JT News - July 2019

The rain held off for Sports Day this year so pupils and staff were able to enjoy an afternoon of sports on the field. It was perfect weather this year and the visitors who joined us for our termly community afternoon tea on the field said they had really enjoyed their visit.

Congratulations to the Sports Day winners - Needwood!

The Y9 Paris trip that took place 14th-17th June, began extremely early in the morning with a 4:00am set off.  We arrived at Chateau de Grande Romaine at about 5.00pm French time. That evening the Y9s (and staff) participated in a photo challenge, re-enacting famous movie covers and challenging poses.

On our first full day in Paris, we took the coach around famous landmarks, followed by a sight-seeing cruise down the Seine. After lunch, we walked the 328 steps up to the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, where you could buy drinks, snacks, souvenirs, go to the cafe, or simply take pictures. Then we briefly continued our coach tour while heading to the Sacre Coeur, where we had the choice to go in, or go around a market. Once arriving back at the chateau, we ate and relaxed for a while, before playing a game of rounders followed by cricket.

Sunday, we spent the day in Disneyland Paris, were we went on rides such as the tower of terror and space mountain, we went through all the shops and took tonnes of pictures. That night, everyone made their own crepes, topped off with chocolate or lemon juice and sugar.

We spent the Monday, travelling back to England, arriving back at school at 9.35pm.

Special thanks to Dave and Rob, our amazing coach drivers who took us around all weekend. Thanks for putting up with our singing. But most of all, thank you to all the teachers who came on the trip, and to Mr Thompson for making it all possible.  By Lily, Y9.

Over the Easter break, over 60 students and seven staff had the amazing opportunity to ski in the Obertauernnn resort in Austria. After a good journey and smooth ferry crossing in our double-decker coach we arrived on Sunday night for our ski fit to ensure that we hit the slopes first thing Monday morning.

Skiing in Obertauernnn is magical and is described as a “snow bowl” where a mix of 20 chair lifts and cable cars transport skiers up to the top of the respective mountains ranging to a top altitude of 2313m, meaning that we were surrounded by majestic views of the geological processes evident over millions of years. The scenery truly was fantastic to ski in and the weather over the last few days certainly added to the awe and wonder.

The students had a wonderful time over the week away and made excellent progress in their skiing ability and all students managed to ski down the mountain with many attempting an array of blue, red and black runs as well as the technical trail park. The students were hosted in the comfort of an excellent hotel just a short transfer away from the slopesofObertauernnn and were treated to a pizza night, ice cream parlour visit and a disco night in their time away from the slopes.

A huge thanks must go toMrHulleyy for organising the experience for the students and for Mr Williams, Miss Archer, Miss Senior, Miss Sears and Miss Greenhough for being instrumental in the success of the trip.

Mr Simmons

Congratulations to Jenny Roobottom, who entered this dress in the Yorkshire and Rutland Federation of Young Farmers Competition in May.  She achieved 4th place in a field of 30, the age range being 10 to 25. The dress, which was designed to depict 'Modern British Farming' scored 91 marks out of 100.  Jenny will be nominated for Hot Chocolate with the Head and Miss Crutchley says she would like to wear the dress to the Y11 prom!

A number of selected Year 9 pupils enjoyed a morning of historical enquiry recently, focusing on the events of 9/11. They investigated the causes, consequences and why this event is significant. Each pupil was then able to apply this knowledge to a GCSE skill, analysing the various interpretations of 9/11; this is an invaluable skill as they progress to their GCSEs.

The pupils also debated key questions surrounding this topic, such as ‘Should all pupils your age be taught about 9/11?’ and ‘What other events do you think everyone should study?’.

