The Batley Buzz October 2023

A Trust at the heart of the Batley community October 2023 Edition 2 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

Amazing artists At Manorfield, we are incredibly lucky to have some amazing artists. Our love of art starts in the early years and develops as a progression in skills through school.

Year 1 have focussed on self portraits, which they have explored through both pastels and digital art. Year 2 have been developing their colour mixing skills. Opportunities to engage with art are always available in the provision in the early years.

Royal Opera House As part of the Kirklees Year of Music, we are participating in a project called 'Create and Sing' in association with the Royal Opera House. This project is being led by Mrs Ellis and it will allow our children to combine singing and drama to build their self-expression, creative collaboration, performance confidence, voice, movement, and memory skills. At the end of the project, our children will be joining Royal Opera House artists and other local schools at Huddersfield Town Hall on Wednesday 6 December to sing music from The Magic Flute alongside professional opera singers.

Charity fundraisers Our school community has been fundraising for charity. We had a very successful Macmillan coffee morning and we will be running a coffee morning to raise funds for The Kirkwood on Friday 20 October. We know that engagement with charity work will make our children great global citizens.

Presentation of the Arthur Halliwell Award Ama Chaney visited school to award us with this amazing trophy. We are its first recipients since the pandemic.

Ama said she was inspired by all the outdoor learning opportunities we have to offer. She joined us for one of the final gardening clubs of the year.

Children were making herb bracelets, wood chipping the pathways, weeding the vegetable plots and planting fennel and spinach.

Batley Food Bank Collection

Foraging Fun

Organised by the school’s Student Leadership Team, we have been collecting donations for Batley Food Bank. Over the course of the week, students, staff, parents and carers across our Primary and Secondary phase gathered trolleys full of generous amounts food, ready to be gifted!

Children in Year 1 have been learning about growing food and using it in home cooked food.

They have been out hunting on the school grounds with Miss Porter, the Facilities Supervisor, for the best berries. They were indeed the best as they helped us to make some tasty apple and raspberry crumbles!

Nursery’s

apple

harvest

We welcomed Judith and Woody from The Kirkwood

They have been reading Pat Hutchin's 10 Red Apples, joining in with the patterned story and learning to use fingers to represent numbers when singing 'Way Up High In The Apple Tree'.

The children developed fine motor skills to cut up the apples and rub topping to make scrumptious apple crumble. The delicious smell of cooking brought lots of people to see them!

Believe - Achieve - Succeed

Year 3 classes visit Batley library

and exploring the local area.

They studied geographical and historical facts about our area.

As part of their learning about “Identity” living in Batley

Year 6 look forward to visiting soon.

Refreshments were served, including samosas and pakoras to take away, to fundraise for the vital work of The Kirkwood charity. Two ladies, from our lunchtime staff, Aasma and Tasleem, had been up since dawn, catering for the event. Many thanks to all those involved.

Our Secondary News

Hosts of The Great Debate

Young leaders

Batley Girls' High School has been chosen to host The Great Debate, which is run by the Historical Association. Students from local schools will attend this public speaking competition, where they have five minutes to present their speech arguing their answer to the question.

We are extremely proud of our Year 9 students who supported with the cross country event earlier this month where hundreds of students took part from various primary schools across Kirklees. Our School Sports Coordinator said they demonstrated excellent leadership skills & were extremely helpful.

This year’s topic is: Which historical place or person from your local area deserves greater recognition?

Students are asked to explore the local history of their area to identify a person or place that has contributed to the world that we live in today and should be better known.

The winner, chosen by University academics from Leeds Beckett, Newcastle, Bradford and Huddersfield universities, will compete in the national final. We are one of three schools in Yorkshire selected for the regional heat so it’s a great honour.

Careers Fair

They hope to be able to continue this work and help at the finals in early November.

We recently held our annual Careers/Higher Education Fair with a wide range of employers and HE providers.

We are so grateful for the support, information and guidance they provide our students.

A range of year groups attended to help them research and formulate their thoughts about their future pathways and career planning.

Sample feedback from student evaluations: “There was a good variety of stalls. Even when stalls were busy, there were always enough staff to come and speak to you.”

“Good opportunity to explore future options.”

“Interesting to communicate with people from different sectors.”

A warm welcome with wonderful bakes

Reading Mentors Annually, we run a very successful reading mentor support group to help younger students struggling with reading. The scheme involves pairing KS4 students with KS3 students to provide weekly one-to-one support, including discussions about what students find difficult about reading, help choosing books/magazines, listening to each other read and providing constructive, positive feedback. The results of the scheme are amazing and clearly demonstrate the positive effects of working with a reading mentor.

This year, a group of specially selected Year 10 and 11 students attended a workshop led by Kirklees Reading Friends, to learn the skills required to be a successful reading mentor. The workshop helped them understand the challenges a struggling reader may encounter and they discussed strategies they could use to help their mentee overcome them. They also talked through how to build positive relationships with their mentees, which in turn will help them build confidence in their reading ability. The students who attended the workshops commented on how useful they had found it and were looking forward to putting the skills they learned into practice.

Parents/carers of our Year 7 students were welcomed with a variety of baked goods, whipped up by our Year 10 GCSE Food Technology class, at our recent Welcome Evening for new starters and their families. Not only was it a chance for parents and carers to meet their child’s Form Teacher, Year Leader and Progress Leader, they were also able to sample some delicious treats too!

Creative writing inspiration

A musical interlude We recently invited two local bands to perform to our Year 7 and 8 learners as part of Kirklees Year of Music 2023.

