Weekly Information - Friday 20th September 2024

Dear all,

Following on from our Chair of Governors' message confirming my appointment as permanent Headteacher at John Taylor High School, I wanted to take this opportunity to express how honoured I am to be given this opportunity and how excited I am to be able to lead such a fantastic school.

This is a special school with highly skilled and dedicated staff, students who display our school values every day and a highly supportive community of parents and carers. I am fully committed to ensuring that we continue to provide the very best education for your children and am very much looking forward to my new role.

The success of our students relies on a strong relationship between school, our young people and their families and I would like to thank you in advance for your ongoing support.

We will now start the process to recruit a permanent Deputy Headteacher to replace the role that I have vacated.

With very best wishes,

Mr J Blanchenot

Headteacher

The following students celebrated their achievements with Mr Blanchenot this week, congratulations to them all!

Our Hot Chocolate with the Head is back and what a wonderful session it was. Not only was this the first celebration of the year for our students, but it was the first one for Mr Blanchenot in his new appointment of Headteacher, which he felt very proud to be part of!

Whilst the students tucked in to their chocolate goodies and enjoyed their hot chocolate, Mr Blanchenot began by congratulating Bethan and Rebekah for being nominated. The students also shared what they had been up to over the summer holidays, which included holidays in France, camping in the Lake District and lots of fun days out visiting castles.

The first nomination was for Rebekah who had been put forward by Mrs Clayton for participating in the Alrewas Show and winning 2^nd prize and the ‘Best in Show’ trophy. Rebekah explained that her favourite subject is art and her winning entry at the Alrewas Show was inspired by Henri Rousseau - here is her incredible entry:

Next, Bethan told the group about her Careers Logo that she had designed as part of a competition led by Mrs Ball. Despite Bethan not winning with her design, Mr Blanchenot explained that the nomination was more about the commitment and contribution Bethan had made for taking part in the competition, which she should be very proud of. Here's her fantastic design:

Unfortunately, Chloe and Lexi were unable to make it today. Chloe had been nominated for her handwork and commitment to dance outside of school and Lexi for winning 1^st prize and ‘The Promising Artist Award’ at the Alrewas Show.

It was a pleasure for Mr Blanchenot to spend his break time listening to our inspiring students who have demonstrated our core vales and gone above and beyond. You are all role models to all other students and we are proud to have you in our school community.

Open Evening 2024 – Year 7 intake

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please spread the word if you know anyone who would be interested.

John Taylor High School welcomes Year 6 parents & children to join us for our School Open Evening on Thursday 24^th October from 6pm-8.15pm. Discover what our school can offer your child by attending a presentation and a self-guided tour of our school’s classrooms and facilities.

This is a free, ticketed event. Click here to book your tickets now: bit.ly/4ebJJ4S

See details below:

John Taylor High School’s Sixth Form Open Evening & Resources

• 6.00pm to 6.15pm
• 6.25pm to 6.40pm
• 6.50pm to 7.05pm
• 7.15pm to 7.30pm
• 7.40pm to 7.55pm

Please ensure that you book a ticket for each person attending the evening so that there is a seat for each person. This will ensure that rooms are not overcrowded. If a presentation slot is full or you are unable to attend, we have provided a copy of all presentations on our website. These will also be available throughout the year to support the decision-making process.

Over the next few weeks, please take your time to read about the full range of courses that we offer and the entry requirements for each course. You may want to review your son/daughter’s projected grades on www.go4schools.com when making decisions about how suitable a course is to pursue in the sixth form. Students have also been advised to think about their Post 18 opportunities when making subject choices, for example, if they have a particular university course in mind, I would suggest that you log on to www.ucas.com to search for the course and review their entry requirements, as they may stipulate that a certain subject is taken at A Level. Universities will also accept vocational courses as an equivalent qualification to A Level. If you require any advice, please do not hesitate to contact the Sixth Form office by e-mailing [email protected].

