Batley Girls High School - Visual Arts College

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Batley Girls High School - Visual Arts College's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Batley Girls High School - Visual Arts College is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.batleygirls.co.uk

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

40 | BATLEY GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

Batley Girls’ school leaders,

parents and governors celebrate

Student Citizenship Awards Batley Girls’ High School, serving the Batley and Dewsbury

communities, has a very strong track record of challenging

poverty of aspiration, strengthening community cohesion

and responding to local and national challenges through a

proactive approach to critical thinking. It has an above average

number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, a

high percentage of girls for whom English is not their main

language, and attainment at entry is below the national average.

However, progress scores at GCSE are consistently significantly

above average for all students and in the top 10 per cent or

significantly above average for disadvantaged ones. Elaborating

on this are the two co-heads, Julie Haigh and David Cooper.

The school is passionately committed to securing the best possible academic

outcomes, but also deep and transformational character-based education. We

are national leaders in careers education, information, advice and guidance. Our

work in this field featured as one of eight case studies of good practice nationally

in the Ofsted Key Stage 3 curriculum survey 2015, and we also have a case study

published on the Careers England website.

Batley has two equally ranked head teachers. Julie links to the achievement

deputy head, staffing, finance and timetable, while David links to the teaching

and learning deputy head, transition, sixth form and careers and represents the

school in the Leeds Wider City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP). They also work

jointly on shaping the “character education” and “critical thinking” agendas for

REPORT CARD

BATLEY GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

»Co-head teachers: Julie Haigh

and David Cooper

»Founded in 2012

»Based in Batley, West Yorkshire

»Type of school: Secondary

academy

»No. of students: 1,271 pupils

»No. of staff: 88 teaching staff

and 110 associates

»Students from an Asian, Indian

or Pakistani background:

89.16 per cent

»Pupil premium: 34 per cent

»www.batleygirls.co.uk

Batley Girls’ High

School

41BATLEY GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

the school. This system illustrates the

central tenet of developing distributive

and sustainable leadership throughout

the school.

Securing strength in leadership

has been achieved by honing

opportunities to enable our staff, at

all levels, to develop initiatives and

strategies to improve the school. We

have embedded a deep, reflective

culture and have a leadership

structure that is “flatter” than is

typical nationally. Deeper, reflective

practice enables well-considered

decision-making and embraces a

genuine willingness to consider the

views of others. Our senior leadership

team have the autonomy to lead and

have ownership of strategy; this, in

turn, has led to the development,

with passion, of their expertise and

knowledge base. Our teachers and

leaders are encouraged to be risk-

takers and our staff actively engage

with and lead our in-house continuing

professional development (CPD)

programme, with an endless drive

for school improvement and personal

growth. Leading a School Direct

teaching alliance enables us to train

and secure the next generation.

This approach is also reflected in the

student leadership culture of the

school. We empower our students

with the autonomy to actively lead

initiatives and become key change

agents within the school and wider

community. Whether this is through

working with local higher education

institutions to construct degree

programmes, leading on our charity

initiatives, sitting on interview panels,

or making key decisions through our

school council, we involve students at

every possible opportunity.

We have built a strong capacity to

cover national priorities by delivering

workshops for staff, students

and parents, and have featured

on the BBC’s Sunday Politics.

Ourstudentshave also represented

their views in parliament and through

our partnership with “The UK in a

Changing EU”. We are recognised

as a beacon of good practice and

our co-heads have represented the

UK education system at a European

Parliament conference in Strasbourg,

where they were asked to share the

school’s strategies on engaging young

people in discussion of controversial

issues. Our commitment to spiritual,

moral, social and cultural education

means that we are continually building

our school as a community through

open and democratic dialogue on all

the major contemporary debates. Our

guest lecture ensures that our students

are challenged by cutting-edge

academic research, while events such

as “East Meets West” confirm that we

bring a global, faith-based dimension

to our work.

Batley Girls’ High School

has a strong visual arts

culture which underpins

its transformation as a

school

Deeper, reflective

practice enables

well-considered

decision-making

and embraces a

genuine

willingness to

consider the views

of others

“

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

42 | BATLEY GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

Our curriculum model is designed to

achieve breadth and balance in an

increasingly academic environment.

We have an open structure where

the English Baccalaureate is available

to all and, in addition to academic

and vocational GCSE courses, we

offer enrichment without formal

examination in a range of character-

building programmes, including

leadership, salon services (vocational

training) and “Food for Life”. Our

Progress 8 scores are in the top

quintile nationally for all and for

disadvantaged students. We believe

we are striking the right balance with

our curriculum. However, as always,

we constantly look to improve. We

invest heavily in Key Stage 3 and

have worked hard to build a strong

foundation for learning here while still

securing outcomes for older students.

With a cohort that has a middle-to-

low ability skewed intake, it has been

vital to accelerate progress in English,

mathematics, science, modern

languages and the humanities.

English and mathematics progress

scores are now consistently in the

top 20 per cent – significantly

above average. In terms of the

humanities and modern languages,

we are now also well above average.

Underpinning this achievement is a

drive to secure excellent teaching and

learning through mastery, embedding

learning and seizing opportunities

to get out of the classroom to

learn, such as our “Big Day Out”.

Enrichment opportunities such as

humanities visits, Debrett’s visits,

student work experience placements

to the Department of Business,

Energy and Industrial Strategy

(BEIS) and our award-winning

research initiatives, we believe, are

transformational.

We never assume that stereotypical

life experiences of children feature

in the lives of every student. Thus,

we seek to enhance their experience

through such provision as supporting

learning about the gothic genre

by visiting Whitby and the Abbey,

understanding coastal erosion by

visiting the seaside, ensuring a deeper

understanding of the arts and culture

through our international and British

visits – in short, by providing real

world connectivity to our learning at

every possible turn.

We recognise the challenges posed

by Social Emotional and Mental

Health (SEMH) issues and are

seeking to build on current strengths

within our school. We intend that

our partnership research project

with Leeds Beckett University, and

our work across the local HUB (17

primaries and 3 secondaries) will,

by prioritising early intervention

through a coherent, multi-agency

approach, lead to significant

improvements, particularly in early

years and primary. We plan to secure

a stronger platform for students’

success by providing early proactive

support. Proactive, rather than

reactive, practice is a key strategic

driver in all that we do.

We were rated “outstanding” by

Ofsted 2013/14. For us it is the quality

of what we do, day in, day out, and

how that transforms lives, which is

ourmeasure.

Enrichment

opportunities

such as

humanities visits,

Debrett’s visits,

student work

placements to

the Department

of Business,

Energy and

Industrial

Strategy (BEIS)

and our award-

winning research

initiatives, we

believe, are

transformational

“

Batley Girls’ High School’s

annual Question Time event

has had a significant impact

on the level of debate in the

school

www.batleygirls.co.uk

This article was sponsored by Batley Girls High School - Visual Arts College. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy