Weekly Newsletter: 26th June
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Message to parents - 25th June 2020
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JTHS Games Week 1 Round Up!
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Sports Relief at John Taylor
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What’s your vision for the world after coronavirus?
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Economics Essay Competitions
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MFL department - Lockdown projects
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Click and Collect Service from the LRC
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Keeping Children Safe Online
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Ebook Trial
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Water Safety
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Microsoft Teams - Student guides
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Catch 22- Information for Parents
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Music Tuition Application Form 2020-2021
Dear Parents/Carers
We hope that you and your families are well. We wanted to pass on a few key updates with you at the end of the week.
It has been another productive week for those year 10 and 12 students attending the sessions with staff in school. Please note, we have restrictions of staff/student movement around the school to prevent the mixing of social bubbles as much as possible. As such, we are unable to deliver resources to students in school that have been forgotten and brought in by parents later in the day.
From next week, we are able to offer one to one interviews for invited KS3 students. The Lower School Team will be in touch with families over the next two weeks and we would encourage as many students as possible to take up the offer. Please look out for invitations to these sessions.
There is a significant amount of planning taking place at the moment to consider how the school prepares for full September opening. We are working closely with both Derbyshire and Staffordshire School Transport as part of this process. The government has announced that it anticipates all schools to be open fully in September. This is our hope too but, as you would expect, we are planning for alternative scenarios. More detailed guidance from the government is due out shortly on September openings. We will, of course, communicate any key messages from this with you as soon as possible.
As part of our planning, we will be developing a ‘Recovery Curriculum’. This will be centred around 5 key levers of Relationships, Community, Transparent Curriculum, Metacognition and Space, as well as focusing on Well-being, Mental Health and our Vison, Values and Ethos. This recovery curriculum will aim to build strong routines and learning habits in the students and will be delivered, primarily, through morning registrations and the tutor program.
GCSE and A-Level results days this year will need to be carried out with social distancing measures in place. We have detailed plans for this, and these will be issued before to the end of term.
There is currently as consultation underway regarding the approach OFQUAL will take towards the summer exam season for 2021. Again, as soon as we have any details about what this will look like, we will communicate them with you. We understand that information will be published before to the end of the summer term.
Finally, we have had reports of some of our students jumping into local rivers. This is tempting given the warm weather we are experiencing but we would ask that parents and carers remind their children of the dangers associated with this type of activity. Please remember, we are also in a lockdown situation that requires social distancing to be observed. Also, as the lockdown eases, we would remind some of our older students that, during term time, schoolwork must take priority over any form of paid work.
With very best wishes to you all
The Senior Leadership Team.
It's been a busy and very warm first week of the JTHS Games, with lots of entries from students, staff and parents all competing for their house, year and form! It has been great to see lots of you getting involved and we hope you are enjoying completing the different challenges.
Remember to enter your results on the Microsoft Form link to entered into our prize draw and to earn points for your house, year and form! If you have any pictures/videos of you completing the challenges please send them to Mrs O'Brien on [email protected]
Now for the moment we have been waiting for.....which house is currently in the lead? It's very close between all 4 houses, it is all still to play for next week!
We currently have a tie between Marchington and Rosliston for the winning house with only 2 points between 1st and 4th, so it is all to play for next week!
Which house will be the champion at the end of next week?
You can access the form and promotion video on the links below:
Good Luck!
Amy O'Brien
[email protected]
Back at the beginning of March the PE Department were preparing for all Key Stage 3 pupils to run the sports relief mile in one of their PE lessons.
Previously, pupils had been given sponsor forms and were asked to get donations for completing the mile and raising funds for Sports relief 2020. During the lessons the students certainly showed aspects of John Taylors new vision and values. Perseverence, personal excellence and a sense of community were seen in all of the lessons that particular week.
A total of 1480 miles were completed through out the week by the KS3 students and it can be said that all those who participated showed kindness and integrity towards one another.
Added to this the Sporting Young Ambassadors organised cake sales in school and visited local stores for cake donations to sell them at lunch time. Well done to the Young Ambassadors for taking on such a "busy" role that week.
Thanks also go out to the Co-op for sending in vouchers in which cakes where then purchased to sell on in school. Many thanks to grandparents, parents, teachers and pupils who donated wonderful cakes and biscuits for this good cause.
Due to school closing later in March we have only just been able to find out the total amount raised.
The total raised for Sports Relief 2020 at John Taylor was £1670.73.
Thank you to all who contributed, you should all be very proud of yourselves.
The PE Department.
