This week the focus for our assemblies was leadership.
Mr Manley said, "The Heads and Deputy Heads of Year presented on the skills and attributes required to be a successful leader, what it means to be a leader and the opportunities that are available to our students".
The assemblies were also used to present certificates to the top three forms from each year group for behaviour and commendations.
Excellent Work
This week Mrs Brooking has shared an example of Excellent Work by Josh Hayes 10E (Year 10 Spanish).
She said, “ This is Josh's 150 word piece on the two topics we have studied during the autumn term; home and local area and charity work. Josh has included a great range of complex structures and I was so impressed with the accuracy of his work, particularly his verbs, and how he has included different tenses and opinions in his work”.
Performing and Creative Arts Update
Firstly this week, well done to Noah Easterbrook 9W for achieving ABRSM Grade 3 in clarinet!
Beauty and the Beast - School Musical Theatre
We're delighted to be staging Beauty and the Beast in the Edgcumbe Theatre on Wednesday 1 February, Thursday 2 February and Friday 3 February at 7.30pm.
Tickets are now on sale at this link.
We are very lucky to have the City College Plymouth make up artistry team supporting our musical.
The team visited us on Monday to share sketches and information with our cast and are kindly supplying 1:1 make up for our production.
Many thanks to City College Plymouth and the MUA team!
PTFA Grant
Wonderful news! The DHSB PTFA has agreed a grant to the Music Department to buy four new bass guitars, amps and leads. We are incredibly grateful for the support of the PTFA and to Beverley Kinsella for organising links and supporting the Creative Arts at DHSB.
Extra Curricular News
The DHSB string group met for the first time this week (Wednesday form time for anyone interested).
Mr Creber’s Live and Loud got off to a great start during Wednesday break two and we look forward to the Singing Group starting next week.
Instrument Lessons
This is the final call for instrument lessons - we have had a 50% increase in lessons in the last eight weeks and there are very few spaces left. If you are interested please get returns to emma.luing-holmes@dhsb.org before Monday.
Our singing lessons had a tremendous start on Tuesday with the teacher saying, ‘I wish it could be Tuesday every day”.
Beyond Face Theatre Group
I’d like to share information about the Beyond Face Theatre Group which provides free weekly creative sessions for Global Majority young people. The sessions take place on Wednesdays from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the Roland Levinsky Building, Plymouth University.
This is a fantastic opportunity for young people of the Global Majority aged 12 - 16 to work with professional theatre makers to learn theatre and performance skills, perform and to create their own theatre, writing and movement.
To find out more or to sign up please email youngpeople@beyondface.co.uk.
Mrs Luing-Holmes
Sixth Form Enrichment and Tutorial
An incredible range of enrichment this week, writes Ms Davidson.
Year 12 students have explored harassment and tolerance as well as the Police and their powers and Year 13 students worked on understanding inclusion with their form tutors.
Both year groups also considered the importance of daylight to wellbeing.
I am delighted that so many attended today to benefit hugely from a presentation from our wonderful guest Kate Smith, CEO of Memory Matters, who shared transferable skills and the importance of supporting Social Enterprise in communities.
Some tips from Kate
Reinforcement of previous messages about using the power pose
Communication through active listening
Keep walking, keep going, you are the resilient generation
Invest in relationships and speak well of others
Look for the positives despite the negatives being there
Small talk results in business so develop conversation starters; use open questionss like asking for an opinion
We are extremely grateful that someone with such business acumen and communication skills visited us to provide our students with such a good example of active empathy and social responsibility.
How to help?
Why not have a coffee or tea at Moments Cafe where a significant share of the profits go to dementia care rather than other highstreet outlets where 85% profits go to share holders?
Moments Cafe is located at 69a New George Street in Plymouth and you can find out more at this link.
Summerhouse Services
Also this week, a plea to support our regular team Summerhouse Services who are requesting donations of new, unused second class stamps.
Stamps can be left at our main visitor reception in an envelope marked SummerHouse Services or for the attention of Ms Davidson - thank you.
See this image which tells more as well as this link.
Great engagement from students. Thanks all.
Ms Davidson
PSHEE Activities
Happy New Year and new term to all our readers - and it is going to be another busy one, of course!
Year 7 students this term are all accessing first aid sessions from the Red Cross, a different class each week, covering CPR and basic emergency aid, and Year 7 and Year 10 began last week with lessons on stress survival.
Year 8 students were busy preparing for their GCSE options choices, while Year 9 students continued exploring the Unifrog site.
Year 11 had two speakers, one from Scott Medical College advising about the offer for sixth form there - a potentially good plan B even for students hoping to stay at DHSB, and also Mr Martin reminding them of the need to be aware of priorities for the next few important months.
This week the Year 7 classes not taking first aid were investigating recycling, and Year 8 students heard Mr Adams reiterating the choices and procedures he had covered for parents on Wednesday evening regarding GCSE options.
Year 9 learned about a relatively new qualification, the T level, which is an option for them post GCSE.
Year 10 students were of course taking their school exams all week and finally Year 11 had another speaker, a former student of the school from the Oddballs Foundation talking to them about testicular cancer.
So we have started the spring term as we mean to go on - a mix of outside speakers, guidance from senior staff and tutor led lessons on a wide variety of important topics.
Ms Moreton
Sports Update
Football
Good luck to our Year 7 football team who are playing St Peter’s School, Exeter, in the national cup this afternoon. The match is at home.
Mr Carpenter says the Year 8 football team lost 3 - 2 in a good game against Stoke Damerel in the Plymouth Cup yesterday. Good luck in the next round!
Congratulations to the Year 11 team - through to the last 16 in the national cup after beating Priory Community School 2 - 0 on Tuesday.
Our team travelled to Weston Super Mare for the match - well done all!
Netball
Mr Orkney says our U18 netball team, The Cheetahs, lived up to their name in fine style this week. Although the team lost narrowly to Plymouth College they fought hard to the end and did the school proud.
Basketball
Well done to the Year 9 basketball team who won all three games at the central venue competition tonight.
Mr Strang said, “They remain unbeaten this year! Well done to all involved”.