Pupils asked a variety of thought-provoking questions, which shows the exceptional skill our young historians have. All pupils excelled during the session and a pleasure to teach.  Miss Archer

On Tuesday 9^th July, 66 students  were invited to Beth Shalom, Holocaust Memorial centre. Students were a credit to JTHS, asking thoughtful questions and experiencing the wonders of technology whilst listening to a holocaust survivor. Students were very engaged with all aspects of the trip and reflected on some key questions, for example, who was to blame? They learnt a lot and could share some of their own views which was well received. We demonstrated great knowledge about some key areas but we definitely developed our understanding and thoughts on some ideas we perhaps hadn’t have thought about before. One of the most though provoking was where we were invited to select a stone from the trough and place it on the memorial, in tribute to one of the 1.5 million individual children who died.

Well done to all who attended!

On 24^th May, 30 Charnwood pupils and staff came together to raise £540.85 for our house charity, Footprints. http://footprintsorphanage.com/home.html

The afternoon was jam-packed with smiles and team spirit as our champions bravely took on the 5K run. We had celebrity appearances including a Medieval Princess, Wally, Lego man and even our very own Tango, the Tiger. It would not have been possible without the enthusiasm of our dedicated volunteers and supporters, helping us to maintain the Charnwood Cheer throughout the afternoon. A big well done to all staff and students who participated in the run and displayed immense sportsmanship and remarkable resilience. As a thank you to all the runners, we had some scrumptious cakes from a Y12 student, which were well-deserved.

A big thank you to Mr Roberts and Mr Brackstone for helping to organise such a successful event!

Well done to all the Charnwood Champions! Can’t wait to get you all back on the field soon! The Charnwood Chiefs, Alice, Liv, Eloise and Elizabeth

Our Young Sporting Ambassadors have been very busy recently, representing the school at various events.

Here are some of them preparing for an assembly delivered to pupils at Thomas Russell Junior School.

They were also invited to help out at Walton Primary School Sports Day in June, where they were great representatives of the school. Well done.

On Thursday 6^th June 2019, the Y12 BTEC students, with help from the Young Ambassadors, ran a multi skills event for six different schools in the local area on John Taylor High School’s playing field. Schools that attended the event were, Thomas Russell Infants, Walton, Rangemore, Needwood, Mary Howard. The event ran from 1pm to 3pm and 120 children took part in the event which helped us succeed our main goal of improving participation of young children in the local area. The children that took part were in Reception, Y1 and Y2. The event included activities such as skipping, football, tennis, balance, relay, parachute games, bean bag throwing game, team-building, cat and mouse and rock/paper/scissors. Each station lasted seven minutes and we included a five-minute break in between. 16 young ambassadors played a vital part in the event by talking the children through each event so that they clearly understood what to do so that they had loads of fun and injuries didn’t occur. I think it's fair to say that the staff and sixth formers were very grateful that they used their own time to help us out.

Will and Matt managed to encourage the Co-op to sponsor the event after a kindly worded letter from Miss Senior. The Co-op very kindly gave us a £50 voucher for us to provide fruit and drinks to all 120 pupils encouraging a healthy active lifestyle!

The event was extremely successful and the children all enjoyed themselves, one girl saying “she didn’t want it to end.” The BTEC students managed to set up the whole event on time successfully and were even able to modify stations as they went along.

Because of the children's amazing effort, we couldn’t help but give them a well-earned certificate that they all deserved. They were all dancing to the music that Mr Sears happily set up for us.  Overall it was a great afternoon of sport and the children had a blast trying out new sports.

(by William Watson)

(by Chloe Crampton and Rebekah Lord)

On Wednesday 19^th June 2019, we went to University of Derby to learn about the different career paths in sport and what courses are available at the university. We started off the day with a talk from Olympian, Jack Burnell who is an open water swimmer for England. He competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics and won the silver medal in the 10km race in the European Open Water Swimming Championships in the same year. He talked about having choices in life and choosing the right pathway to benefit your goals. After the inspirational talk we split off into year groups and went to test our reaction times with a Batak Pro Reaction test and a speed test using sports laser gates. After lunch, which the Uni staff kindly offered a BBQ, we went on to choose what topic area in sport interested us the most. We went to strength and conditioning, biomechanics and sports coaching. For example, in Strength and Conditioning we looked at the movement of body parts when doing a long sprint and accelerating and how we can improve our technique. The whole day was very informative and helped us all decide on what we want to do in the future. Thank you to the University of Derby for having us and hosting a great day of sport!

