At John E. Batty there is a strong tradition of the school being at the heart of our community. This is shown in many different ways, be it through the many occasions when the community supports the school, or the times when the school supports the community. You will find below an outline of some of the ways in which we develop and maintain good relationships with the school and wider community.
Friends of John E. Batty
We are fortunate at John E. Batty to have a long standing group of people with links to the school that help organise and run a wide variety of community events. This group, called the Friends of John E. Batty, runs/supports events such as:
- Christmas, Easter and Summer Fayres These are well attended and lots of fun.
- Christmas parties and trips to theatres to watch pantomimes.
- Autumn, Spring and Summer Discos often on a theme.
- Christmas Secrets Room The chance for children to purchase and wrap presents at school.
- Easter Competitions Traditionally Easter Bonnet/ Hat competitions or Decorate an Egg competitions.
- Harvest Bingo Bingo session for senior citizens in the local area held in school.
- Bags to School Collections.
The group is always looking for new ideas to support the children in school and come up with new ideas all the time. We are all very grateful to the tireless work of this dedicated group of people.
Local Churches
We are lucky at John E. Batty to have very good relationships with local churches. We regularly have visits by Reverend Harrison from St. Peter’s Church to take assemblies and support RE lessons. On an annual basis we hold our Easter services at the church and invite parents and carers to celebrate these important times of the year. We also have strong links with Zetland Methodist Church. At Christmas our musicians and choir entertain and get entertained by senior members of the Church. We greatly value the support given to school by the local churches.
School Sports Partnership
For many years now we have been part of the Schools Sports Partnership co-ordinated by Rye Hills Secondary School. This has enabled the school to increase the sporting opportunities being offered to the children. The partnership has given opportunities for staff at the school receive training from specialist PE teachers and given opportunity for the children to be taught directly by teachers from the secondary school. The children are given the experience of taking part in inter-school sporting activities both competitive and non-competitive. We greatly value the extra dimension the partnership brings to the children’s chances of engaging in quality physical activity.
Libraries
For many years the school has had an excellent relationship with local libraries. Such support has gone someway to enabling us to develop a lending library for the children in school to use. In addition we regularly have visits to the Laburnum Road Library and often ask the librarians to come into school to help the children with their library knowledge and skills.
Emergency Services
We have a great tradition in school of inviting members of the emergency services in to school to deliver the very important messages they have about being safe and responsible member of the community.
Road Safety and Cycling Proficiency Training
Each year we take part in Redcar and Cleveland Schools Road Safety Quiz. This helps to raise the childrens awareness of road safety issues in a fun way. We have been successful having reached the finals on many occasions.
In addition the children in Y5 get the opportunity to be trained in how to safely ride their bicycles by the accredited members of the Local Authority Road Safety Team.