Weekly Newsletter: 12th June
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Message to parents - 11th June 2020
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Lower School Tutor Group Meetings - Microsoft Teams
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Year 10 Tutor Group Meetings - Microsoft Teams
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Year 10 Student Voice
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Tutor Programme: Black Lives Matter Campaign and JTHS Vision and Values
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'JTHS Games' Training Week
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Art Wow Wall - weeks 7 & 8
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A tribute to Dr El-Hawrani
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NSPCC: Speak out. Stay Safe. Virtual Assembly.
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Online Counselling Services
Dear Parents/Carers
We hope that this message finds you well. There has been a lot of activity at school this week as we prepare for a wider opening of the school to provide some face-to-face delivery for our Year 10 and 12 students from Monday. JTHS has also been liaising closely through the East Staffordshire Secondary Heads Forum and our provision is very similar to other local secondary schools.
In school, walkways have been marked out showing two metre distancing and appropriate signage has been placed around key entrances and in classrooms that are being used. We have also set up sanitising stations inside each classroom that is being used. The classrooms look very different too. (See our Facebook Newsfeed for more details on this work.) In order to maintain the social distancing guidelines, we have no classrooms with more than 14 work spaces and they all have clearly marked out areas where staff and students will be located. All areas will be subject to substantial cleaning protocols throughout and at the end of each day. As you can imagine, this has not been possible without the fantastic support of our site and cleaning staff and we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge this essential work publically.
So from Monday, we will have more students in school. However, remote learning continues and we hope that our KS3, 4 and 5 students all continue to persevere with this. It is not our normal way of working and it presents numerous challenges for us all. We continue to thank you for the support you are providing to your children at home with this work. We know it is not easy. If your child has not engaged fully with their work yet, it is never too late to start afresh with next week’s set of work.
Last week, we made a slight change to the way in which remote leaning was set for Year 10s. We would welcome some feedback on this by parents/carers of this Year group completing a very short Microsoft Form. It can be accessed <<here>>. Please could you complete this by the end of the weekend? We will be issuing further feedback to other year groups in due course.
With more students coming into school, we have worked hard with Staffordshire and Derbyshire School Transport to ensure that appropriate transport is provided to those students who are entitled to this provision. Mr Twynham will be emailing those students, tomorrow, with details about the services for next week. However, we would ask all our students to follow the Government guidance of wearing a face covering if they are using public transport. Face coverings or masks are not required when students are on school site as we are able to maintain appropriate social distancing. Staffordshire County Council have provided additional guidance which we would encourage you to look through. This can be found using the following link: https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Education/Schooltransport/Coronavirus-update.aspx . If you have any queries about school transport, please do get in touch with Mr Twynham via the main school office email.
The school continues to make provision for children of key workers, or those that belong to identified groups. If you would like to make use of this provision, please contact the school, giving as much notice as possible, through the main school office. This provision in school will support the students in completing their remote learning but we would also encourage them to bring in a reading book should they complete their work set for the day.
Our community has been saddened by the events during the last three weeks which began with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Under normal circumstances, we would discuss these issues in school through tutor time. The current lockdown means that this is more difficult to do. However, we have produced a set of tutor period resources that all our students will be asked to work through next week. We would encourage parents/carers to ask your children what they have been working on. Here is the link to this resource via our SchoolZine NewsFeed article: https://johntaylorhigh.schoolzineplus.co.uk/newsletter/article/884. We are looking forward to receiving work back from the students on this important issue.
With best wishes
The Senior Leadership Team.
After a successful round of Lower School, Head of Year Tutor Group Microsoft Teams chats, they are becoming a weekly fixture.
All Lower School Tutors will be sending out an invite for you to join them and your tutor group peers, starting from next week commencing Monday 15th June.
Please can all Lower School students check their emails and look out for their invite from their form tutor. Simply respond to the invite in the email by clicking accept and make sure you can access Teams. You can join in with the meeting by accesing Teams on a number of devices including Smart Phones, Tablets and Laptops. We look forward to see you!
Over the last half term Mr Forden has been hosting weekly Year 10 Teams meetings. As of next week (W/C 15th June) as more students begin to return to school, each tutor group will host a Microsoft Teams meeting. These will be scheduled to take place on a Thursday or Friday so that all students can attend. Students will be sent out an invite to attend the Microsoft Teams meeting, students should accept this invite and ensure they are able to access Teams. This can be done on a desktop, laptop or a mobile device by downloading the app. At the time of the meeting students should click the link to join the meeting where their Tutor will be waiting for them.
All Year 10 Students have been emailed a link to a Student Voice questionnaire. This link will be active until 2pm on Monday 15th June, please take this opportunity to have your say!
Our vision ‘One community, striving for personal excellence’ is at the core of everything that we do at John Taylor High School. Earlier in the year, Miss Dean delivered a series of assemblies on ‘Equality for all’ and shared with students the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act of 2010. These include age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Following on from this work, all students have been set a task during Tutor Period for the w/c 15th June. The purpose of this task is to raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter campaign and how this links to our own vision and values. Normally, we would be discussing current affairs during our time in school, however, as home learning has replaced this face to face contact, we would appreciate your support in encouraging your son/daughter to rise to the challenge and complete the tasks on slide 10 and 17. In addition, there is a range of extension tasks that could also be completed on slides 19 and 20. All work needs to be e-mailed to their tutor before the 6th July and we hope to share examples of work before the end of the term. Thank you in anticipation of your support of this important topic and for ensuring that all of our community, strives for personal excellence.
A copy of the task can be viewed below:
Calling all pupils, families, staff and friends!
It's almost time! The PE Department are very excited to announce that as part of the Youth Sport Trust National School Sport Week at Home JTHS PE are inviting you to take part in The JTHS Games! The games will be launching on Monday 22nd June- Friday 26th June.
