Weekly Information - Thursday 18th November 2021

If you have a concern that any student is being harmed, is at risk of harm, or you receive information (intentionally or unintentionally) you must contact school reception as soon as possible and ask to speak to the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) or Deputies. Alternatively you can contact the police on 101 or the Staffordshire Childres' Advice and Support line (See below) or Derbyshire on 01629 532564 or Derby City on 01332 641172.

During weekends and holidays, if you are concerned about the safety of a child or young person please use the contact details below:

Staffordshire

Staffordshire Childrens’ Advice and Support (Monday- Friday 8am-5pm) 0300 111 8007

Emergency Out of Hours (Evenings and Weekends) 0345 604 2886

Police

Non-Emergency- 10

Emergency- 999

Derbyshire

Child Protection Referrals 01629 533190

If you have a concern related to inappropriate and harmful information online, please use the Report Harmful Content button online which can be found on the top banner of our website.

If you want to look at sources of support and advice for students and parents, please access the Safeguarding page on the JTHS website. There are some downloadable documents that can signpost you to support. 

We strongly encourage you to read our weekly communication as we often use this to support our community with safeguarding children and young people. 

The legal 'right to be forgotten' has been around since 2014 but recently Google have extended this. Now, any person under the age of 18 (or their parents/guardians) can fill in a form and request that one or more images are removed from Google search results. This is good news, there will be many reasons why a young person might want an image to be removed from Google search results, e.g. embarrassing photos from when they were younger. 

The link to the form is below:

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/10949130?hl=en

CEOP have released some new resources that may be useful for parents, including some help sheets and a few videos. AskTheAwkward is about helping with difficult conversations related to online relationships and is mainly geared towards secondary students. 
Please use the link below to access the resources:

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/ask-the-awkward

The media are continuing to report that nationally people employed in education are still the victims of online abuse through TikTok. Unfortunately, we are still aware that this is the case at John Taylor High School too. To reiterate the message from last week there is not an official John Taylor High School TikTok account, any information or accounts suggesting that they are are. in fact, impersonation accounts. 

We have become aware that our message sent to students and parents last week also featured on one particular account so we know our messages relating to this topic are getting out to our community. 

Over the next few weeks all students will receive an online safety assembly about this current issue and the legalities associated with posting online abuse, specifically abuse that could be considered as a hate crime targeting one or more of the nine protected characteristics as part of the Equality Act 2010. 

We have advised any staff in school who have been affected or targeted by this abuse to make contact with the Police. 

We know that this content is being produced by a member or members of our community, unfortunately we are unable to identify specific people. We are asking for your support as parents to check your child's mobile phone and tablet devices, specifically their TikTok accounts. We will be asking students in our assemblies to unfollow such accounts and we will be encouraging them to share information if they know who is producing such material. We also actively encourage all students and parents to report the accounts and material directly to TikTok and via the Report Harmful Content button on our school website. This button is monitored by UK Safer Internet who can assist in content being removed from circulation.

We thank you in advance for your support with this, it is vitally important we work together to protect our students online and protect our staff from abuse. 

Dear Parent/Carer

Please find attached information from Staffordshire County Council regarding knife crime.

Miss N Dean

Designated Safeguarding Lead and Head of Upper School.

Sporting Young Ambassadors - Afternoon Tea with a Difference.

Last week over 30 boxes of goodies for an Afternoon Tea were delivered to the local Community of Barton and Yoxall,  due to the postponement of the termly event normally held in the school hall.

The boxes were supplied by Morrisons along with a number of delicious food items, tea bags and chocolates to go in the box. The Art Department presented a postcard of Year 9 students work, and Food Technology produced poopy shaped shortbreads and cheese scones.

The Sporting Young Ambassadors wrote letters including a new information letter mentioning all the different school events which have been happening this term. Artistic "Happy Stones" were painted which also went into the boxes.

