Weekly Information - Thursday 21st December 2023

Exceptional Achievement Award – 15.12.23

Led by Mike Donoghue, JTMAT CEO, eight John Taylor High School students joined Mr Twynham, Deputy Headteacher, to receive the inaugural John Taylor MAT Exceptional Achievement Award for their outstanding contribution to sport, music, charity or overcoming adversity. 

Along with our students, there were pupils from seven other schools from the JTMAT who had been selected to receive the award. Mr Donoghue opened the presentation by saying how proud he felt of every student and continued to read out and highlight some of the pupils’ testimonies. It was clear to see that not only did our teachers feel inspired by these stories, but so did the other nominees. Mr Donoghue explained that ‘to be able to make such a contribution alongside studying, is a real testament of the pupils’ tenacity and resilience.’

The initiative behind the award has been entirely co-ordinated by Mrs Cochrane, John Taylor High School Headteacher and Mrs Rowe, Mosely Academy Headteacher who have worked hard to bring the award to life. Mrs Cochrane said ‘we have so many talented young people amongst us who deserve real recognition. The Exceptional Achievement Award goes beyond each individual school, it encompasses the wider JTMAT community and we hope staff, parents and students support this program.’

At the end of the presentation, Mr Twynham had the pleasure of presenting our JTHS nominees with a certificate and pin badge to wear with pride around the school. Mr Twynham took the time to recognise each student individually and ask about their stories. It seems we have a promising group of Sports people amongst us at John Taylor High School.

Lucas has been accepted to play football internationally for Wales under 16’s, Katie has represented several institutions for her hurdling ability including England Athletics, the Commonwealth and has a European ranking. Milo is currently 2x champion at WKU English Open in Kumite and is now ranked World Champion in the WKU Karate World Championships. Seren represented the UK in an international U15’s Football tournament in Miami and Beth has represented Staffordshire in the U14’s Football tournament. Joe is excelling in Rugby in the Staffordshire Leicester Tiger Development Programme and George is a freestyle Skier and been invited to join the WAY Academy who recognise upcoming athletes with ambitions of reaching X-Games or Olympic standard. Tom has been selected to represent England in the World Championships for Karate in Belgium and finally Lauren, who was unable to join the awards presentation, has been selected to represent England in the World Championships for Karate next year.

On behalf of everyone at John Taylor High School, we would like to give our young people a huge congratulations. We are so proud to see our pupils succeeding and hope they continue in their areas of expertise with the passion and ambition we have seen from them.

‘One community, striving for personal excellence.’

Thank you to our Young Sporting Ambassadors who have not only created Gift Packs and written Christmas Cards for our local elderly residents in Palmer Close, but on Wednesday 20th December, they took the time out of their day to hand deliver the packs. 

Around 30 residents received a pack and were absolutely made up with the kindness of our students and beyond grateful to be thought of at this time of year. Comments from the residents included 'That's so sweet, thank you so much' and 'That's made my day!' it also gave our pupils that real feel-good-factor.

Our Young Sporting Ambassadors have underpinned our schools core values of Kindness and Respect by being involved in the iniative organised by Mrs Berry. Well done to everyone involved, you should be really proud of yourself for making a difference. 

For Parents - Little Digital Helps Toolkit

Roblox and SWGfL have collaborated together and created a checklist for parents which includes:

• How to report abuse.
• How to block users.
• Setting up a parent control pin.
• And more.

The resource can be downloaded HERE.

If your child is getting new online devices over the holiday season, please read the safety information below to help you do this safely.

Christmas_safety_letter.docx

The 16–19 Discretinary Bursary Fund is a government-provided, means-tested fund available to support students who have difficulty in meeting costs relating to their studies. To qualify, you must be under 19 years of age on 31st August in the academic year in which you start your programme of study, and you will be expected to provide evidence of personal and/or financial hardship. Each case will be assessed individually, however, usually this would be based on a household income of £27,000 or less, plus any benefits you are in receipt of at this point in time.  

