Happy New Year!
Welcome back to school for another exciting term.
We hope everyone in our community had a good break, returning to school ready and prepared for the term ahead.
Silver Rail Safe Friendly Award
We are pleased to announce that our school has achieved the Silver Rail Safe Friendly Award, building on our earlier success at bronze level. This recognition highlights our commitment to educating students about the importance of rail safety.
Mr Scott said, "A key contributor to this success was our Year 8 PSHE programme, which incorporates interactive lessons about how to be safe on and around our railways. These sessions equip students with vital knowledge and skills to stay safe near railways, reflecting our whole school focus on fostering awareness and responsibility".
The Rail Safe Friendly team commended our efforts and encouraged us to aim for the gold award. To achieve this, we will involve students in creative projects such as videos, podcasts, and posters to promote rail safety across our school community and beyond.
Congratulations to everyone involved – let’s continue our journey to Gold!
Excellent Work
Mr Winstone said, “Year 11 Chemistry students have been using flame tests to test for metal cations as part of their Chemical Analysis unit. They had to work carefully to ensure both safe working practice and also to minimise contamination to achieve the expected results”.
Well done!
Chess Update
Many thanks to Mr Butland for this chess report.
We decided at the start of the term to run two teams in the adult Torbay Chess League to allow our pros some better opposition and give us the chance to blood some new talent
Both teams are unbeaten at the end of 2024. We also eliminated Stover School by a tidy 5 - 1 in the league’s knockout competition.
We also entered a Rapidplay division designed to give the students some slightly faster
competitive chess which brought the side’s only loss by a single point against an
experienced Newton Abbot side.
With Torquay not hosting a qualifier for the national schools knockout this year, we offered
hospitality. Ultimately, our only visitors came from Exeter Mathematical School, who were
despatched in fine style 5 - 1.
The team commenced their season against league newcomers Plymouth University. Here
we see Oliver, Neel, Ayden and Caleb as they battled their way to a 2 - 2 draw.
In addition, we have several players active within Plymouth club (too early for scores).
James Allen was third in the Devon U13 Championship in December.
Caleb Caleshu was presented with a trophy by the league for being its highest placed performer (joint third) at the Torbay Congress.
Well done to everyone involved.
Excellent Work
Thank you to Mr Scott for sharing these brilliant photos.
He said, “Our Year 10 Computer Science students have been diving into the world of binary and hexadecimal. They’ve been learning how to convert numbers between binary, denary, and hexadecimal, as well as practicing the fundamentals of counting, adding, multiplying, and dividing in different number bases. To wrap up the lesson on binary, students enjoyed a creative activity that linked coding concepts to something personal and tangible".
Mr Scott added that each student converted their initials into ASCII binary, a representation system used by computers. They then chose two colors to represent 0 and 1, bringing their binary initials to life as unique, custom-made keyrings. With beads threaded onto elastic, students coded their initials using their chosen colors and created vibrant keyrings they can now attach to their backpacks. This practical exercise helped solidify their understanding of binary and ASCII, allowing them to see the code in action while making something they can proudly display. The activity added a fun, memorable layer to their learning, blending computational skills with creativity and individuality.
Plymouth Electron Microscope Centre
Despite a yellow weather warning, 14 intrepid Year 12 Biology students made it to Derriford Science Park for a tour of Plymouth University's Electron Microscope Centre.
They were walked through specimen preparation before spending hands-on time with both transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM & SEM), guided by Plymouth University’s technical experts.
Dr Little said, "This was a superb opportunity to experience the application of technology directly related to their A level course, really bringing it to life. The students were particularly enthused by high magnification and resolution images of dental decay, and the mouthparts of a sheep tick, so much so that their discussion on immunology and parasites ran an hour over time! We are very lucky to have access to such a facility on our doorstep".
Holiday Club
Our February half term holiday club is now open for bookings and there are lots of exciting activities on offer.
Monday 17 February - Multi-Sport
Tuesday 18 February - Filmmaking with FotoNow
Wednesday 19 February- The Rock Project - learn to feel part of a band by putting musical skills into practice and performance
Thursday 20 February - Football
Sparx Maths and Sparx Reader
Each week we celebrate our highest performers in both Sparx Maths and Sparx Reader, two of our core homework platforms. We are proud of all of our students who complete their homework each week to such a high standard but these students deserve a special mention.
Congratulations!
PTFA News
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year!
Our next meeting is on 15 January, please join us - we'd love to meet you.
We meet in the Conference Room which is directly behind the Visitor Reception.
We had a fantastic first term - we served refreshments at the two 11+ events and the DHSB Christmas concert, organised our popular Christmas disco for nearly 700 students at Fever Nightclub and we came in the top three in the National Parentkind PTFA of the Year Awards
We also approved grants for badges for the Communication Captains and Eco Council, entry fee for the Magistrates' Court Mock Trial Competition, expenses for the green power car and one year's work with the Plymouth Racial Equality Council team.
Thank you everyone for your support which enables us to pay for these requests enriching the students' school experience.
If you are able to help at one of our events (there's no commitment and no minimum time) please complete and submit this form:
Mrs Kinsella
History Update
Mrs Kinsella writes that she had a great surprise during the holidays when she visited Plymouth's museum, The Box.
She said, "The Box is currently holding an exhibition to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Plymouth Dock being named Devonport. In one of their displays I was delighted to see a DHSB badge included. It's a fantastic exhibition but be quick if you want to catch it as it finishes on Sunday. Entry is free and the exhibition spans over several locations; the DHSB badge is in the Bridge Gallery".
Mrs Kinsella
Sports Update
Football
The U15 team won 2 - 0; a really good performance in round two of the Devon Cup against Newton Abbot.
Mr Carpenter said, "A fantastic headed goal from Lucas made it 1 - 0 and Charlie capped off a good team performance in the second half".
Netball
Well done to the Sixth Form netball team, The Cheetahs, who beat the Plymouth College second team on Wednesday afternoon.
The score was 15 -13.