Mrs Berry took out four Ambassadors delivering locally to Palmers Close, Mrs Sharp delivered to some new people within the community, and Alan Ball from Morrisons delivered to those in Barton and Yoxall.

Thanks must go out to the many people who worked together to make this event such a success - please enjoy the lovely comments below from some of the recipients.

"I wanted to write a quick note of thanks for the very thoughtful delivery you dropped round last week.  It really did cheer me up and brought a smile to my face.  You are all a real credit, not only to the school but to Barton."

"Thanks again for my very enjoyable afternoon tea.  It was a lovely thing for you to do.  Thank you so much for thinking of me.  I really appreciate it.

P.S - I enjoy reading all your letters...you are all very busy students!"

COVID-19 Vaccinations age 12-15 

For any pupils who were unable to receive their Covid vaccination in school on 17/11/21, there will be another Vaccination session in school on Tuesday 23/11/21.

This is for those pupils that the team already have a consent form for. 

There are also alternative venues locally where the vaccination is also available - see the following links

https://www.twbstaffsandstoke.org.uk/coronavirus/12-15-year-olds

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/find-a-walk-in-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-site/

Thank you for your support

If you have any queries, please contact the Team directly on:

0300 124 0366

[email protected]

BASE targets

In Key Stage 3, John Taylor uses an assessment system based on performance in Key Stage 2 SATs results. This is also cross-referenced against CAT4 test results. Due to the current situation and lack of KS2 results this year and last year, we have based these solely on CAT4 results. 

Targets are created for each subject and are the outcome that will be expected for each assessment that is completed. Students are not expected to move through the grades. Each subject will monitor performance against these targets and are able to review them if required; this type of review is most likely to occur at the end of the academic year taking into account a full range of assessment data.

A: Should be Approaching the age related level of knowledge and understanding

S: Should be Secure in the age related level of knowledge and understanding

E: Should be Exceeding the age related level of knowledge and understanding

Students may also be assessed as ‘Beginning to show the age related level of knowledge and understanding’ (B).  A small number of students may demonstrate exceptional performance and may be graded as Outstanding (O).

This information will soon appear in Go4Schools. This will also include a 'current grade' which is a live grade created from a combination of assessments completed so far this academic year. This grade is colour coded to indicate current progress and will appear once a suitable number of assessments have been completed.

You will also receive a progress report or have a parents' evening each term. Details of these are below:

Week beginning 6th December 2021: Data report (no comments)

Tuesday 1st March 2022: Parents Evening (remote video appointments)

Wednesday 27th June 2022: Full report (including comments)

You should now have received an email with instructions on how to book your Parents' Evening appointments via SchoolCloud.  These instructions are also included below, along with a video showing how to add a second parent/carer to the appointments.  We ask in the case of separated parents that one parent/carer only books the appointments, and uses the instructions below to allow access for the second parent/carer.

Booking opens on Monday 22nd November at 6pm and will close on Monday 29th November at 6pm.  If you have any problems booking your appointments, please contact Mrs Kirkpatrick or Mrs Davies at [email protected].

Video: Parents - invite another parent/guardian to join your appointments - SchoolCloud Parents Evening (parentseveningsystem.co.uk)

Dear Parent / Carer,

Mr Simmons will be available on Y10 Parents Evening to discuss Duke of Edinburgh queries with parents whose children are already signed up to the scheme. Please do not book an appointment if your child is not currently doing D of E.

Appointments are limited and will be on a first come first served basis. Please book via the schoolcloud app when booking your class teacher appointments.

Kind regards,

Mr Simmons

The 16–19 Bursary Fund is a government-provided, means-tested fund available to support students who have difficulty in meeting costs relating to their studies. To qualify, you must be under 19 years of age on 31st August in the academic year in which you start your programme of study, and you will be expected to provide evidence of personal and/or financial hardship. Each case will be assessed individually, however, usually this would be based on a household income of £25,000 or less, plus any benefits you are in receipt of at this point in time.  