Year 3 and 4 dodgeball tournament

(by Aidan Stanley and Sam Rowland)

Despite the adverse weather conditions, the BTEC students and teachers in a moment of genius put plan B into place and went ahead with DODGEBALL. Year 3 and 4 students from Rangemore, Thomas Russell, Needwood, Mary Howard, and Walton all bunkered into the sports hall for a head-to-head clash of titan's dodgeball tournament, which turned out to be the finest sporting spectacle since England's 1966 World Cup win.

All teams played each other in three x two-minute quick fire rounds, each round win would equal 5 points, a draw 3 points and a loss 1 point. Mary Howard took an early lead in the overall standing who came into the event as early favourites after beating Thomas Russell B and collecting all 15 points available. Thomas Russell had been split into two teams A & B.  Thomas Russell A looked second favourites after a hard fought victory against Walton leaving everything on the court but leaving no points behind. Rangemore also had a good start against Needwood who gathered 12 points for themselves. These three teams would prove to the top three once all is said and done, however in what order?

Coming into the penultimate game there was a local derby, Thomas Russell B v Thomas Russell A. Could Thomas Russell B affect Thomas Russell’s A title hope as all three leaders have barely put a foot wrong all afternoon? It turned out to be a whitewash for Thomas Russell B, could Mary Howard repeat their fantastic form against 3^rd favourites Rangemore? Rangemore against all odds came out victors leaving Mary Howard title hopes in jeopardy. Coming into the final fixtures the two dodgeball heavyweights faced off for the final time, Mary Howard v Thomas Russell A. Mary Howard came out on top leaving everything in the John Taylor Sports Hall taking all 15 points and leaving the overall rankings a blur.

Starting from the bottom, in sixth place after a valiant effort was Needwood primary school with 31 points. Moving in to fifth place was Walton primary school on 33 points. In fourth place was Thomas Russell B with 37 points. Now moving on to the front runners…. in third place on 51 points was Rangemore. Leaving two teams remaining with only a difference of 4 points between second and first. In second place after a triumphant effort was Mary Howard who just fell short. Leaving the overall winners as Thomas Russell A with 61 points.

From everyone at JTHS we would like to thank the primary school teachers, the Young Ambassadors’ parents and, most importantly, the children for their sportsmanship and taking part no matter the result or the weather. 

UK Chemistry Olympiad is a very challenging competition open to all schools and colleges in the UK. A group of enthusiastic Y13 chemistry students sat the very challenging exam and we were delighted with their results. Six students achieved Silver awards and three students achieved Bronze awards. Every student who took part achieved an award. Well done to all students who took part in the competition.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme at John Taylor High school continues to be highly successful. Currently 122 students are doing the Bronze level of the award scheme, 56 are taking part at the Silver level and an impressive 26 students are currently taking part at the Gold level of the scheme.

Our Bronze award students recently completed their practice expedition in Derbyshire. During this expedition the wet weather was very unkind to them, but they soldiered on with grit determination and completed their expedition.

Students doing the silver level of the award scheme have recently completed both their practice and actual expeditions. Our Gold award students have completed their practice gold expedition which they found quite challenging and they will be completing their actual expedition in North wales in the summer.

Students taking part in the award scheme must complete a volunteering section and when the current cohort have finished the level they are currently working on this year, they will have done in the region of 4200 hours voluntary service between them. This impressive amount of voluntary service undertaken by our students is greatly valued by our community and we are very proud of their work in this area.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme makes a big difference to young people’s lives and we are very thankful to the team of leaders who support our school with the scheme.

On Saturday 13^th April, 38 students and four staff arrived at John Taylor bright and early to set off for Iceland. After a long delay, eventually students landed in Iceland, to be greeted by strong icy winds and rain!

