May 13, 2016

13 May 2016

With so much change in education and increasing pressure on schools it is no surprise that we are seeing many schools nationally finding it difficult to develop those additional life skills that are so important to nurturing and developing young people.

Some of those wonderful life changing opportunities that we are committed to providing regardless of external pressures are evident in my Blog this week.

Determination and resilience in the pursuit of excellence are words that describe the achievements of our students taking part in the Ten Tors Challenge and students that have achieved Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

I hope that you enjoy reading about them.

I met Year 7 student Aled Griffiths over lunch today; he is an excellent example of a student showing determination and resilience. Aled is travelling to a village in the north west of India during August to help build a school after winning a Virgin Atlantic scholarship.

Students were selected for the scheme on the basis of their personal interest, merit and commitment to raising awareness about an issue in their local community and we’re looking forward to hearing more about Aled’s trip when he returns to school in September.

The Ten Tors Challenge

Congratulations to our Ten Tors teams who completed the annual event on Dartmoor last weekend. This was the second year DHSB has entered four teams in this challenging test of endurance, navigation and team work and everyone completed in excellent time.

The biggest accolade must go to the 35 and 55A teams who were first to finish on their routes.

35 Team Jamie Williams, Richard Jones, Michael Moore, Jacob Woodbridge-Harris,

Sam Cade, Peter Clifford

55A Team Joe Adkins, Bernie Sadler, Max Smith, Tom Chiappe, Jonathan Stoecker

Our 45 mile team was second on their route and the 55B was third on their route making 2016 another very successful year for all the DHSB teams.

45 Team Max Vernall-Williams, Jack Adams, Tom Foreman, Jack Gorham, Sam Cox, Dan Harris

55B Team Troy Holt, Chris Turner, Joe Hopwood, Callum Waterhouse, Sean Algar, Lloyd Barron-Robinson

Thanks to Mr Ames, Mr Clifford, Mrs Wills, Ms Davidson, Mr Adams, Mrs Heighway and Mr & Mrs Huq who all gave a lot of their time to train and support the teams.

We’re also very proud of students who took part with organisations outside school including the following:-

35 mile

Luke Goldstone – 197 (Devonport) Sqn ATC Cameron Hart – 197 (Devonport) Sqn ATC Adam Southern – 197 (Devonport) Sqn ATC Sam Burston – 27th Plymouth Explorer Unit Morgan Anniss – 27th Plymouth Explorer Unit Andrew Smith – 27th Plymouth Explorer Unit James Gregory – Dartmoor Plodders Fintan Kinsella – Dartmoor Plodders Kofi Bruce – Dartmoor Plodders Theo Jenkins – Tavistock District Youth Forum Angus Dixon – Tavistock Outdoor Education Forum

45 mile

Owen Roper – 197 (Devonport) Sqn ATC James Gregory – 197 (Devonport) Sqn ATC Ollie Rooke – Plymouth Explorers

55 mile

Maddy Lee – DHSG Madeline Hall – DHSG

Pictured are Kofi, James and Fin with the Dartmoor Plodders

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme

We held our first in-house DofE Award Ceremony this week when Mr Huq was able to speak to students and parents about the growth of the scheme at this school.

I presented certificates and badges to students who had completed their bronze or gold award between April 2015 and April 2016.

I will be meeting the Duke of Edinburgh on Monday at a national celebration in London and hope to have the opportunity to mention our increased participation and completions rates here at DHSB.

Nathan Leung and Vikram Thirupathirajan are seen here receiving their gold award. Jack Skinner has also completed at this level but was not able to be present on Wednesday.

Click here for a full list of Bronze Award winners.

Physics Society

Another example this week of the extra opportunities available for students is the visit of Dr Vincent Smith on Thursday.

40 Sixth Form students accepted the invitation to meet Dr Smith and listen to his lecture on how he helped to discover the Higgs Boson.

Sports Update

On Tuesday 24 pupils from Year 7 and 8 took part in the West Devon Athletics Championships held at the Brickfields arena. Notable performances came from Alex Collin 7E in the 100m, James Cunningham 8C in the triple jump and William Ford 8S in the 1500m.

The event also acted as a trial for the Devon Championships taking place next month when the school will be strongly represented.

Mr Strang said, “Well done to all who took part”.