The Batley Buzz October 2022

October

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

A busy half term!

We have been working really hard on embedding our phonics skills across school because we know that a strong start with phonics results in our children becoming fluent readers by the time they are in Year 2. Our Reception classes have settled into the routines of Read, Write Inc amazingly and our Year 1 and 2 pupils have enjoyed settling back into the routines that they know and love.

Our Nursery has had some enhancements to their outdoor area, we have a new slide and climbing tunnel and an A-frame climbing frame, which the Nursery children have enjoyed accessing. All this play is so important to develop gross motor skills so that the children are strong and ready for writing as they mark make over the next few months.

We have taken delivery of lots of new books, thanks to a very generous grant from the Foyle Foundation, and will be working to develop our library over this academic year. Our plan is to use our library as a language hub, enabling our pupils and parents to engage with reading together.

Maths Workshop for Parents!

Over 40 parents joined our teachers to learn all about how we do calculations in each year group, from Nursery through to Y6.

By hosting both a morning and evening workshop, we were able to support over 60 children with basic maths. Parents could ask questions, make notes and suggest ideas for future workshops. Indeed we are: Stronger Together!

Digging for our supper!

Every year at potato harvest time, we hold a Saturday Dig-athon, where we dig up our potato harvest and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

There really is nothing quite like baked potatoes cooked on an open fire! Everyone had a fun afternoon outside in the fresh air on a lovely sunny autumnal day!

Adventures at Forest School

Gold School Award

For the first time ever, Healey School has achieved the Gold Award for School Games. We celebrated World Fitness day, with every class taking part in sporting activities. Our girls’ football team are ready to be ‘Lionesses’ and are thoroughly enjoying their training. Well done to our Y3 and Y6 girls, this half term, for qualifying for the cross country final. One of our “Golden Rules” is to be “Healthy and Active”.

Learning about the environment

Year 4 have been learning about how to protect living things in the environment, as well as what to do to increase wildlife in our local area. The children designed their own methods of how they could increase wildlife in our school grounds. They have really enjoyed doing this and learning about air pollution and investigating whether everyday school items are biodegradable or not. We now have a school ‘Green Team’ for environmental awareness, and they are responsible for eco friendly monitoring.

Wildlife photos by Mrs Lang

Our Secondary News

Spotlight on careers….

Careers Fair

Our annual Careers and Higher Education Fair took place on Wednesday 12 October, which gave students in Year 9, 10 and 11, as well as BG6 College students, the opportunity to talk to an array of higher education providers and employers from across the region and wider UK.

We value career development and know that having face-to-face advice and guidance is important in this journey for our young people.

For our students to be able to discuss the recruitment process for higher education and employment, makes it feel less daunting and gives them the confidence to make steps to their futures from an informed position.

Careers in the creative industry

In July, our current Year 11 students, who were then in Year 10, had a fantastic day trip visiting businesses in various aspects of the supply chain of the textile industry.

West Yorkshire is a hub for the textiles industry and the schedule included visits to: the Textile Centre of Excellence in Huddersfield, W.T. Johnson & Sons, and Camira Fabrics.

It really opened their eyes to the career and apprenticeship opportunities on offer in their local area, giving them a technical understanding of the fabrics around them in their lives as well as planting seeds for progression routes for Year 11 and beyond.

Mayoral duties for our students

Last term a group of our students who had completed the Democracy Friendly Schools programme attended the Mayor Making ceremony (Mayor & Deputy Mayor) and Annual General Meeting of Kirklees Council at Huddersfield Town Hall.

The students are pictured with Mr Burke, the newly elected Deputy Mayor of Kirklees.

They found the experience both interesting and insightful, and felt honoured to have the opportunity.

Former learner, now local MP visit and Q&A with Leadership Team

Dewsbury MP, Mark Eastwood, visited Upper Batley High School.

As somebody who attended UBHS, he was very keen to revisit his old school and he was amazed by its transformation and the engaging lessons he saw, and the fantastic learning experiences on offer.

Mark also spent time talking to representatives of our Learner Leadership Team and some of our Head Learner candidates. Our learners had the opportunity to ask Mark about his own career pathway and why he wanted to become an MP for the area in which he grew up. They also asked him about the work he was doing to help the local community with the current cost of living crisis.