The application process:

As your son/daughter is currently a student at John Taylor High School, they are not required to complete an application form to join our sixth form. However, they will need to inform their form tutor that they require a place. The sixth form application process is as follows: 

Students will need to select a minimum of three subjects to study in the Sixth Form. Below is a table called ‘Y12 Option Blocks 2025-2026’ which includes the subject combinations that can be selected. It is important that students select only one subject per column (minimum of three subjects in total). Vocational courses are listed in the bottom section of the table. Students can select a mixture of A Level and Vocational courses. If a vocational course is selected which is equivalent to more than one A Level, it will have a number after its name e.g. 2. This will mean that the same subject will need to be selected in the other column, for example, if a student selected BTEC Sport 2 in Block C, they would also need to select BTEC Sport 2 in Block D. This would mean that the student would then be able to select their third or fourth subject from Blocks A and B.

Students can only select one vocational qualification, if this is a single award they must select 2 further A Levels. If the vocational qualification is a double award, they must select one further A Level. 

Students who are projected to achieve mainly grade 3s and below would be best suited to a Level 2 course for their next pathway. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer these courses at John Taylor High School, however other local providers do offer them. You may want to explore the following local providers for Level 2 courses:

Burton and South Derbyshire College https://www.bsdc.ac.uk/

Paget High School Sixth Form https://www.paget.staffs.sch.uk/sixth-form - Business, IT and Health & Social Care

South Staffs College Lichfield Campus https://www.southstaffs.ac.uk/courses/

Miss Spurrier ([email protected]) as the Work-Related Learning Coordinator, will be ensuring that all Year 11 students are also provided with a 40-minute Career Guidance interview with a Level 6 trained Advisor to further support Post 16 decisions.

I hope that the information provided supports you through this process and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself via e-mail [email protected].

Yours faithfully

Mr W Legood

Assistant Headteacher: Director of Post 16 & EPQ Lead

Year 8 presentation by Miss Archer

Dear Parents and Carers;

Please find updated information regarding student attendance and absence at John Taylor High School:

Reporting a student’s absence: Please can we ask that all absences for all students are reported to our dedicated absence line- 01283 376751.

Please ensure you tell us:

· Your child’s name

· Your name

· Their tutor group

· The reason for absence.

Absences must be reported each day the child is absent.

Medical appointments in a school date:

Appointments should, where possible, be arranged outside the school day. If they are unable to be scheduled at any other time, please provide us with details about the appointment before the absence is taken.

Should your child have an ongoing medical illness please do let the school know so that a medical health care plan can be completed.

Students in Years 7-11 who are leaving site for appointments etc during the day must be collected by a parent / carer. Students should present themselves at the Data Hub where they will sign out and wait for a parent/carer to arrive, before joining the parent/carer in the main reception area.

If the student is being collected by another adult, parents/carers must inform the school in advance who will be collecting the child. For safeguarding reasons, we will not allow any student to leave school premises with another adult without prior consent. Attempting to gain consent at the time the student is being collected may result in a delay in the student being permitted to leave site.

Students will not be permitted to leave in a taxi alone even if this is pre-booked by a parent.

Request for leave of absence:

All requests for Leave of Absence must be submitted via: John Taylor High School eNewsletter (schoolzineplus.co.uk)

You must provide documents to support the reason for absence e.g. proof of travel, exam or competition confirmation.

Headteachers are unable to authorise Leave of Absence in Term Time unless the reasons for this are deemed to be exceptional.

Leave of absence, which is deemed not to be exceptional, or is not applied for prior to the absence being taken, is classed as Unauthorised Leave of Absence

A period of unauthorised leave of absence may result in a parent receiving a penalty notice fine. Should a fixed penalty notice be issued, the fine applies to ‘per parent/carer and per child’. This is regardless of who applied for the leave.

For a First offence the Penalty Notice fine would be: -

· £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, rising to

· £160 per parent, per child if paid between 21-28 days.