Julie Berry - PE Dpt
Phone: n/a
[email protected]
openDemocracy are running a competitions that asks students over the age of 14 to consider what the world will look like after coronavirus. If you are interested follow this link for more details:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/world-after-covid/
Students can submit their entry as either a written article, short video or image/photograph that describes their vision for the world after coronavirus.The grand prize includes £200 in book vouchers and a bespoke training opportunity with either open Democracy or UCL that may take the form of a mini-fellowship, work experience, or placement in line with the winner’s area of interest. The People’s Choice winner will receive £100 in book vouchers and runners-up will receive £50 in book vouchers. All winners and runners-up will receive a personal mentoring/career advice session with one of our expert judges and their entries will be published on openDemocracy’s website.
The competition opened on 15 June 2020 and the competition and public vote will close at 23:59 on 10 July 2020. Any entries after that date will not be accepted. T
he winners will be announced on 2 August 2020.It's a great opportunity to do something creative which suits your skills and think about the future.
Sharon Prosser - John Taylor High School
[email protected]
There are currently two Economics essay competitions open to students.
Young Economist of the Year (Years 12,13)
The Royal Economic Society's (RES) Young Economist of the Year Essay Competition is run in partnership with the Financial Times. The RES is inviting Year 12 and 13 A-Level students to submit a 1,500-word essay on one of five titles. The deadline is 27 July. For full details see the link below.
https://www.res.org.uk/education/young-economist-of-the-year.html
The five titles that students can choose from are:
1. “A Mansion Tax is an idea whose time has come.” Discuss.
2. Will targets to bring greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to net zero by 2050 be a drag on economic growth?
3. "The gig economy is a great opportunity to increase women’s participation in the labour market by allowing more flexibility." Discuss.
4. Given the concentration of high-value economic sectors in big cities, is a promise to significantly reduce regional inequalities by ‘levelling up’ possible to fulfil?
5. From an economic point of view, are rules limiting the transfer of data to other countries on privacy or security grounds any different from protectionism in the trade of goods?
There are a number of prizes on offer. For the best overall essay - £1000 and the opportunity to be published in the FT and for the best essay on each topic - £200 each.
One the website there are examples of previous winners' essays.
2020 LSE Economics Society Essay Competition (Years 11,12,13)
This essay competition is run in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Performance, a leading LSE research centre, alongside various notable LSE professors. The submission deadline is 1 August 2020. There are a number of prizes available.
The competition is designed to encourage secondary students to think critically on current social issues such as the coronavirus outbreak, the representation of women in the economics profession, and to explore important intellectual debates, such as the role of history in economic development. For full details and a starter pack see the link below.
https://lsesueconsoc.org/economics-essay-competition-2020/
To enter students should be in the final two years of secondary school, starting sixth form this year, in sixth form, or starting university this year. There are six questions to choose from and the essay must be a maximum of 1,500 words:
1. ‘Poor countries benefit the most from prioritising investments in health.’ Do you agree?
2. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, governments around the world have introduced huge stimulus packages. To what extent should societies be concerned about the short-term and long-term consequences of these policies?
3. Many economists warn that the COVID-19 crisis may worsen existing inequalities. Do you agree? If yes, what policies do you propose to reverse these gaps?
4. There are long-standing concerns about the under-representation of women in the economics profession. Do you agree that this is a problem? If yes, how should this problem be addressed?
5. How important is a country’s historical path in determining its long-run economic development?
6. (CEP 30th Anniversary Prize Question) According to Thomas Jefferson, ‘The care of human life and happiness… is the only legitimate object of good government.’ What will change if governments make happiness the only policy objective?
Both competitions provide an excellent opportunity for JTHS students and if they would like any support they can get in contact by emailing [email protected]
Sharon Prosser - John Taylor High School
[email protected]
Over the next two weeks, the MFL team is taking JTHS students on a virtual tour, students will be asked to try out a range of activities as part of their language lessons. There are lots of activities to choose from and we don’t expect them to do them all. Some of the language tasks can be done by all the family and we’d love to see our JTHS community coming together on this journey! Email your language teachers with photos/videos/…
We aim to celebrate all the work done by the students, and put all the work together as part of the MFL department Lockdown projects welcome back display, we look forward to seeing all your hard work.
The LRC realises that a quite a few of you are missing your access to our fantastic selection of books. If any of you would like to borrow something from us over the summer, we're happy to provide a "click and collect" service. You will however, need to be able to call into school to collect the book(s) you've requested.
If any of you do want to make use of this service, check out our Reading Cloud catalogue at www.jths.co.uk/lrc
If you don't know which book you want then just offer some ideas on the genre you like to read and we'll select some books for you.