For further information, please see the guidance and application form using the following link John Taylor High School (jths.co.uk).

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to get in touch [email protected]

Thank you

The Sixth Form Team

If you wish to report an absence due to illness, please ring the dedicated absence line daily on 01283 890772. 

If you wish to inform us of a Planned Absence (medical appointments, driving lessons, driving tests etc), please click the link below and complete the form. Please upload evidence of all appointments.

John Taylor High School (schoolzineplus.co.uk)

Thank you

The Sixth Form Team

Students will learn that an agricultural degree can lead to a range of roles in business management, global supply chains and environmental sustainability.

Hear from the best: Royal Agricultural University, Harper Adams, Writtle College and the University of Cumbria are all involved.

Students can book here

Winvic Construction, a leading national contractor based in the Midlands and IM Properties, one of the UK’s largest privately-owned investor developers delivering manufacturing and logistics schemes are holding a virtual insight session into the world of Construction.

Come and discover what the construction industry has to offer and hear about the exciting Mercia Park project, where we are delivering a new 238-acre high-quality employment park in North West Leicestershire.

This opportunity will include:

• An introduction to Winvic, IM Properties and what we do
• A chance to explore opportunities in the industry and learn more about the wide range of roles available
• Project Lifecycle and Virtual Site Tour
• Technology advancements within the industry, e.g. using green technologies, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Interactive Q&A session
• Opportunity to network with industry professionals
• Overview of the pathways to qualifications and employment.

Whilst this opportunity is open to all we are especially looking for students in the following areas to apply:

Hinckley and Bosworth, Lichfield, North West Leicestershire, North Warwickshire, South Derbyshire and Tamworth.

The session runs from 4pm until 6pm.

Come along to gain an insight into Winvic, IM Properties and more.

Hear about civil engineering, the creation of a brand new employment park delivering industrial commercial buildings – for major manufacturing and logistics companies like Jaguar Land Rover and DSV.

To create an account and book, click here.

Please log in to the Classroom at 3.50pm and be ready to start at 4.00pm. The placement will run from 4pm to 6pm.

On one of our Flying Start degree programmes, students have the opportunity to go to university and start their career at the same time. They’ll get to work with world-class clients and be part of our highly skilled teams. Studying at university they’ll get to experience the full-time student lifestyle, but with integrated paid placements at PwC, they’ll have some money to enjoy it too. They’ll gain a degree, and hopefully impress us enough to secure a graduate job with us after they graduate.

We’ve launched three new Flying Start programmes this year and would like to encourage you to find out more...

For students looking to start their career and go to uni
Our Flying Start degree programmes offer just that - Find out more

Introducing three new programmes
Business Management in Belfast and Accounting and Tech in London - Explore

Want to hear more?
Come along to our Virtual Park event on 9 December - Register

Find out more about a career at PwC
Hear from our people at our Virtual Classroom - Career Insights sessions - Sign up

Applications are now open for our online and national King’s College London Medicine and Dentistry Lecture Series 2022. This programme is for students across the UK in Year 11, 12, and 13 who have only attended non-selective state schools since age 11 and are currently studying biology or chemistry. 

Over the course of the 13 lecture programme students will hear from speakers working in varied specialities and at different career stages in healthcare. Last year’s lectures included topics such as cardiology, prosthodontics, renal transplant, as well as the medical student experience. The lecture series is designed to give students an understanding of the range of opportunities in medicine and dentistry and the realities of being a healthcare professional.

Students will also learn about the different elements of the application process, such as the UCAT, personal statements, and interviews.

Lectures will be held on Tuesday evenings at 6-7.15pm and will run in blocks of three throughout 2022. The first three lectures will take place on the 1^st February, 8th February, and 15th February. The remaining three blocks of lectures will take place in Spring and Summer.

For more information and to apply, students should follow this link. The deadline to apply is Friday 10^th December 2021.