Weekly information - Wednesday 18th December 2019

May we take this opportunity to wish everyone a Very Happy Christmas and New Year and remind you that school closes at 12.30pm on Friday 20th December (school buses will arrive early on that day).

School reopens on Monday 6th January.

iPhone users, please click on the link below for details of an update for SZapp.

There have been a number of important messages shared with parents this term relating to Safeguarding and supporting students with their own safety. A couple of key messages this term include:

• Staffordshire Police Smart Alert- Advice to support parents with checking your child’s mobile phone and social media accounts, specifically related to Sexting and indecent images.
• UNICO- A social media application that may expose children and young people to grooming/exploitation.
• Parent Support Group- YESS Service are starting a support group for parents on 7^th January- contact 01889 567756 for more details.
• Application called Hollie Guard- This is an app that turns your mobile phone into a personal safety device.

Useful sites for information to support parents include:

• National Online Safety
• CEOP
• Staffordshire Police Twitter
• Staffordshire Smart Alert

Please see the information below regarding activities for children with a special educational need:

Aiming High February 2020 activities are now available, please follow the link to see what’s on offer

Activities are available to children and young people with a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND) and their families who live in Staffordshire. 

2 free places are available to each child/young person in February and these can be booked from the 2- 11 January 2020. 

Following this, additional activities for which there will be a charge can be booked also.

Places are also still available on our January 2020 activities, if you would like to book a place or find out about latest availability please call:

0300 111 8007 (option 5).

The Customer Service Centre is open from 9am - 5pm Monday - Friday (excluding bank holidays).    

Chuckle Productions January Activities

Chuckle Productions has planned a number of activities for January 2020 – full details of these are now available in the January listings

To book places please call 0300 111 8007 (option 5).

Very occasionally, during periods of difficult weather, we have to make the decision to close the school.  Please read the attached letter for important information and details of our how we communicate a closure to parents/carers.  Thank you.

Thank you to all those who have donated so far to support our DEAR initiative in school, we are well on our way to meeting our current target.  If you are able to support this very important initiative then the details are given below.

To help support our DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) scheme started in school in September 2019, we have registered for the fundraising initiative Support Your School run by Peters Bookselling Services in Birmingham.  The aim of our campaign is to support the extra demand placed on the LRC stock, by asking parents and local business to donate funds to help keep that stock as up to date and appealing as possible to our students at JTHS.  We would be extremely grateful of any funds that you feel able to donate to help support this important initiative and encourage our students to access the best fiction available, to enhance and develop their invaluable reading skills.  If you are able to help this invaluable initiative please use the following link:

https://supportyourschool.org.uk/johntaylorhighschool/reading-power

Many thanks for your support.

Apprenticeship Opportunities

Amazing Apprenticeships

We have two calendared Parents’ Evenings for our Year 11 cohort these are scheduled to take place on Thursday 23^rd January and Tuesday 28^th January 2020. You will only be required to attend one of the Parents’ Evenings and this is determined by half year group population that your child is part of.

• If your child has Core PE on a Friday Period 1 and Period 2 you will be required to attend the parents evening on Thursday 23^rd January 2020.
• If your child has Core PE on a Friday Period 3 and Period 4 you will be required to attend the parents evening on Tuesday 28^th January 2020.

Please check your child’s timetable on Go4Schools.

Your child will be given a paper booking sheet by their form tutor, they will then use this to book 5-minute appointment slots with each member of staff. Please make sure your child knows what times are convenient for you to attend. It is advisable to leave 5 minute gaps between each appointment to ensure you can move between different rooms.

***GCSE FOOD PREPARATION & NUTRITION****

NEA 2: British Cuisines

35% of your GCSE

Deadlines

Section A: 15.11.2019

Section B: 13.12.2019

Section C: 17.01.2019

Section D: 24.01.2020

Section E: 14.02.2020

Stocking Fillers

English Language and English Literature

Year 10 students have been studying ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘Power and Conflict’ Poetry and English Language. Next term they will begin ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and continue working on the’ Power and Conflict’ poetry. The study guides below provide students with extra support and will support their revision for future exams.

Year 11 students will begin a series of Literature mock exams after Christmas that will prepare them for their summer exams. The mock exams will be staggered over the spring terms encouraging early revision and providing students with valuable feedback.

The first mock exam will be on ‘An Inspector Call’ at the end of January.

More details will follow after Christmas and students will begin a detailed revision programme in lessons prior to each exam.

Attached is the list that was sent out last year of popular revision guides.

Immediately below are some of the newer guides that are proving popular. The guides below are in the form of ready-made REVISION CARDS and will save students a lot of time whilst providing comprehensive revision of both English Literature and English Language.

We do not sell revision books via Parent Pay. There is wide range of revision materials available for the AQA English Language and Literature GCSEs, so we encourage students to open the texts up on Amazon and select a book/resource most suited to their learning style.

Once an ISBN is entered into the Amazon search bar, several alternative guides will appear.

LAST YEAR’s recommendations …