Restart A Heart Day

Last week was ‘Restart A Heart Day’ and all our Year 7 learners were taught CPR from Yorkshire ambulance staff & volunteers.

There were over 30,000 young people taking part in this crucial life saving project in secondary schools across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Year 10 work experience

Year 10 learners began their work experience this week in a variety of jobs from primary and secondary schools to retail, dental, pharmacies and law firms.

One of our learners has been working with the PE team and the other has been supporting library management; scanning, ordering and data inputting to assist Mrs Coates with the reading strategy.

The feedback already from employers has been amazing, some learners have even been offered weekend jobs! Well done to all our learners.

Our Sixth Form News

From work experience to presenting at a conference!

Two of our students undertook a Dentistry Enrichment Option in school in Year 12. They were trained as oral health ambassadors, where they delivered presentations and workshops to KS2 students at feeder primary schools.

“I found that it helped develop my interpersonal skills and really enhanced my confidence in delivering oral health education to students.”

They then held a work experience placement at the Leeds Dental Institute (LDI) in July, as part of Transformation Fortnight where they learnt a lot about the lives of dental students. This gave them opportunities, such as using the dental stimulator and experience small group lectures about different dental treatments.

“As you can imagine, for someone like myself who is wanting to apply to study Dental Surgery at university, this was an invaluable experience which I’ll be able to draw upon in my UCAS applications and, hopefully, at interviews.”

Professor Sue Pavitt who works in DentCRU at the LDI, reached out and asked if they would like to present alongside her at the Thackray Museum Of Medicine as part of a conference earlier this year. After several online meetings with Professor Pavitt to prepare, they attended and presented their work. Whilst presenting to an adult audience of experts was very daunting for them, but they were able to stretch their comfort zone.

After the presentation, several people from the audience congratulated the students, which made them realise that people in the audience must have listened attentively to what they had to say.

BG6 students with Professor Pavitt Professor Pavitt wrote to us afterwards to say:

“Well done to both students, everyone said you stole the show and wanted to say how well you did - the Lord Mayor and Dr Philip Wood, the Chief Medical Officer of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said you were outstandingly impressive - and Rachael said it was an epic talk! I was so proud of you both. Well done and thank you so much”.

These students have reached personal rewards for taking part in this healthcare conference and representing the school/college community and we are all extremely proud of them.

Our Curriculum Enrichment

Our 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

Sam Vickers, FCCT

Has been awarded a Fellowship from the Chartered College of Teaching, which is absolutely amazing. This award is in recognition of her commitment and achievement within the teaching profession and the impact that has had on the profession as well as her own professional development.

A big congratulations to Anne Jordan, the Early Years Foundation Stage Lead at Field Lane, for completing her 100th Park Run!

Rebecca Sokol Rebecca supports young people in the library at BGHS and coordinates a wide range of exciting training activities for ITT and ECTs. Thank you for your hard work in developing our new teachers and future leaders.

Laura is a hugely talented English teacher, who teaches across the full age range from primary through to post 16. She is also Year 7 Achievement Lead at BGHS and has worked hard with the pastoral team to ensure a smooth transition for the new cohort joining BGHS.

For her tireless effort with Erasmus. Not only did she plan and run the UK trip in March this year, but she has recently attended a trip to Spain and continues to build on those partnership links with other schools, working together to create new materials to promote student and staff wellbeing and resilience.

Emma Rodrigues

Laura Sawyer

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.

ACTIVATE Week 2022

ACTIVATE week is a BBEST initiative which was launched last year and is now in its second year, back by popular demand!

During ACTIVATE week, young people, teachers and staff are encouraged to actively travel to and from school.

The purpose of this event it to not only encourage being active, but also to explain the benefits of walking/cycling/scooting to school, instead of driving. It also encourages friendly competition using the ACTIVATOR PORTAL to recognise individuals’ achievements.

If we all play our part, we can make roads safer, reduce the amount of pollution in the atmosphere, be more active and set a great example for others.

We are looking for Governors across the Trust

Careers Hub

Two of our secondary schools; Batley Girls’ High School & Upper Batley High School, lead on the Kirklees Careers Hub, and offer support on careers information, advice and guidance across all Kirklees Schools.

are passionate about providing outstanding careers education for all our young people, and raising their aspirations for the future.