Weekly Information - Friday 22nd September 2023

The following students celebrated their achievements with Mrs Cochrane this week, congratulations to them all! 

Parents/Carers of our Year 7 students are warmly invited to our annual Service of Welcome on Friday 6th October at 9.10am at St James' Church, Barton.

Please see details in the letter below.

If you wish to report an absence due to illness, please ring the dedicated absence line on 01283 247858 each day of the absence. 

If you wish to inform us of a Planned Absence (less than one day for medical/dental/health appointments etc), please click the link below and complete the Sixth Form Planned Absence Form.

If you wish to apply for a Leave of Absence (more than one day), please click the link below and complete the Sixth Form Leave of Absence Request Form.

Please upload evidence of ALL appointments.

Sixth Form Absence - John Taylor High School (jths.co.uk)

Thank you!

The Sixth Form Team

Please find updated information regarding student attendance and absence at John Taylor High School:

Reporting a student’s absence: Please can we ask that all absences for all students are reported to our dedicated absence line: 01283 247858.

Please ensure you tell us:

• Your child’s name
• Your name
• Their tutor group
• The reason for absence.

Absences must be reported each day the child is absent.

Medical appointments in a school day:

Appointments should where possible, be arranged outside of the school day. If they are unable to be scheduled at any other time, please provide us with details about the appointment before the absence is taken.

Should your child have an ongoing medical illness please do let the school know so that a medical health care plan can be completed.

Students in Years 7-11 who are leaving site for appointments during the day must be collected by a parent / carer. Students should present themselves at the Data Hub where they will sign out and wait for a parent / carer to arrive, before meeting the parent / carer in the main reception area.

If the student is being collected by another adult, parents / carers must inform the school in advance who will be collecting the child. For safeguarding reasons, we will not allow any student to leave school premises with another adult without prior consent. Attempting to gain consent at the time the student is being collected may result in a delay in the student being permitted to leave site.

Students will not be permitted to leave in a taxi alone even if this is pre-booked by a parent.

Request for leave of absence:

All requests for Leave of Absence must be submitted via the following form:

JTHS Leave of Absence request form

You must provide documents to support the reason for absence e.g. proof of travel, exam or competition confirmation.

Headteachers are unable to authorise leave of absence in term time unless the reasons for this are deemed to be exceptional.

Leave of absence which is deemed not to be exceptional, or is not applied for prior to the absence being taken, is classed as unauthorised leave of absence.

Any period of unauthorised leave of absence may result in a parent receiving a penalty notice fine. Should a fixed penalty notice be issued, the fine applies to ‘per parent/carer and per child’. This is regardless of who applied for the leave. Currently the parent has 3 choices:

• A fine of £60 if paid within 21 days
• A fine of £120 is paid after 21 days but within 28 days
• In the case of a non-payment of the fine then notice will be withdrawn and will trigger the fast-track prosecution process under the provisions of section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996. If found ‘guilty’ then this would result in a criminal record for that parent.

Late arrivals:

We kindly request that all students are on site, ready for registration, at 8.55am. Students arriving after 9am will be recorded as late arriving to school. An accumulation of late arrivals may lead to behaviour sanctions. Should a student arrive late due to dedicated school transport issues, their late arrival will not be recorded as late.

Attendance expectations:

At John Taylor High School, we believe that students need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education and to fulfil their potential. Missing school leaves students vulnerable to falling behind.

The reason which is most often provided for a student to be absent from school, is that they are too unwell. At John Taylor High School, during the academic year 2022-23, 19099 sessions or 9549.5 days, were lost due to students being too unwell to attend. We ask that as far as possible, parents and carers encourage their children to be up early enough to have a healthy breakfast before they come to school and ensure they follow a healthy lifestyle including the appropriate amount of sleep, exercise, relaxation and study.

The following text is taken from a recent letter to school leaders from the Government’s Chief Medical Officer and gives some useful advice to parents:

“We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused some parents to feel less confident with assessing whether their child is well enough to be in school so we have laid out some information which we hope you will find helpful.

There is wide agreement among health professionals and educational professionals that school attendance is vital to the life chances of children and young people. Being in school improves health, wellbeing and socialisation throughout the life course. The greatest benefits come from children and young people attending school regularly.

It is usually appropriate for parents and carers to send their children to school with mild respiratory illnesses. This would include general cold symptoms: a minor cough, runny nose or sore throat. However, children should not be sent to school if they have a temperature of 38°C or above. We would encourage you to share the NHS ‘Is my child too ill for school?’ guidance with parents and carers in your schools and communities which has further information.