Sixth Form, you are more than welcome to borrow some leisure reading, but if you need books to support your study over the summer, then there's a separate form for you to complete.
Once you've completed the request form, return to [email protected] or [email protected]
You will be contacted via your school email to tell you when you are able to collect the book(s) from Reception. The books will be issued to you until school returns in September.
We look forward to receiving some reading requests from you!
Mrs Collier - John Taylor High School
Phone: 01283247800
[email protected]
The Department for Education (DfE) has recently updated guidance for parents and carers to support children and young people with staying safe online. The guidance includes a number of links to agencies and services who can offer further specific advice and support should you have concerns about your child's internet usage. It is incredibly important to ensure children and young people are safe online, especially during current circumstances where devices, apps and technology are being used more frequently to stay in touch with friends and family.
There are also some further recommendations below to support the education of children and young people about online safety and to help parents appropriately safeguard their children from online risks.
- The BBC have a website and app called Own It. The website has a lot of content for children to help them navigate their online lives, and the free smartphone app comes with a special keyboard which can intervene with help and support in the moments that children need it the most.
- SafeToNet is an app for parents to help them safeguard their children from online risks like cyberbullying and sexting, whilst respecting their child’s rights to privacy. The SafeToNet Foundation is providing UK families with free access to 1 million licences during coronavirus.
The LRC has signed up for a trial of ePlatform supplied by Wheelers. This trial will give JTHS students free access to ebooks and audiobooks available on this platform.
A number of students have already expressed an interest in trialling this system, but there are still some places left if others would like to join the trial. Please email Mrs Collier on [email protected] and you will be sent a link and log in to try the ebook platform. All Mrs Collier will ask in return is that you give some feedback and thoughts on how you found the system. The trial will end on 17 July 2020.
Mrs Collier - John Taylor High School
[email protected]
Water is dangerous, only swim at properly supervised pools
The dangers of swimming in canals, rivers and lakes are as follows:
- If you get into trouble, there are no lifeguards to help you
- The water is often a lot colder than you expect – which can cause cramps and make it hard to move. Just because you can swim well in a heated swimming pool doesn't mean you'll be able to swim well in cold water
- There may be hidden currents
- It is difficult to estimate how deep water is before you get in. If it’s too shallow you are at risk of injuring yourself if you jump in and equally deep water may lead you to get into difficulties
- You might not be able to get out, steep, slimy banks or sides can make getting out impossible
- There is no way of knowing what hazards lies beneath the surface of the water; shopping trolleys, sharp metal and broken bottles are just a few things that may be lurking
- If the water is polluted it could make you seriously ill. For example, Weil’s disease is a form of infection that can be caught through contact with contaminated fresh water
More information is available on the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Website.
https://www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk/your-safety/safety-outside/water-safety/
Form tutors in all year groups are now scheduling weekly Microsoft Teams meetings for their tutor group. Students are strongly recommended to join these to enagage with their form tutor and other members of the group.
Some teachers are also adding Microsoft Teams meetings to their weekly provision to allow students to check in and ask questions or follow up on aspects of their work. This is a really valuable tool at this time and will offer some face to face contact during home learning.
It should be straight forward to participate in as Office 365 can be accessed from any internet enabled device. (The Teams App can also be downloaded onto smart phones).
Please ensure that you fully understand the student protocols set out at the end of the first document prior to participating in any online live sessions with your teachers.
The two guides below will assist you in accessing these meetings. If you have any further technical questions, please contact our IT support team on the following email:
They have also produced a really pafctical help guide which covers all aspects of our IT provision. This can be accessed here: JTHS Working at Home Guidance.
In response to the lockdown, Catch22 have produced a video aimed directly at children and young people, given that we know they will be spending many hours a day on their devices and they are coming into contact with fewer adults who might otherwise have the opportunity to help safeguard them. You will see that the messages are in the form of abbreviations and emojis which will be familiar to many young people but perhaps less so to parents and professionals. For this reason we are including the emoji dictionary for parents which may help families to spot concerns with online communication and messaging.
Catch 22 are the Staffordshire commissioned service for supporting children and young people with unhealthy relationships, supporting victims of child sexual exploitation and children who are missing from home.
Referral options for this service - you can refer yourself, you can refer a family member or friend, you can contact school to support with a referral.
Contact Details:
Telephone: 01782 237106
Email: [email protected]
Website: knowaboutcse.co.uk/
https://www.catch-22.org.uk/services/stoke-staffordshire-cse-missing/
For all existing Music Tuition students, and anyone who would like to learn an instrument, please complete this electronic form as soon as possible. Please note: the usual paper versions will no longer be used.