Whether you are at home or at school, join in with this fantastic week long celebration of sport and wellbeing. More information will be revealed next week with prizes to be won! Who will win? Which house will come out on top!? Keep your eyes peeled for a video coming to a virtual screen near you...You may see some familiar faces.
Monday 15th June- Friday 19th June- JTHS Games Training Week
Next week is the 'training week' in preparation for the JTHS Games week which begins on Monday 22nd June. This is set as a task for all students in Go4Schools for their PE lessons. The PowerPoint is below.
Make sure that you are fully prepared for the main event!
This is the speech that Liam Bryan has prepared for his GCSE English Spoken Language examination.
The NHS, the National Health service. Government-funded medical and health care services that everyone living in the UK can use without being asked to pay the full cost of the service. That’s the official definition for the NHS. In my opinion a formal, undescriptive, vague definition because it does not disclose what lies behind these buildings, hospitals, healthcare centres. What this definition does not inform you about are the skilled doctors, the compassionate nurses, the informative receptionists who are all waiting on hand and foot for one purpose; to help others. For the next few minutes, I would like to dedicate this speech to a doctor working within the NHS who changed my life. In extreme circumstances I may not be here today without him.
You see, I was born in The Alexandra Hospital which is situated in Redditch, Worcestershire in 2004. A simplistic sentence to begin this speech with, however what my family and my younger self did not expect was to return to many hospitals on multiple occasions in the future. I am lucky in the fact that I have been brought up by a caring family in a wonderful house, experiencing various enriching activities. For some reason however, life has always found faults within me causing me to return back to hospital time and time again.
I was born with enlarged tonsils and adenoids. This caused an obstruction to my airway, causing sleep apnoea and breathing difficulty throughout my early childhood. From hours upon hours in the night until the early morning, my parents would often sit next to me, upset but nevertheless alert as I would experience periods of not breathing in my sleep. It was a terrifying period in my family’s life, especially for my parents who were uncertain for what the future held for their son. In extreme circumstances deep within the dark thoughts of their mind, they were potentially questioning whether I would live or die.
Tensions escalated, the only option for me was to return back to hospital in order to rectify this ongoing problem. I imagine some of you here today have gone through severe problems in your life and for me, at only a few years old, this was one of the first obstacles I had to overcome. Thankfully, NHS staff on our arrival were ready to care for my needs, to care for my parents who were constantly fearful day after day, wishing that this nightmare would end.
One man who was an influential presence in my life for just over a decade was Burton consultant Amged El-Hawrani. Mr El-Hawrani was a kind, thoughtful, caring man who would always go to the extra mile in order for his patients to feel calm and adequate, continually reassuring loved ones. I would return to hospital on many more occasions in the future and he, alongside his fellow professionals would continue to provide support to me and my family during these tough times. Whether I was coping with breathing difficulties or the threat of not being able to hear again, Mr El-Hawrani remained professional. I would not be in the position I am today without him. I am eternally grateful and I speak on behalf of patients who have been treated by Mr El-Hawrani by saying that he was a role model to many individuals who were lucky to be in his presence.
After dedicating his life to this profession, tragically Mr El-Hawrani on the 28th March died at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester after contracting coronavirus. He became one of the first senior medics in the UK to die of the virus. When hearing the news, instinctively I remember a tear drop slowly tricking down my parents’ cheek who were distraught at the loss of a fantastic professional, a man who as well as changing their son’s life changed their lives for the better.
As I previously stated at the start of this speech, my aim is not put forward a controversial argument or to question any part of British society. My aim is to pay tribute to the intellectual, kind-hearted man that was an influential presence in my family’s life and who was part of the fantastic NHS. The National Health Service is one of the most efficient health care systems, dealing with 1 million patients every 36 hours. During the past several months, we the British Public have grown to respect and adore our health care professionals as well as other key workers who put their heart and now lives on the line for us.
Dr El-Hawrani was one of many key workers who lost their lives due to the coronavirus and we, the British public as a collective mourn their passing. Their bravery, their kindness but most importantly their concern for others will never be forgotten.
QUELL - On-line counselling service for parents/carers and young people.
- The service for parents/carers age 18+ is called Qwell. This has been live since 1st September 19.
- The service covers anything affecting mental health ie parenting issues, money etc.
- There is no threshold to be met.
- The website is www.qwell.io
- Users have to register and create a username and password. If they want more in depth support ie counselling they have to confirm where they live ie Derbyshire and the area, gender, ethnicity and year of birth.
- The service is open Monday to Friday, 12noon to 10pm and weekends 6-10pm.
- Users can chat or message.
- The counsellors are paid workers and have different specialities ie gender, eating disorders etc.
- Users can message named workers out of hours. All messages will be read within 12-24 hours. A booked session can be arranged.
- There are message forums which can be good for isolated parents.
- An online magazine is available.
- There is a links page to other organisations.
- The counsellor builds the foundations of a relationship first, then will do the initial assessment.
- Their system enables workers to record case notes.
- Users are entitled to 12 hours of therapy in chat.
- There is a traffic light system for safeguarding concerns.
- Goals are set during the intervention and there is a log system for progress.
KOOTH is the online system for 11-19 year olds (or 24 if special educational needs/leaving care).
- The website is www.kooth.com
- The sign up process is similar.
- The counsellors are on line at the same times as the Qwell service.
- It is the same therapeutic model as Qwell.
- Young people are engaging in the process well (93% return).
- A lot of work is being done around young males.
- The top 3 issues are self-harm, family relationships and stress/anxiety.
- They are engaging with schools and making leads.
- The services are on Twitter, however, they are not commissioned in all LA’s yet.
- They attended a CAMHS event where the Police were present.