I’d like to introduce you to three poets this week. Please follow the links to read their work.

Congratulations to Joe Weeks 11E who won the Exeter Festival’s U18 Poppies Poetry Competition with his poem The Munitionette.

Tommy O’Donnell 6W2 wrote a piece called Plymouth that he put forward for the Plymouth Young Poet Laureate prize at the Plymouth International Book Festival.

Tommy said, “My poem was written for the Plymouth competition in which I was highly commended. I was the only boy included in the five person shortlist.”

I also want to share Kai Benjamin’s poem In Devonport. Kai 7S joined us in September and has written of his experiences at DHSB.

Joe, Kai and Tommy

Student of the Week

Each week we nominate a student to receive our ‘Student of the Week’ award and pictured here are those who received the title during last half term. Nominations are made by staff and students and, as you will read, are for a variety of reasons. Well done all.

Tom Showell 10N – Leadership in supporting other students

George Allan 9E – Leadership in supporting other students

Cameron Lander 11P – Supporting a member of the public in need

Kai Benjamin 7S – Musical performances

Aaron Hole 8C – Generosity and community support

Tom Cooper 11E – Produced excellent material and led a session on cyber bullying for Year 11

James O’Connell 10W – Supporting the Year 7 tea-parties

Joe Burbage 9E – Outstanding contribution to his Rugby team’s performance

Alan Joshy 10E – Leadership in supporting other students

Kai, Tom, James, Cameron, Alan and Aaron

Charity Event

Isaac Elwood 11P supported the Royal British Legion by getting involved in an abseil event.

Isaac said, “During half term I abseiled down the Holiday Inn. This was for the Royal British Legion. On the day it was foggy and this made the descent harder than intended. I was pleased to complete the abseil and I’ve raised £250.00 for the charity.”

The DHSB Challenge

I was pleased to meet Owen King 7E this morning. Owen was asked to depict his House in an imaginative way as part of the summer DHSB Challenge and can be seen here with an Edison light bulb!

Senior Maths Challenge – winners!

Well done to our Senior Maths Challenge team who won the regional final this week. (Plymouth College took second place and the Stover School team was third).

The DHSB team will be taking part in the national final due to be held in London in February.

Sports News

Also taking gold this week is our U13 Table Tennis team who became Devon Champions at an event at Eggbuckland School on Thursday.

The U16s did well too losing only in the semi-final to the eventual winners (Eggbuckland).

Sailing

Over the last 6 weeks Ethan Templeton 9E has been competing in the Saltash Sailing Club autumn racing series.

Ethan sails a Topper (one man sailing dinghy). He won the series and received a trophy presented by the Mayor of Saltash during half term.

Diving

Matthew Skinner 9P completed the PADI Junior Open water Diver Course as part of the DHSB curriculum enrichment week last term. During the summer holidays he went on to achieve the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course.

Owen Templeton 7E has recently competed in his first ever diving competition in Southampton.

Owen was representing Plymouth Diving; he did really well and came 11/25.

Rugby

Harrison Slade 9W has trialled for Devon U15s and is now training with the Exeter Chiefs Academy.

This requires a very high level of training and skill set. Well done Harrison!

eSafety

I am always keen to highlight eSafety items to parents and families.

Mr Roberts has shared this video called ‘A parents’ guide to Facebook’.

This will also be available on our eSafety page.

Study Skills

Year 11 students and families enjoyed a study skills evening recently. If you missed this you can catch up by watching this video from Ms Davidson.

Teaching as a career

Have you ever thought about becoming a teacher? If so please download and read this letter about School Direct which contains some useful information.

‘Trouble on the Home Front’

If you are free on 29 or 30 November then why not come and see ‘Trouble on the Home Front’ a play directed by a DHSB old boy, Andy Blackwell.

The play has a World War One theme and will be staged in the Edgcumbe Theatre at 7.30pm.