Weekly Newsletter: 10th July 2020
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Letter to Parents - 9th July 2020
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The JTHS Games Results are in!
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Year 7 - JTHS has Talent Lockdown Challenge
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Year 9 RS - Holocaust Survivor Webinar
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Y9 - English Task and Resources
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Y10 - English Resources
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Maths Summer websites
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Sudbury Hall and The National Trust
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Art Wow Wall - week 11
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Art Wow Wall - week 12
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Sports Relief at John Taylor
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Introducing our New Head Students
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Click and Collect Service from the LRC
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Leave of Absence
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Keeping Children Safe Online
Dear Parents/Carers,
As you know the DfE released their guidance on Thursday morning for the full opening of schools in September. The guidance clearly states that it is the Government’s plan that all pupils, in all year groups, will return to school full-time from the beginning of the Autumn Term.
The guidance sets out the actions school leaders should take to minimise the risk of transmission in their school. This is public health advice, endorsed by Public Health England (PHE). The guidance has been prepared with input from school leaders, unions and sector bodies and in consultation with Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The guidance states In relation to working in schools, whilst it is not possible to ensure a totally risk-free environment, the Office of National Statistics analysis of coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths linked to occupations suggest that staff in educational settings tend not to be at any greater risk from the disease than any other occupations. There is no evidence that children transmit the disease any more than in adults.
The guidance also states that given the improved position, the balance of risk is now overwhelmingly in favour of children returning to school. For the vast majority of children, the benefits of being back in school far outweigh the very low risk from coronavirus (COVID-19) and the guidance explains the steps schools need to take to reduce the risks further.
Full DfE guidance document:
Key Messages:
Public health advice to minimise coronavirus (COVID-19) risks
Essential measures include:
- A requirement that people who are ill stay at home
- Robust hand and respiratory hygiene
- Enhanced cleaning arrangements
- Active engagement with NHS Test and Trace
- Formal consideration of how to reduce contacts and maximise distancing between those in school
- Whenever possible, minimise potential for contamination as far as it is reasonably practicable.
How contacts are reduced will depend on the school’s circumstances and will (as much as possible) include:
- Grouping children together
- Avoiding contact between groups
- Arranging classrooms with forward facing desks
- Staff maintaining distance from pupils and other staff as much as possible
All the above, while delivering a broad and balanced curriculum.
Specific guidance on students feeling unwell with coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms.
Students and other adults must not come into school if they have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms:
- New, continuous cough
- High temperature
- Has a loss of, or a change in their normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)
Or have tested positive in the last 7 days.
If anyone in the school becomes unwell during the day with any of the above symptoms, they must be sent home and self-isolate for at least 7 days and should arrange to have a test to see if they have coronavirus (COVID-19). Other members of their household (including any siblings) will also need to self-isolate for 14 days from when the symptomatic person first had symptoms.
NHS Test and Trace
Parents will be required to:
- Book a test if their child is displaying symptoms. All children can be tested. Tests can be booked online through the NHS testing and tracing website or ordered by telephone via NHS 119.
- Provide details of anyone their child has been in close contact with if they were to test positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) or if asked by NHS Test and Trace (school will provide information to NHS regarding other children in school)
- Self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone who develops coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms or someone who tests positive for coronavirus (COVID-19)
- Inform school immediately if someone tests negative, if they feel well and no longer have symptoms similar to coronavirus (COVID-19), they can stop self-isolating. They could still have another virus, such as a cold or flu- in which case it is still best to avoid contact with other people until they are better. Other members of their household can stop self-isolating.
- Inform school immediately if someone tests positive, they must continue to self-isolate for at least 7 days from the onset of their symptoms and return to school only if they do not have symptoms other than cough or loss of sense of smell/taste. This is because a cough or anosmia can last for several weeks once the infection has gone. The 7 day period starts from the day when they first became ill. If they still have a high temperature, they should keep self-isolating until their temperature returns to normal. Other members of their household should continue self-isolating for the full 14 days.
Structure of the day
To address the points raised above, we will be altering the school day to deliver three longer lessons over a two week period. This will enable us to zone specific areas around the school for individual year groups, therefore minimising the movement of students and contact with other year groups. The timetable will include staggered break and lunch periods for all year groups. The curriculum allocation will not alter and a number of lessons will benefit from a longer period.
Curriculum
Throughout the school closure, JTHS has been setting remote learning that is aligned to our planned curriculum plan for 2020. As such, we feel the students will be well placed to deepen their knowledge in the subjects they study. In September we will continue to offer a broad and balanced curriculum that provides students with exceptional learning experiences. To do this we will:
- Map where the students are at with their learning
- Master the learning through consolidation and application of knowledge.
- Move forward with new content and sequencing of learning.
One slight change to our curriculum will be that Year 8 students will continue embedding French language learning initially. We are still committed to providing German as a second language for some of our students and this will happen towards the end of the autumn term.
Recovery curriculum
There will be a bespoke pastoral programme written for each year, which will focus on the ‘recovery curriculum’. This will be delivered during form period each day as well as the allocated tutor period. This programme is built on the 5 levers, as a systematic, relationships-based approach to reignite the flame of learning in each child. The 5 levers are relationships, community, transparent curriculum, metacognition and space – to be, to rediscover self, and to find their voice on learning.
