John Taylor High School
John Taylor High School is a specialist science and leadership academy located in the East Staffordshire village of Barton-under-Needwood, near Burton-on-Trent.
Founded in 1957, the school was named in the honour of John Taylor, who grew up in the village.
School performance
The school was last subject to a full Ofsted inspection in March 2014. This report judged the school to be Outstanding.Academically, the school is consistently one of the top performing within Staffordshire. In the 2007 results, John Taylor achieved a 5 A*-C GCSE percentage of 69%. This placed the school fifth by performance in the county overall and top-performing state school.
Based on the school's performance during the period 2004–2007 in GCSE, the school was ranked joint-ninth most improved in the country. Subsequent to this, the school was awarded High Performance Specialist School status and awarded a second, additional specialism in Leadership. The school was used as the case study by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust for this new specialism.
Academic performance – GCSE
The school has seen substantial improvement in performance at GCSE-level with year-on-year increases and in comparison to other schools within the Staffordshire Local Authority.| Year | % of pupils 5+ A*-C GCSEs inc. English & Maths | Ranking in county | 2004 | 47% | 11= | 2005 | 59% | 10= | 2006 | 68% | 1= | 2007 | 69% | 1 | 2008 | 77% | 1 | 2009 | 71% | 5 | 2010 | 72% | 3 | 2011 | 72% | 5 | 2012 | 73% | 6 | 2013 | 77% | 6 |
Notable alumni
- Christian Hardy – musician
- Nicholas Hine – Royal Navy officer
- Brian Mills – former footballer for Port Vale FC, former Physics teacher at the school
- Adrian Poynton – Screenwriter, playwright and stand-up comedian
- Darren Stride – former Burton Albion footballer