This week we were awarded St Luke's Compassionate School status to recognise that we have demonstrated a whole school approach to death, dying, loss and bereavement.
Our journey started in 2021 when Mr Manley and Miss Hunns were trained as Compassionate Champions before a group of staff were trained as Compassionate Friends in January 2022.
The aim was to train as many staff as possible in how to support students and colleagues who had been affected by loss in order to create a more compassionate community and ensure support was available as and when necessary.
We have also trained a group of students as compassionate buddies in order to provide peer support across the school. A unit of work around coping with change and bereavement has been added to our PSHE schemes of work and assemblies on this topic are now covered across the year.
We were pleased to mark our completion of the compassionate school award on Wednesday by opening our new compassionate area which will be available for our whole school community to use and for staff to use when supporting our students.
SEND Parent Group
On Wednesday this week our SEND parent group welcomed Nicola and Jazz from the new Neurodiversity Wellbeing Team.
This is a new and evolving service for anyone with a Plymouth GP and we hope to build links with this team to further support our students and their families.
I would like to remind everyone that the SEND parent group, which takes place once a term is open to the whole school community so please look out for the invitation next term
Have a safe and restful summer break
Mrs Weaver (Senco)
School Development Plan
As this term draws to a close I’d like to share with you the progress we’ve made towards the school development priorities.
Please take a moment to read through our update at this link.
Summer Celebration Assemblies
This morning our Heads of Year delivered our termly celebration assemblies. These always give each year group a fantastic opportunity to recognise and celebrate outstanding student behaviour, commitment and attendance.
There was a wonderful atmosphere across the school site and it was great to see so many smiling faces.
Mr Manley
Summer Festival
The DHSB Summer Festival went ahead today, in spite of some rain, with all the students' favourite activities on offer.
The event, largely led and organised by the House Captains, prefects and students, was a resounding success, filled with laughter, friendly competition, and of course, delicious treats. All proceeds from the festival will be donated to the House Charities, making the fun all the more meaningful.
The live music from from our talented students was widely appreciated with a packed audience all afternoon.
A large number of students took part in the Football Tournament, testing their skills on the pitch, with some of the games going all the way to penalties.
Those seeking a different kind of challenge could try their luck at classic games like Shut the Box, Prize Pong, Dodgeball, Darts and Play Your Cards Right.
The Winstanley Cake Stall offered a tempting selection of treats, while refreshing cold drinks and coke floats were perfect for the season, if not the weather, and the crockery smash remained as popular as ever.
Adding to the festive spirit was a range of Business and Enterprise stalls showcasing student creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
House spirit was high as students competed in the House Raffle/Tombola and cheered on their housemates in the various games.
From the Donut Drop and Bean Bag Toss to the hilarious spectacle of the Big Mouth, the DHSB Summer Festival had something for everyone.
With happy faces everywhere you looked and the smell of tasty treats in the air, it was a truly memorable event that celebrated school spirit and community.
Miss Cunningham
Excellent Work
Our examples of Excellent Work this week are by Year 8 English students.
Mrs Johnson said, “Year 8 students studied non-fiction text types last half term and for homework they were asked to produce two creative pieces of non-fiction in response to a variety of prompts. Here are two examples by Georgie Jensen and Oliver Elford in 8P”.
Georgie
Mrs McConnell added, "My Year 8 class has been studying Steven Spielberg's film version of The War with a choice of creative tasks for their homework. Alex McKenzie 8E produced a fitting piece of music and Noah Douglass 8E created a scene from the film using 3D modelling. Both pieces demonstrate high levels of creative engagement with the text".
Alex
Noah
Student News
Well done to Aldo Larrieu-Price 8C who recently competed at the Aspire All-Star 2024 tournament held at the National Performance Centre for Basketball in Manchester.
Four teams, Central, North, South and London battled it out over three days. The competition was tough and all the game results were tight.
Well done Aldo!
STEAM News
Thank you to Ms Davarian for this update from this term's STEAM Club and the Sustainable Transport Challenge.
We were delighted to welcome Riva Vadhar from Fine Tubes to DHSB this week. Riva visited us and offered Year 7 students feedback on a recent Sustainable Transport Challenge they have completed, as well as telling them about Fine Tubes and routes into Engineering.
Riva is a STEM Ambassador and kindly gave the students detailed written and verbal feedback. Another colleague also provided written feedback for the group too.
This was a really valuable opportunity for students to hear from someone in industry and to have the chance to ask questions.
The students were also delighted to be presented with notebooks and pens from Fine Tubes too!
Keep an eye out in September for a new STEAM Classroom where competitions and opportunities will be updated regularly.
Ms Davarian
Chess Club
The DHSB in-house chess tournament has come to an end. Many congratulations to all students who took part.
In the reserve competition, we asked Plymouth champion Caleb Caleshu 11P to present medals to Finbar Steven 8W, bronze, Isaac Bramall 7E, silver, and Jacob Crow 8P, gold.
Team captain Jack Chen 11N joined us for presentations to our premier winners. James Trenam-Nash 9W, bronze, Oliver Morton 9S, silver, and Neel Shivane 9P, gold.
Very well done to all!
Mr Butland
Finbar and Caleb
Isaac and Caleb
Jacob and Caleb
Jack and Neel
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.
Well done!
PTFA News
What a great year we have had! We ran our Alton Towers trip (taking 11 coach loads of 500 excited students from the three grammar schools), a Christmas and summer disco (again with over 600 students from the three grammar schools), and serving refreshments at many school events, from the 11+ tests to our popular bar at school productions!
Consequently we were delighted to be able to approve many grant requests including the compassionate school tree and bench, which were unveiled this week, chess sets and items, school student leadership badges, electric piano, table tennis tables, fitness suite equipment, eight watches for the Ten Tors teams, SEN items, Further Maths text books, Geography fieldwork equipment, text books for A Level Classical Civilisation, training AEDs, Year 10 Career packs and a 120 litre Bratt Pan for Refuel! No we didn't know what that is either!
All of this amounted to a grand total of just under £13,000.
In addition we were also pleased to be able to contribute £15,000 to a crowdfunder to upgrade the DHSB fitness suite facilities. With match funding from the council the real value of our donation is actually a fantastic £30,000! It will of course be available for students to use but the hope is that the wider community will be able to use and benefit from it too.
Other fundraisers are our popular framed 11+ certificates of achievement signed by the Headteacher and our academic calendar produced using photos taken by students and entered into our calendar competition. This year's winners will be announced shortly! We also receive revenue from Your School Lottery - please sign up if you can, tickets cost £1:
Our first meeting next year will be on Wednesday 25 September at 6.30pm in the Conference Room (directly behind the Visitor Reception) - please come along, we'd love to meet you. Refreshments provided.
Please also follow our social media for updates on forthcoming events:
X (formerly Twitter) @DHSBPTFA
Finally a big thank you to all our volunteers - we can't operate without you. Please get in touch if you are able to help too - even if it's just for an hour at one of the events, it's all appreciated (ptfa@dhsb.org)
Wishing you all a lovely summer.
Mrs Kinsella (PTFA Liaison) and the PTFA