For further information, please see the guidance and application form using the following link John Taylor High School (jths.co.uk).

If you have queries please do not hesitate to get in touch [email protected]

Thank you

The Sixth Form Team

Accounting. A career for everyone.

A career in accountancy can take you places. To industries that excite you and countries that you love. Because finance is everywhere. 

Accountancy opens the door to a wide range of opportunities, both inside and outside of finance. It is open to anyone, anywhere, from any walk of life - students don’t need to excel at maths to become an accountant. 

As the world’s most forward-thinking accountancy body ACCA provides the opportunities and tools needed to be become a successful finance and business professional. 

With ACCA, students can develop the skills and knowledge they need to secure their first job and help build the career they are dreaming of whatever route taken.  

Qualifications available include: 

We are getting in touch to let you know about an exciting opportunity for your students interested in studying medicine and dentistry. Applications for our free, online, and national King’s College London Medicine and Dentistry Lecture Series 2024 are now open!

This programme is for students across the UK in Year 11, 12, and 13, who have only attended non-selective state schools since age 11 and are interested in becoming a doctor or dentist.

Please circulate this opportunity to students who you think will be interested.

For over three years this online programme has supported students in accessing the hyper-competitive medical and dental degrees by acting as a hub of support for their questions and queries. Over the course of the lecture programme students will hear from a variety of speakers to help them make the best application to medicine or dentistry possible! Last year’s lectures included the following:

• Medical and dental specialities: paediatrics, prosthodontics, renal transplant, maxillofacial and many more!
• Q&A’s each week with current medical and dental students.
• Support for the application process: UCAT, personal statements, and interviews.
• September Q&A with key admissions colleagues in the school of medicine at KCL, UCL, St George’s, Queen Mary, and Imperial.
• A session on other careers in healthcare with six professionals currently working and teaching in the sector (nursing, dietetics, clinical science, etc.)

Lectures will be held on Wednesday evenings at 6-7.15pm. Our first lecture will be on Wednesday 14^th February.

For more information and to apply, students should follow this link. The deadline to apply is Monday 15^th January 2023.

Finally, here is what some students had to say from last year’s programme:

• Student from Tower Hamlets: This lecture series has established the pros and cons to medicine and dentistry, but it has also communicated how to overcome these cons in an articulate manner. I feel much more educated in the fields of medicine and dentistry as before watching this series, I was always presented the sugar-coated perspective of these fields, which can create a false interpretation of what medicine and dentistry actually entails. I now know exactly what I want to study (and what to avoid) which is super helpful as it has eliminated all the feeling of indecision and hesitation that I had!
• Student from Leicester: It has really been effective into giving me an insight into dentistry and medicine, what they entail and also allowed me to really dig deeper and gain more information about different topics within the jobs and allowed me to learn a range of new information much of which I could also include in my personal statement.
• Student from Bexley: Through hearing about the experiences of various students and professionals, this lecture series has confirmed that I truly want to study medicine. Although the application process can be quite daunting, the lecture series has helped me gain a better understanding of how to write a good personal statement, do well in the UCAT, and be prepared for interviews. As well as this, moderators were always more than willing to provide us with advice and information on various topics and parts of the application process.
• Student from Milton Keynes: Attending the lecture series was instrumental in confirming my decision to pursue dentistry. The talks given by dental students shed light on their academic achievements in secondary school, their perspective on dentistry as a fulfilling profession, and they emphasized how the importance of patient satisfaction is a valuable aspect of the dental field.
• Student from Bedfordshire: I’ve always wanted to work in the medical field to help people but did not know what it involved or required. The lecture series has taught me how huge the medical field really is and how different yet important all fields are. It has also opened a door for me to also go and study dentistry in the future also. The lecture series has cemented my aspirations to go and work in the medical field as it is so interesting and rewarding.

application form can be found here.