Following the recent parent governor election, we are pleased to welcome our new Parent Governor, Mr Neil Wagstaff, who will be joining the local governing body at John Taylor High School. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the other candidates for showing an interest and taking part in the election.  We would also like to say a big thank you to all those parents who have voted.   

National Grid are excited to invite you to their virtual insight day at 4pm this Thursday November 19th. 

https://nationalgrid.onlineinsightdays.com/schedule/

A bit about National Grid..

If your son/daughter attends this webinar, please remind them that they should be recording this on Unifrog as an interaction.

Amazing Apprenticeships will be hosting an exclusive webinar with the Armed Forces to explore the apprenticeship opportunities available within the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Join them on 25th November at 3:30pm to find out more!

Book your free place now by clicking the button below: 

BOOK YOUR PLACE

We have been made aware by Staffordshire County Council that due to absence there will not be a school crossing patrol on duty from Tuesday 20^th October 2020 until further notice, on the Station Road zebra crossing.

As you will be aware, we have had a number of students across all year groups who have been asked to self-isolate due to Covid-19. This has led to various subjects facing disruption and delay to planned assessments. These assessments form the basis of our progress reports and as such we have decided to delay the publication of these reports to enable the majority of students to complete this work. The new publication dates for these reports will be reflected in the calendar but can be seen here:

Wednesday 25th November: Year 9 Data Report

Wednesday 2nd December: Year 8 Data Report

Wednesday 9th December: Year 7 Data Report

Please note that data reports will contain only progress data and attitude to learning scores. Teacher comments will only appear in full reports published later in the year.

Dear Parents / Carers,

Due to a number of Year 8 and Year 9 students having to self-isolate in recent weeks, we have been ensuring that all science content necessary for their topic test has been covered robustly before doing the first formal assessment.  As such, some Y8 class science data will not be updated in time for their report.

Please keep a look out on Go4Schools over the coming weeks for the most up-to-date data once all of these topic tests have been marked.

Thank you for your understanding,

Kind regards,

Mr M.Heath.

KS3 Science Coordinator

On Tuesday 1st December we will be holding Year 10 parents evening. Due to current Covid-linked restrictions, this will be a virtual event with all appointments taking place via video call. We will be using a new electronic system called ‘SchoolCloud’. You may recall that we piloted a different electronic booking system two years ago which did not meet our requirements. However, based on parental feedback at the time, we are hoping that this system will be appropriate. The system has the following features:

• Simple log in using parental and student details.
• Teacher view only includes teachers of your child.
• Ability to schedule all required appointments automatically within a set time.
• Simple confirmation, viewing and printing of appointments.

Parents also commented that it was tricky to keep to time whilst having to move around the school, this issue will be removed as you will meet with each teacher via a video call. You will also avoid the hassle of parking at school on a very busy evening.

Appointments will be set at 5 minutes and will finish when this time has elapsed. This will sit in a time slot of 6 minutes which is designed to allow teachers to quickly prepare for their next appointment. If you feel that you need a longer discussion with either the Head of Year or a subject teacher, this should be arranged by contacting school directly. The 5-minute slot will give enough time for a brief discussion around progress for all subjects. Video calls will automatically end at 6 minutes, this is part of the system and please do not think that the teacher has ended it abruptly if this happens, they have no control over this. Due to the number of appointments that will be required, we can only offer one appointment per subject per student.

Instructions on how to use the system are included on the following links and can also be found in our ‘Schoolzine’ news feed article: ‘Year 10 Parents Evening’.

Whilst we do not envisage you having any problems making appointments, if you do experience difficulties please contact Mrs Kirkpatrick on the following email. If after reading the guide to video calls you believe this may be problematic, you may also use this email: staffoffice@jths.co.uk

2021 Exams and JTHS Internal Assessments

Year 11 recently received an assembly regarding the current situation surrounding next year's exams. As you may know the exams are currently scheduled to take place but will be delayed by 3 weeks. Due to the uncertainty surrounding Covid we cannot be sure that this will remain the situation and obviously will closely follow developments. We believe that the possibility of a similar situation to this year means that any internal assessments that we complete in school take on extra importance as they are an opportunity for students to show us their best levels of knowledge and understanding. Students have been advised to prepare fully for every assessment that they are asked to complete including the trial exams (see below). The full assembly can be viewed below:

Year 11 Trial Exams

These assessments will take place as per the calendar from 7th - 18th December. Students have had basic details shared with them by Mr Forden. In summary, these assessments will take place in classrooms as we are unable to use the regular exam rooms. We will use 'desk-dividers' to provide individual spaces and they will be invigilated by teachers under full exam conditions. Exams will all last for 60 minutes. The generic exam timetable is already on the website and individual timetables will be shared soon. If students are currently out of school due to self-isolation then these timetables will be sent to them by email. If lessons are disrupted by smaller exams, students will be given the opportunity to revise for their remaining exams. 

Students missing assessments

There is a possibility that students may miss assessments including trial exams due to illness or self-isolation. Please be assured that this will not disadvantage them. If at all possible arrangements will be made for them to complete assessments at a later date whether they are class based assessments or trial exams. If they are unable to do this, their teachers will be aware of this and suitable allowances will be made as they use current grades in Go4Schools to produce projected grades. Students should not worry unduly about completing or indeed missing assessments. They can only do their best in whatever they are asked to do.

Young Professionals have teamed up with one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies GSK to put on a very exclusive webinar for school students looking to get into a STEM related career. The webinar is taking place on 26th November, 5pm - 6pm and is open to all students across the UK who would like to find a bit more about what a career at GSK could look like. 

 GSK Webinar Details: 

 Insight to GSK - 26th November, 5pm - 6pm

• GSK are a £34 billion global pharmaceutical company
• GSK have been behind some of the trials and testing for the Covid Vaccine
• Hear from some of their scientists, recruitment teams and current graduates / apprentices
• Opportunities to work at GSK and work experience summer placements 
• We are encouraging you to bring your parents along to this webinar

 Registration Link:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YP-GSK