ckteachingschoolhub.org/

Support & advice for parents/carers and families Childnet International has produced a very informative resource for parents/carers to help you keep your child safe online: www.childnet.com/resources/parent-and-carer-toolkit/ For young people;

For families;

Other specialist services;

Childline Providing help & support for under 18s.

0800 11 11 www.childline.org.uk

NSPCC Free support & advice for parents/carers worried about a young person.

0808 800 500 www.nspcc.org.uk

Get it right from a genuine site Find out which sites are legal for downloading movies, music and games www.getitrightfromagenuinesite.org

The Mix Provides essential support for 13-25 year olds. www.themix.org.uk

Family Lives Free, professional non-judgemental advice.

0800 800 2222 www.familylives.org.uk

Ask about games Advice and online guides about gaming and PEGI ratings. www.askaboutgames.com

Batley Multi Academy Trust Our family of schools

Batley Multi Academy Trust Trust Development Centre c/o Upper Batley High School Blenheim Drive Batley WF17 0BJ 01924 942076 www.batleymat.co.uk