In addition to respiratory illnesses, we are aware that more children may be absent from school due to symptoms of anxiety than before the pandemic. Worry and mild or moderate anxiety, whilst sometimes difficult emotions, can be a normal part of growing up for many children and young people. Being in school can often help alleviate the underlying issues. A prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending in the future, rather than reduce it.”

Absences of more than 5 days

Should a student be absent for more than 5 consecutive school days due to illness, additional documentation is requested to support and validate this prolonged absence from school. This can be emailed into school at attendance@jths.co.uk Should your child have any ongoing medical issues, please do let the school know as a Medical Health Care Plan may need to be completed.

At John Taylor High School, we are proud of our high expectations and the positive collaboration with our students, parents, carers and other key stake holders, which enables us to achieve high attendance levels. We believe that students need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education and to fulfil their potential.

Following the remote Year 7, 8 and 9 Meet the Tutor evening on Tuesday 19th September 2023, we would like to thank you for engaging with us, it was a fantastic turnout!

Please see below for the responses to the questions asked by parents/carers during the evening and by way of reminder, the link sent to you via email to provide feedback on the evening. Please complete the feedback form by Wednesday 27th September 2023. 

Presentation slides for the evening will be sent out to you via email for reference.

If you have any further questions, please contact your child's form tutor.

We are now down to the last week to pay your deposit for the Year 7 Residential to Outward Bound, Aberdovey. More information can be read in the attached letter.

Any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

Mr Simmons
Outward Bound - Trip Leader

Year_7_OB_Aberdovey_2024_1_.docx

John Taylor High School’s Sixth Form Open Evening & Resources

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to attend our Sixth Form Open Evening on Thursday 12^th October. You will need to book tickets (via Eventbrite or our website) to attend subject specific presentations at the times outlined below, therefore, the maximum number of subject presentations you will be able to attend is 5: 

• 6.00pm to 6.15pm
• 6.25pm to 6.40pm
• 6.50pm to 7.05pm
• 7.15pm to 7.30pm
• 7.40pm to 7.55pm

Please ensure that you book a ticket for each person attending the evening so that there is a seat for each person. This will ensure that rooms are not overcrowded. If a presentation slot is full or you are unable to attend, we have provided a copy of all presentations on our website. These will also be available throughout the year to support the decision-making process.

Over the next few weeks, please take your time to read about the full range of courses that we offer and the entry requirements for each course. You may want to review your son/daughter’s projected grades on www.go4schools.com when making decisions about how suitable a course is to pursue in the sixth form. Students have also been advised to think about their Post 18 opportunities when making subject choices, for example, if they have a particular university course in mind, I would suggest that you log on to www.ucas.com to search for the course and review their entry requirements, as they may stipulate that a certain subject is taken at A Level. Universities will also accept vocational courses as an equivalent qualification to A Level. If you require any advice, please do not hesitate to contact the Sixth Form office by e-mailing sixthform@jths.co.uk.

The application process:

As your son/daughter is currently a student at John Taylor High School, they are not required to complete an application form to join our sixth form. However, they will need to inform their form tutor that they require a place. The sixth form application process is as follows: 

Students will need to select a minimum of three subjects to study in the Sixth Form. Below is a table called ‘Y12 Option Blocks 2024-2024’ which includes the subject combinations that can be selected. It is important that students select only one subject per column (minimum of three subjects in total). Vocational courses are listed in the bottom section of the table. Students can select a mixture of A Level and Vocational courses. If a vocational course is selected which is equivalent to more than one A Level, it will have a number after its name e.g. 2. This will mean that the same subject will need to be selected in the other column, for example, if a student selected BTEC Sport 2 in Block C, they would also need to select BTEC Sport 2 in Block D. This would mean that the student would then be able to select their third or fourth subject from Blocks A and B.

Students who are projected to achieve mainly grade 3s and below would be best suited to a Level 2 course for their next pathway. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer these courses at John Taylor High School, however other local providers do offer them. You may want to explore the following local providers for Level 2 courses:

Burton and South Derbyshire College https://www.bsdc.ac.uk/

Paget High School Sixth Form https://www.paget.staffs.sch.uk/sixth-form - Business, IT and Health & Social Care

South Staffs College Lichfield Campus https://www.southstaffs.ac.uk/courses/

Miss Spurrier (a.spurrier@jths.co.uk) as the Work-Related Learning Coordinator, will be ensuring that all Year 11 students are also provided with a 30-minute Career Guidance interview with a Level 6 trained Advisor to further support Post 16 decisions.

