Weekly Information - Friday 21st June 2024

Over the last week, all students in years 7 to 10 have had an assembly about our focus areas for behaviour expectations for the rest of the academic year. As always, we try to link this to our school values, and this term we will be focusing on 'Integrity' and 'Kindness'

Integrity

Our school expectation linked to integrity is being 'Punctual and Prepared'. The strong focus is on students being on time to each and every lesson. Students are regularly reminded about the importance of being in their lessons ready to learn for the start of the lesson. This means that they maximise their learning and do not disturb other students. When students are late they have this recorded as a 'late mark' and this includes the amount of minutes they are late. Where possible, the teacher will then keep them after the lesson for this amount of time and to find out why they were late. Students who are persistently late may be placed onto punctuality report.

Kindness

Linked to kindness, we are focusing on 'No Physical Contact'. Some students can sometimes get over exuberant, particularly with their friends. This includes playfighting, headlocks, pushing and pulling too aggressively and is not appropriate. It has been explained to students that this may result in someone getting hurt or upset. In order to support us in this focus, students will receive a reminder if a member of staff needs to speak to them about this. If we have to issue 3 reminders then they will receive an after school detention. The system is designed to be fair and allow students to be reminded of our expectations before there is a sanction.

The after school detention system is administered by members of our pastoral support team and run by the senior leadership team. They will not know the details of the type of physical contact but just that students have received 3 reminders from members of staff. If your son or daughter does receive an after school detention, you will be informed of this at least 24 hours in advance as with uniform detentions. These pastoral staff will not be able to give you any further details of what each reminder was given for, however, students will have had this explained when they were issued.

We are grateful for the support of our families in all aspects of the school, including behaviour expectations.

The image below was used in these assemblies:

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

Today at Hot Chocolate with the Head, Mrs Cochrane was joined by students nominated by Mrs Ball for their fantastic entries in the JTHS Careers Logo Competition.

Mrs Cochrane shared with the group the purpose of the competition and that the winning entry would be rolled out across the school to help give the Careers department an identity and embedded within the school brand. Mrs Cochrane said that the students ‘should all be proud of themselves. To be involved in an initiative that will become part of the school is a great achievement and everyone involved should be really proud of this commendation.’ Mrs Cochrane spoke with the group about their career aspirations which was interesting to hear. Jobs such as Zoologist, Medical Professional, Business Person and Architect were a few that were mentioned.

The entries were fantastic and both Mrs Cochrane and Mrs Ball were blown away with the talents of the students and the thought that had gone into producing them. After much deliberation the winner was announced as Ethan Griffiths (Y10). Ethan is a budding graphic designer and not only produced the logo, he created a video and produced a fantastic rationale. Mrs Ball was delighted to present him with some chocolate goodies and gift voucher.

Here is Ethan’s winning logo:

The runners up were:

Isabella (Y8), Maddox (Y7), Jessica (Y7), Rebekah (Y7), Bethan (Y7) and Daisy (Y7).

 Well done to all of pupils involved, we are really proud of your hard work and talking the opportunity to get involved.

We’d also like to say congratulations to Emilia (Y8), Cara (Y8) & Ilori (Y8) for also being nominated by Mrs Bostock this week for there participation in the Raspberry Pi Competition, unfortunately they were unable to join for the celebration today.

On Thursday 20^th June, we invited our wonderful Year 11 cohort back to school to attend their much-deserved Celebration Assembly with teachers and peers.

Spirits were high as the student’s entered the Sports Hall and collected their leavers hoodies and prom tickets. As they gathered, Mr Thompson Head of Year 11 projected their Year 7 photos onto the big screen, which led to lots of laughter amongst the students. It was great to see how they had all matured over the school years!

Mrs Cochrane opened the assembly and said, ‘it was an absolute delight to have this particular year group within the school community, our Year 11 students have grown into lovely young people who have a bright future in achieving their personal excellence. My highlights include daily canteen chats and teaching them chemistry.’ The sentiment was agreed by Mr Blanchenot who added ‘you are a phenomenal group and are a credit to this school and most importantly yourselves’.