Attendance
Now that the circumstances have changed, and it is vital for all children to return to school to minimise as far as possible the longer-term impact of the pandemic on children’s education, wellbeing and wider development. School attendance will therefore be mandatory again from the beginning of the Autumn term, this means from that point, the usual rules on school attendance will apply, including:
- Parents’ duty to ensure that their child attends regularly at school where that child is a registered pupil at school and they are of compulsory school age
- Schools’ responsibilities to record attendance and follow-up absence
- The availability to issue sanctions, including fixed penalty notices in line with the local authorities’’ codes of conduct.
Behaviour for learning
The whole school behaviour for learning policy has been amended to reflect the current situation and it is crucial that we have the support of parents to ensure the safety of the whole school community. The policy includes some specific COVID-19 ‘risky behaviours, which are listed below:
- Physical contact with someone who is not part of your household (this can include but is not limited to touching, biting, hitting, punching, hugging etc).
- Spitting
- Sharing equipment/containers e.g. water bottles
- Sharing food items
- Deliberate coughing
- Any other act that would be deemed to be deliberate and harmful towards another person or person(s) in relation to the spread of COVID-19
We would ask that you discuss in particular the behaviours above with your child and the importance of appropriate conduct in school.
Catering facilities
Each year group will be allocated canteen use in their 50min lunch period and there will be a full provision. We would ask particularly in the first instance, that students bring their own snacks and lunch where possible.
Equipment
Students will not be able to share equipment and we are not able to lend equipment to students. Therefore, it is crucial that students bring to school with them everyday their basic equipment, please see the list below:
Pen, pencil, ruler, rubber, scissors, glue stick, calculator, coloured pencils, maths set in a suitable pencil case.
Uniform and PE Kit
In relation to school uniform, the guidance states:
We would encourage all schools to return to their usual uniform policies in the Autumn term. Uniform can play a valuable role in contributing to the ethos of a school and setting an appropriate tone. Uniforms do not need to be cleaned any more often than usual, nor do they need to be cleaned using methods which are different from normal.
Therefore, the schools position as per the DfE guidance is that uniform is to be worn as normal.
In relation to the PE Kit, students are requested to wear the JTHS PE kit on the day that they have a PE lesson as they will not be able to use the changing areas. However, we will allow students to wear black jogging bottoms/leggings.
PPE (Personal Protection Equipment)
The use of PPE in schools (to include face masks) is not recommended by the DfE and we will uphold this advice by requesting that staff and students not to wear these whilst on the school site. There are two exceptions, which are linked to staff usage related to first aid and the administering of intimate care.
Transport
The school continue to work closely with both Derbyshire and Staffordshire School Transport offices. We will provide more details of the arrangements for student transport following the information released by County on the 14th July 2020. We do anticipate, however, that the wearing of face coverings will be mandatory on all school transport, but we will require them to be removed upon arrival at school. We would ask that parents make arrangements for this during the summer vacation in preparation for September.
These are our initial guidelines for parents/carers. We will be publishing detailed, Year-group specific guidance during the course of next week. This will be published through our Schoolzine NewsFeed and available on the school website. We strongly encourage all parents/carers to download the Schoolzine App to their mobile devices. This can be downloaded from this link: https://www.jths.co.uk/szapp
All of us at John Taylor High School would like to thank our parents/carers for their on-going support. This has been an extremely challenging time for us all, and we have been overwhelmed by the level of support from yourselves to our staff during this period. I can honestly say, all of your kind words through conversations and email have been very much appreciated.
I wish you all a restful summer and we look forward to welcoming your children back to school in September. We will be opening to Year 7 and 12 on Thursday 3rd September and Year 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 on Friday 4th September.
We are John Taylor High School: ‘One Community – striving for personal excellence’.
With very warm wishes
Mrs Cochrane Mrs B Richardson
Head of School Chair of Governors
It's the time you have all been waiting for.. The JTHS Games results are in!
Thank you so much to everyone who took part in the games. It has been hard for us not having a Sports Day this year but it has been amazing to see so many of you showing perserverance in completing the challenges!
Thank you to those who have sent in pictures of videos of you completing the challenges, it's fantastic to see you and your families getting involved!
Check out the attached PDF to see the results! Winners that were selected randomly from the microsoft form entries will be contact by Mrs O'Brien.
Mrs O'Brien
[email protected]
The RS department visit the National Holocaust Memorial centre in July every year with our year 9 students, where they visit the centre’s museum and have the opportunity to listen to a survivor’s testimony. Whilst this year we could not visit, we were offered the next best thing – a webinar with a holocaust survivor Simon Winston, who was a child during the second world war. The webinar took place on June 18th and our Y9 students listened intently, empathised with Simon and his story and asked meaningful questions about his experiences. The RS department couldn’t be prouder of the Y9 students who participated in this webinar, with the Simon Winston sending a message to say how touched he was by all the student’s messages of thanks for sharing his story. Alex, one of the year 9 students who joined the webinar has taken the time to do a write up of Simon’s testimony and what lessons we can learn from it:
Simon Winston was born in 1938 in the small town of Radzivillov. At the time of his birth it was in Poland, but today it is in Ukraine. He was born before WW2 and was subject to Hitler’s Anti-Semitism Regime, as his whole family were Jews. They lived in a Ghetto for some time before escaping to the country. There they were exposed to the elements, often in need of food, water, fresh clothes and shelter. They could never stay in one place, as Poland and Ukraine were being under control by the Nazis.