The brilliant Nik Herring joined us again for a creative writing workshop with Year 8 and 9 learners.

DeadWax - an alternative Hip Hop and Metal act and Big Wave with their mix of instrumental world music, cinematic sounds, electronica and blistering guitar solos performed.

He taught them about the 'three Cs': character, conflict and conclusion as well as various themes to inform the practical part of the session, which saw the learners really engaged with writing and willing to share with the group.

Following this, a selection of Year 7, 8 and 9 learners had the chance to hear how Big Wave made their career in music, learn about the songwriting process and use some of their high-end drum, guitar and effects equipment.

The outputs from the afternoon of workshops will be developed into an anthology and published.

This was a brilliant opportunity for our learners to discover the wide array of musical talent in Kirklees, enjoy some fantastic live music and gain an understanding of how music can become a career.

We were lucky that Nik also held a session with The Wonder Writers Club (our creative writing club) about ghost stories, well it was Friday 13th after all!

Boosting learning We’re currently holding regular booster sessions to support learners with their revision. Our staff team of experts are on hand to deliver the classes and help our learners to bridge gaps in knowledge, using a QLA (Question Level Analysis) from their previous assessment. These will help learners to prepare for their AP1 Internal Assessments in November and in turn aid them to secure a place at their chosen college, helping our young people to be the best they can be.

Our Sixth Form News

Open Day at University of Huddersfield

Introduction to course handbooks…

We took all BG6 students to Huddersfield University for their Open Day on Wednesday 18 October, which was an excellent day full of subject sessions, accommodation and campus tours, and a school specific Q&A session in the afternoon.

Independent learning is pivotal in preparing post-16 students for post-18 study and the introduction of curriculum course handbooks this year has provided a brilliant structure for that.

Year 12 have settled in well, have started to work with the University of Huddersfield on The Progression Module, and are getting into great routines with their course handbooks.

Year 13 planning for the future Year 13 have been working really hard on their UCAS and apprenticeship applications and getting stuck into their enrichment programmes. Some of the amazing Year 13 students have already started to receive interview offers for higher apprenticeships with Leeds Teaching Hospitals. We wish them every bit of luck with their preparation.

Exciting plans - sneak preview…

The new common area is well on the way and the BG6 student leadership had a sneak preview to the final plans. Watch this space…!

Our Curriculum Enrichment

Our Trust family of schools offers a wide range of curriculum enrichment activities.

This greatly enhances our young people's educational experience, and also supports their health & wellbeing.

Our Staff Super Heroes Angie Garside

Rebecca Sokol

Gareth Goddard

Congratulations to Congratulations to Congratulations to Angie from Upper Rebecca who has Gareth, Assistant Batley High School for achieved the full Guide Head at Batley completing the Leader qualification for Girls’ High School Yorkshire Marathon.

Batley Girls’ High for his NPQH. What an amazing School. It’s a This takes the total achievement! wonderful achievement to 16 members for Rebecca, also for across our family of the school and the schools who have Trust. This Guide unit gained the new is seen as a model of style Ambition modern flexible NPQs. Guiding.

Anna Bradnum

Refat Nazir

Stef Lane-Stewart

Aasma Zaman & Tasleem Akhtar

For always going over For her commitment to Eco Congratulations to Aasma and Tasleem at Healey have Schools, securing Anna, Deputy Head at and above, you really been amazing! They made fresh pakoras are appreciated as a Manorfield’s Eco-Schools Healey for achieving and samosas for our Kirkwood coffee award for a second year, her NPQSL. Anna has valued member of the morning and donated them as their staff team at Manorfield we now have a more worked hard to contribution to the charity. They are sustainable school and a School. achieve this senior both lunchtime supervisors and go beautiful plaque to leadership above and beyond to support Healey celebrate this! qualification and School. develop more evidence-informed practice at Healey.

Well done!

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 Kirkwood Charity Our schools have been supporting The Kirkwood, a local charity that helps to improve the quality of life for local people, against all the odds.

As you’ll have read earlier in this edition Healey held a coffee morning with a plethora of refreshments being served, which was attended by The Kirkwood’s mascot, Woody the bear!

Manorfield are planning a similar event just before half term and Batley Girls’ High School met with Judith Ambler, Community Fundraiser from The Kirkwood during their Stronger Together meeting to plan for their event, which will take place on the last day of term before the Christmas break.

Does your child wish to learn, sing or play a musical instrument?

Musica Kirklees has a host of excellent musical traditions in Kirklees and Musica Kirklees has been successfully delivering music tuition in schools and running music centres across Kirklees since 1992. Their teachers visit schools across the local area to deliver lessons.

Careers work As a Trust we hold the Quality in Careers Standard in all three secondary schools. This is the national quality award for careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) in secondary schools, colleges and work-based learning that is reviewed every three years to ensure schools continuously strive to improve provision.

The Trust Careers Team are partnering with Unifrog, a digital online careers platform where our young people can track their progress and access a huge variety of information about careers, apprenticeships, T levels and further education. We plan to roll this out across our Trust family of secondary schools next half term.

Our secondary schools have been busy with various activities this half term. Year 10s have been on work experience and we’ve also had a Careers Fair. These experiences are vital in helping our young people consider their future options.

A reminder…

Community Careers Fair Thursday 29 February 2024 at Batley Town Hall For all the schools in our family, as well as the local community.

Save the date - more information to follow.

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 270 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 C/O Batley Girls’ High School Windmill Lane WF17 0LD Telephone: 01924 350080 Website: batleymat.co.uk