After a short sleep, students awoke refreshed and positive for their first day of sight-seeing. First stop on Day 2 was at Thingvellir National Park, the oldest national park in Iceland and an opportunity for students to walk alongside the North-American plate, in a fissure where the two plates are slowly moving away from each other. After leaving Thingvellir National Park, students made a quick stop at Strokkur Geyser to watch it erupt and attempt to avoid getting wet! After lunch students headed towards Gulfoss waterfall, one of the more spectacular waterfalls in Iceland before heading to a natural geothermal pool for a relaxing end to an action packed second day.

On the third day, students visited Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Station for an informative presentation about how Iceland generates its electricity and hot water. The second stop of the day saw students visit the newly-built lava centre to further their understanding about the tectonic setting that Iceland is located upon. In the afternoon students took a tour of the South Shore’s physical geography visting Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss where some brave students took the opportunity to walk behind the waterfall. Students also visited the Black Sand Beaches at Vik and saw the basalt columns created by volcanic eruptions.

The final day of sight-seeing saw students visit Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik, wander around the sights such as Hallgrimskirkja and the Parliament Gardens before heading the Reykjanes Peninsula to stand on the Bridge Between Two Continents and see the geothermal pools.

The fifth day saw students leave the secluded peninsula we had been staying behind and depart for England. An amazing experience was had by both staff and students, with memories created that will remain with us for a long time.

On June 19^th a mixed group of seven A level and BTEC business students travelled to Staffordshire University in Stoke to take part in the CIPFA Sixth Form management game. We played different roles in the management team of the fictional Lyechester Borough Council. Some of these roles included Director of HR and Director of Regeneration and Development.

The game was split into two rounds - before and after lunch. The first round involved completing a report regarding the changes that we would make so that the council could save £5 million for the forthcoming year. This was done through careful consideration between the group of the needs of the local area, making sure the changes that we were planning on were good for the local area but also recognising the impacts that these would then have on the community and the workers of the department.

Throughout the two rounds we experienced four different interruptions which we were required to action as soon as possible in the time limit given. These included a visit from the local MP, an angry Trade Union Official and a call from the press responding to rumours of our intended plans. Three members of the council management team were required to attend the press conference with the local newspaper regarding the closure of the council care home where we had to convince the local press that this would have minimal effect as other care homes were available in the area.

The second round involved completing a presentation summarising all the decisions we had made and justifying them to local MP’s, which all members of the council management team had to attend.

Throughout the day each section of work that we completed and the interruptions we faced were marked and an overall score was given at the end of the game. Before the winner was announced each team had one player awarded with the best member of the team which was given to Arron Faulkner our CEO. Then the winner was announced and it was John Taylor High.

Emma Johnson & Hannah Iqbal

KS3 Spelling Bee Final

Six competitors from each house were selected to participate in the KS3 Spelling Bee in the LRC at the end of June.  They were the students with the best scores from the form knockout rounds.  Four rounds of written spellings were completed with those with only one mistake per round being allowed to continue.  At round five competitors were challenged to spell verbally and the winners were:

In first place Kritti Polisetty 

In second place Sam Madill 

In third place Imaan Hussain 

Winners received a small prize and will be invited to collect their certificates from Mrs Cochrane at Hot Chocolate with the Head on Friday 12 July.

Well done to all who took part.

Seven of our students from Y7 and 8 attended the Staffordshire Young Teenage Fiction Awards Ceremony at RAF Cosford on Tuesday 2 July.  They listened to talks by Ally Sherrick, one of the shortlisted authors and Laura Wood from Lichfield, plus took part in a Staffs YTF Book Quiz.  Before voting on the book they wanted to win, they were able to attend a book signing and tour the museum.  For the first time two authors were announced as joint winners – Kim Slater for “The Boy who Lied” and Gregory Scott Kasoulis for “All Rights Reserved”, which were our book group’s joint favourites.

Our 14 AR Word Millionaires were invited to attend Spalding Books in Barton Village to see the workings of a bookshop and supplier to schools across the country.  Unfortunately due to a break in at the bookshop the night before it wasn’t possible for the visit to go ahead.  However, Spalding’s staff very kindly brought some of the bookshop to us, with our millionaires choosing a book they wanted for the LRC from that selection.  Many thanks to Spalding Books for being so accommodating.