During his testimony, he shared his experience with pupils, as a child who lived through the darkest times in modern history. He explained fear was consistent while in hiding and that things didn’t go back to normal after everything was over, as a family had moved into their home. His story was moving and compelling in the sense that he as a Jewish child survived what many others did not and how along the way his family had countless opportunities to give up, yet they chose not to. The fact that millions of Jews were killed during the Holocaust and this man survived show the length of the world to which humanity will strive to survive. Simon is the living proof that perseverance pays off in the end.
Many pupils were inspired by Simon’s talk, and took away the knowledge that while inequality and discrimination are strong, we are stronger together as one community, striving for Kindness, Respect, Perseverance and Integrity.
I wanted to share a final thought with you that Alex had shared with me,
We must not allow for testimonies like Simon's to be forgotten, the only way not to repeat mistakes from the history is to learn from it and respect it.
To support students with their GCSE studies next year in English, the English Department has set a Summer Engagement task which is included below as well as in the 'summer learning' newsletter to be published before the end of term. All students are expected to complete the tasks and submit them to their English teacher in September.
You will also find a second document attached with some important information regarding the GCSE set texts.
In September, your son or daughter will continue their studies of English Language and Literature and we would like to share some resources that they might find useful. On the attached document, we have recommended some texts, DVDs and media clips and the ISBN numbers of their set texts.
As a school we subscribe to MyMaths (www.mymaths.co.uk school login: taylor, school password: square) and Century Tech (www.century.tech pupils have their own login - Please check that they can access this website before the Summer break and email their teacher if they need their password to be reset). All pupils will have used them either during remote learning or when at school during their Maths lessons. Should during the Summer your child wishes to do a little bit of Maths can I suggest they log onto these websites and take a look.
Century Tech
Century Tech has “learning nuggets” that appear at the top of the students Century Tech homepage in their “recommended path”. Century Tech is a great resources as it learns what are the students strengths and areas for development, the artificial intelligence then places appropriate topics to work through on the pupils homepage, with videos, notes and then questions to try, this is a great independent learning tool. The more time you spend on it the more tailored to your needs it becomes. This website does work best if you use Chrome.
Mymaths
MyMaths has easy to navigate resources on all topics as well as some engaging mathematical games. Try a homework task on any topic you have covered, or have a go at tasks from the KS3 or GCSE revision packs (under ‘Revision & Assessment’ on the left hand side).
Below are also other useful websites you may wish to look at which do not require a login:
Corbettmaths
Try a 5-a-day sheet for a quick task (5 levels available from grades 1 to 9) or have a look at the Conundrums if you like a good Maths puzzle! If you are in Year 10 have a go at the practice papers or the worksheets if you want something more topic specific.
Nrich
https://nrich.maths.org/covid19
A great website for Maths puzzles, they have created separate sections of their site for tasks suitable to do at home:
KS3: https://nrich.maths.org/14569
KS4: https://nrich.maths.org/14570
We want all students to have a restful Summer, but if they do want to do a little bit of Maths, these are excellent resources.
We look forward to supporting and continuing your childs Mathematical journey in September.
The JTHS Maths Department.
Sudbury Hall have recently put out publications asking for children and families to make contrubutions towards their National Trust Museum of Childhood.
'We need your help to capture what life was like for you during the Covid-19 pandemic. Are you part of a family with children during lockdown? Then send in your photos, drawings, artwork, stories and lots more. This way what you did and felt during the Covid-19 pandemic will be recorded for us to look back on and remember this time.'
Full details can be found on this link:
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]
Following a rigorous selection process that involved activities such as group interviews, action planning and video presentations, the Sixth Form team would like to introduce you to our new Head Students. Each student has been allocated an area of responsibility to lead on and we very much look forward to working with them upon our return to school.
- Eva Bailey - Management of Wellbeing
- Evelyn Chisholm - Academic Mentoring
- Jamie Pegg - Fundraising and Publishing
- Isabel Sharp - Extra-Curricular and Events Coordinator
- Dominic Sturman - Sixth Form Committee
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]
Leave of Absence
May we take this opportunity to remind parents that any planned absence from school needs to be requested in writing. From this, we will consider your request and send out a written response as to whether the planned absence is authorised or not. All requests for Leave of Absence should be sent for the attention of Mrs L Keeling- Attendance Officer ([email protected]). Although currently there are not statutory measures being taken for any unauthorised leave of absence, from September we are aware that the statutory measures, to ensure regular schools attendance, will come back into force.
It is important that parents inform school of any planned absences.
Remote learning activities will continue to be set until Friday 17th July and it is expected that all students engage with this.
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.