I hope that the information provided supports you through this process and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself via e-mail sixthform@jths.co.uk.

Yours faithfully

Mrs A Spencer

Assistant Headteacher: Director of Post 16 & Careers Lead

Interested in going to a Russell Group University? Make sure you don't miss our upcoming official Meet the Russell Group webinars. 

Hear directly from representatives and experts from 22 of the 24 Russell Group Universities including Cambridge, King's College London, LSE, Bristol, and Manchester to get answers to all of your questions about applications, student life, personal statements, and much more. 

Held across 3 days, the webinars will cover topics such as an Introduction to the Russell Group & Why to Study There, Personal Statements & Applying to a Russell Group University and Student Life.

Each session the chat will be managed by other representatives from the Russell Group who will be able to answer specific questions and provide further information throughout.

Register here for our Russell Group Webinars. 

ONCE YOU HAVE REGISTERED YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TO SELECT THE WEBINAR/S YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN BY CLICKING ON THE ZOOM LINK/S.

Please also register if you would like to be emailed access to the recordings

The schedule is as follows: 

Day 1 - 3rd October

An Introduction to the Russell Group and why choose to Study there? 12:00 to 13:30

Student life at 16:30 - 18:00

Day 2 -4th October

The International Students Session - 9.00 to 10:30

Day 3 - 5th October

Researching University Options - 12 to 13:30

Personal Statements and Applying to a Russell Group University - 16:30 to 18:00

The Russell Group is made up of:

University of Birmingham, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, Durham University, University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, University of Glasgow, Imperial College London, King's College London, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, London School of Economics & Political Science, University of Manchester, Newcastle University, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, Queen Mary, University of London, Queen's University Belfast, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University College London, University of Warwick, University of York. 

Are your students ready to embark on an exciting journey exploring the world of healthcare? Join us for the NHS Virtual Allied Healthcare Work Experience on Sunday 1st October, 9am - 5pm and get ready to be amazed!

This opportunity is for students of all year groups! Whether your student dreams of becoming a nurse, a paramedic, or any other healthcare professional, this work experience is their ticket to gaining valuable insight and making an informed decision about their future career.

Registration Link: https://alliedhealthmentor.org/product/live-virtual-work-experience-programme/.

Our next session on Sunday 1st October, 9am - 5pm is focused on "Communication and Fractures," presenting students with a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Allied Healthcare Professionals.

During the work experience day, they will follow two patients from their initial presentation to recovery, gaining a unique and unforgettable insight into the world of healthcare. They will interact with a variety of NHS healthcare professionals, including:

- Nursing
- Midwifery
- Paramedicine
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Dietetics
- Radiography
- Prosthetics and Orthotics
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Pharmacy

Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with healthcare professionals throughout the day, empowering them to make informed career decisions and demonstrating their passion for healthcare in their UCAS application.

Once they’ve registered, students will be emailed links to their virtual work experience portals.

Students are awarded a Work Experience Certificate for every session they complete. Those who complete the full 5-month programme will be awarded a Highly Commended Reference from the Presidents of Allied Healthcare Mentor. These are fantastic additions to their CVs!

Students can register individually at any time throughout the 5-month programme using the link below. We recommend booking early to gain as much out of this programme as possible. Places are £10 a session to cover administrative and technological costs.

https://alliedhealthmentor.org/nhs-healthcare-careers-virtual-work-experience/

Thank you for highlighting this opportunity to the next generation of NHS workers.

A free 5-week course for all students aged 14-18 interested in healthcare complete with a work experience certificate.

Perfect for all students aged 14-18 interested in Biology, Science, healthcare and of course those considering careers in medicine.

Students can join our doctors live and online every Monday at 7.30pm in October as they go through interactive real life patient cases from symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

Students that cannot attend live will have access to the recordings to watch for 30 days afterwards when they have time.

All of our doctors work in busy NHS hospitals so this is a unique opportunity to learn more about healthcare and gain some fantastic material to use in med school applications and to talk about at interview as verified work experience.

Students just need to visit www.premedprojects.co.uk/free-online-work-experience-sessions where they will be able to sign up for the course.

The school advises that parents supervise any live online events for safeguarding purposes.