Next to speak to the students was the Year 11 Form Tutors who shared personal messages of thanks, funny stories, highlights and their favourite things about their forms. It was clear to see that the Year 11 Form Tutors had built a wonderful relationship with their form groups and would really miss them!

To finish, Mr Thompson, Head of Year 11 spoke extremely high of his year group leaving the students feeling inspired with his ‘water bottle analogy’ and the importance of each student’s value in the world. Mr Thompson captivated the room with his words of wisdom and advised them to ‘say yes’ to as many opportunities as possible. Being courageous and pushing their comfort zones was a lasting message Mr Thompson wanted to the students to leave with.

At the end of the Celebration Assembly the students were treated to ice-cream and cake and enjoyed some social time. All the students conducted themselves exceptionally and it was a pleasure for our teachers to have the opportunity to catch up with the students since they went on study leave.

The next event our Year 11 students will attend is the prom on Friday 5^th July. We wish all our Year 11 students a wonderful summer and look forward to GCSE Results day on Thursday 22^nd August.

Mr Forden was extremely proud of the Year 10 Football team who showed outstanding talent in the U15 County Cup tournament walking away as champions, and there’s no better time to celebrate the success of our young people in football as we all become inspired by the UEFA Euro’s 2024!

Following the Y10s recent success in winning the U15 boys Burton and District Cup, the squad have also now added the U15 County Cup to this year's list of honours. 

A 6-3 victory over John Taylor Free School means John Taylor High School finish the U15 season having played 11 won 11. Given the extended period of time over which games have been played this season, it really has been a squad effort.

Monday's County final, played at Stafford Town FC, saw two Burton schools going against each other for the first time this season. Our squad raced into an early 1-0 start and proceeded to control the game, with the majority of the opening 40 minutes played in the opposition half. Two quick goals just before half-time saw JTHS hold a 3-0 advantage at the break.

Into the second half, 3-0 very quickly became 5-0 and our team appeared to lose focus somewhat. This in-turn allowed the opposition to bring the game back to 5-3. Only at this point did the boys react, in-turn scoring a sixth goal. John Taylor High School beat John Taylor Free School to win the County Cup.

Mr Forden said ‘You can have results or excuses. You cannot have both! I am really proud of each and every member of the squad, all of whom having made a valuable contribution in representing our school.’

Well done to; Lucas, Adam, Oli, Alfie, Ollie, Fin, Charlie, Dylan, Archie, Oli, Jenson, Joe, Ethan, Dan, Oli, Will, Eli, Jon, Fin, Oli, Ben, George, Josh, Harry.

Today we had the pleasure of listening to James from our Sixth Form who did a presentation for current Year 12 students interested in the LNAT (The Law National Aptitude Test). The rigorous test helps universities select high-calibre students who are most likely to succeed in a Law degree course. 

James went through the LNAT process in September 2023 therefore was able to give our students a great insight into how to prepare for the assessment and what to expect. James explained that the test was made up of 2-parts; a multiple choice section and an essay component, which both presented opportunities and challenges.

James said ‘despite hours of preparation in the months leading up to the test, I can’t say I found the test easy. There were lots of components required under strict time constraints which you can never fully prepare for. The multiple choice test required a high level of concentration and the ability to answer questions quickly, whereas the essay part required a lot more analysis, interpretation, accuracy, reasoning and synthesis which does come easier to me. I’d prepared for this by completing numerous sample questions and reading countless current affairs in law, economics, business and the media.’’

James shared with the group that he achieved a remarkable 33/42 which is very much above the average and what universities actually require. Well done to James, we wish him all the success at his chosen university and a future career in Law.

Mrs Ball and Mrs Nurse, who facilitated the talk, thanked James for taking the time to share his experience with the group. It was great to hear what the process entails from first-hand experience.

If any current Year 12 students are interested in applying to do the LNAT then please make yourself familiar with the Registration & Application deadlines. More information can be found here: LNAT | The Law National Aptitude Test

We are asking for parents to make themselves familiar with the below information on WhatsApp Safety. Find our more information here: https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/whatsapp-safety-a-how-to-guide-for-parents/#whatsapp-safety-tips