For a Second offence within 3-years of the first penalty notice being issued, the penalty notice fine would be:

· £160 per parent, per child if paid between 28 days.

Following the second offence every new offence within the 3-year period will be prosecuted under S444.1 of the Education Act 1996. I must advise you that if the prosecution takes place, the maximum fine is £1,000 per parent, per child. This reflects the seriousness of unauthorised absence from school.

Late arrivals:

We kindly request that all students are on site, ready for registration, at 8.55am. Students arriving after 9am will be recorded as late arriving to school. An accumulation of late arrivals may lead to behaviour sanctions. Should a student arrive late due to dedicated school transport issues, their late arrival will not be recorded as late.

Attendance expectations:

At John Taylor High School, we believe that students need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education and to fulfil their potential. Missing school leaves students vulnerable to falling behind. The reason which is most often provided, for a student to be absent from school, is that they are too unwell. At John Taylor High School, during the academic year 2023-24, 20,148 sessions or 10,074 days, were lost due to students being too unwell to attend. We ask that as far as possible, parents and carers encourage their children to be up early enough to have a healthy breakfast before they come to school and ensure they follow a healthy lifestyle including the appropriate amount of sleep, exercise, relaxation and study.

Should a student be absent for more than 5 consecutive school days, due to illness, additional documentation is requested to support and validate this prolonged absence from school. Supporting medical documentation may also be requested for students with previous low attendance. This can be emailed into school at [email protected] . Should your child have any ongoing medical issues, please do let the school know as a Medical Health Care Plan may need to be completed. A virtual or in- person meeting is also offered to students who have an absence for more than 5 consecutive days.

At John Taylor High School, we are proud of our high expectations and the positive collaboration with our students, parents, carers and other key stake holders, which enables us to achieve high attendance levels. We believe that students need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education, maintain their wellbeing and to fulfil their potential.

Message from Mr Rostron, Head of Year 12

As we have entered the new academic year it has been wonderful to welcome our new Year 12 cohort both students returning to JTHS and those joining us from other providers.

On their first day students had the opportunity to work within their tutor groups in order to accomplish a range of tasks which included creating a Dragons Den pitch for a phone application to support their studies. This activity allowed students to not only work on their communication and team work skills but also evaluate what support they will need for their studies and what they can do for themselves to gain this. This focus on what students can do to support themselves has continued through our 'form sessions' where students have looked at how to manage a transitional life phase, how to manage workload and planning time into their week to complete work.

This new year group has already taken huge steps in beginning their Post-16 journey and have tackled this with great maturity and demonstrated all of the schools four values. Conversations with teachers from across the school has been a testament to the way our Year 12’s have settled and also begun to tackle the challenges that a Post-16 education brings.

I look forward to our new to JTHS breakfast, which will take place during form next week to catch up with these students and see how they have got on!

Mrs Brooks has been particularly proud of the way 7O have engaged with their weekly ‘Employability Skills’ sessions. Our focus on ‘Time Management Skills’ last week led us to discuss techniques for keeping on top of our schoolwork commitments alongside the passions that we pursue in our free time. Here are the individual stories of four pupils.  

Jessica is a member of Uttoxeter Gymnastics club and has experienced notable success in her sporting career so far. Jessica also trains up to 4 times a week and enjoys her sport immeasurably. Jessica has competed nationally (frequently with a podium finish) and achieves particularly well on floor. Jessica prioritises her training whilst ensuring that her homework tasks are done by using her planner well.  A true measure of personal excellence.

Alexia was inspirational as she described how she trains at Burton Amateur Swimming club an impressive four times a week. The training sessions can be mentally and physically rigorous, but Alexia enjoys the discipline they provide. Alexia’s plan for managing her homework schedule alongside her training sessions is being proactive in managing upcoming deadlines, ensuring  that she always has time for fitness alongside academic achievement!