Best In School

Dominik J

Gold

Dominik J

Sam B

Maryam C

Greg J

Tom M

Malissa B

Silver

Ben R

Harry A

Arthur V

John M

Jacob A

Isaac W

Finn U

Kyle S

Sam M

Grace S

Sam H

Phoebe B

Armaan A

Bobby B

Bronze

Isaac G

Ella H

Mollie H

Jasmine L

Amber C

Heather B

Edward H

Taha K

Eve H

Jessica B

Ruby W

Jacob H

Mathilda E

Fern L

Dan M

On July 3rd, John Taylor's writing club 'Scribblers' were treated to a visit from writer and ex student Chloe Ormerod. The budding writers were able to ask Chloe about the writing process, and about how to publish a novel and about any difficulties that she had faced as a writer. It was a great visit and very inspiring and the group of year 7 and year 8 students were raring to start on their next masterpieces. Thank you Chloe for giving us your time. 

On Monday 8th April 2019, several Y9 students from John Taylor High School had the opportunity of visiting the Pirelli Stadium in Burton. This was an amazing trip and we are delighted we were able to participate in this visit. We took part in multiple events like first aid, a tour of the stadium and we also learnt what jobs we could go into in the future. This was a really eye-opening experience and it really showed us the wide spectrum of jobs that you can go into when working for Burton Albion.

When we first arrived we were given a briefing from two members of staff and a run through of the day. Two schools participated in this event; JTHS and Paulet High School.  We took turns doing the events, staying with our own schools until the end of the day, when we took part in an extremely fun game of Football Cricket.

Firstly, JTHS were given a talk about what jobs you could go into. There is a wide range of jobs you can go into at Burton Albion and it really did show that a football club doesn’t just revolve around players and coaches, but also includes the vital behind-the-scenes people, who are amazing at what they do. This, for example, could be the groundsmen who keep everything in order and if the stadium didn’t have these well-trained workmen, the players wouldn’t be able to participate in a game. This is just one of many jobs at the stadium we talked about.

We were also taught some basic first aid which could help save lives in the long run. We learnt what a defibrillator was and how to use it. However we were mainly told how to perform CPR. This is one of the best things to do if someone is unresponsive and not breathing. You have to check for danger and check to see if the person is breathing.  If not, you have to do two big rescue breaths and then 30 chest compressions. You must repeat this until the ambulance arrives.

Later on in the day, we had a tour of the stadium. This was very interesting as we got to look through all the little bits of the stadium you wouldn’t normally see like the changing rooms. All the players' T-shirts were hung up on their pegs and we even saw an ex-fellow John Taylor student's, Ben Fox’s. In the changing rooms we took many photos and in the dug outs too. We also learnt about the jobs that people do in the stadium to keep it running smoothly.

Finally, after lunch we took part in a School vs School Football Cricket match which was really exciting and fun. It is also safe to say that we won both matches making JTHS victorious.  While playing these games we met two of the players, John Brayford and Jake Buxton. They gave us some inspirational words on how you have to love your career and they also gave us the opportunity to ask some questions. They gave us some excellent answers and told us to have back-up careers if one does not work out or if it ends shortly.

On the whole our trip to the Pirelli stadium was extremely informative and showed us the wide range of jobs that there is in football and that it isn’t all about the players and the coaches even though they do play an important role. I would like to thank Mrs Berry for taking us on this trip and all of the staff who organised this trip and thank you to everyone at Burton Albion for putting on such an amazing event. Thank You !

By Katie, Amelia, Reeve and Steph 

Leave of absence in term time - please read the linked letter - click on the link below.

UNIFORM DONATIONS

Any donations of uniform items, no longer needed, would be gratefully received.

Any items including PE kits, ties etc., may be forwarded to the PTA  for them to raise further funds for the school.  Thank you!

 

If you have any PE kit that you can donate to the PE department, please do so. We are in desperate need of skorts, shorts etc.  Many thanks, 

PE Department