Archie is a keen cyclist. He talked to our group about enjoying his sport both with teammates and with his family. Archie believes that pursuing his sport is enjoyable because it is sociable. He maintains that the sense of wellbeing he gains from it pushes his desire to succeed academically further.

Sebastian is an avid golfer. He undertakes this sport at least twice a week, training with his local club or with his father. Sebastian loves being outdoors and the challenge of the courses. Aside from this, he maintained that the sport is fun! Sebastian is confident of his ability to manage his schoolwork alongside his extra-curricular activity.

7O is clearly a form group with a host of talents and ambitions!

Last week, 38 Year 13 A-level Biology and Environmental Science students set off to Ainsdale beach on the Sefton coast near Southport. Here’s what Mr Kelly, Teacher of Science, said about the day:

‘‘The Ainsdale beach nature reserve is one of the largest areas of wild dunes left in Britain and is home to a vast diversity of rare, special and beautiful species including the Natterjack Toad, the Great Crested Newt, (Britain’s most protected species of amphibian) and the Sand Lizard, a secretive, shy reptile that is rarely actually seen. Rare wildflowers found on the reserve include the Dune Helleborine, Seaside Centaury and Yellow Bartsia. 

We received a tour from John the ranger who pointed out some of the more common species we would see on the dunes and showed us a brown long eared bat that had been found there that morning. We carried out a transect from the beach across the dunes to investigate succession.  We measured a number of different environmental factors such as soil temperature, humidity and wind speed to see how the distribution of different species such as Marram grass changed as we moved in land. 

It was a great day out and despite the torrential rain on the drive up, the weather was great until we were ready to pack up when the heavens opened just in time for us to get soaked as we were getting back on the bus.’’

Thank you to our Year 13 students for their impeccable behaviour and engagement during the tasks throughout the day.

Students will be able to develop their skills in graphic design, 3D modelling and use CAD. The added facilities further cement our commitment to enhancing the educational experience for our pupils giving them the opportunity to expand their learning. 

Please make yourself familiar with our School Calendar which includes key dates of Events, Parents Evenings, Trips, Reports, Exams, Holidays & Inset Days 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CALENDAR

Message from Isabelle Winter, Fundraising Officer at YMCA

Mobile 07880964591

YMCA Burton Northside house, Northside business park, Hawkins Lane, Burton on Trent, DE14 1DB

We would like to share with you details of our 16^th annual Sleepout event taking place on Friday 25^th October at the Pirelli Stadium! We’re hoping to make it the biggest Sleepout so far, and are aiming to raise £50,000 to support our essential services, supporting individuals and families in crisis in our local community. We rely heavily on donations from the public so that our services can keep going so funds raised from this will make a massive difference.

There’s no age limit for the Sleepout at Pirelli Stadium (as long as under 18s are accompanied by an adult) so it’s open to everyone!

Here’s the ticket link where participants can register: Sleepout - Burton YMCA

Here’s also a video link to a previous Sleepout if you’d be interested in having a look: https://youtu.be/vNDr6jKKnHQ

This is a great event for families to get involved through sleeping out for one night to make a difference to those facing many nights sleeping rough on a daily basis. Our Sleepout has been described as an incredibly eye-opening and humbling experience, with many realising that they must not take what they have for granted.

Thank you very much in advance and if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

Best wishes,

Isabelle

Hello,

Finding the right help at the right time to support Children and Young people with their mental health and wellbeing can be confusing, they might need different types of support at different times in their life. Sometimes it might just be about getting a bit of advice or sometimes problems are more serious or don’t get better with self-help and need more help such as specialist advice and support. 

We have updated the interactive map of Children & Young People’s Mental Health Support.  It shows the local support available in Staffordshire for Children and Young people to support their emotional and mental health and wellbeing. 

Instead of two separate maps it is now all contained in one easy to follow interactive map, please find attached the updated interactive map.  

Kind Regards, 

Sandra Webb

Commissioning Officer – Children’s Public Health