Nurturing excellence in teaching through subject mastery.
Here at DHSB, we firmly believe that the best education is delivered by passionate, knowledgeable teachers who are continually developing their expertise.
This term, we launched an exciting CPD programme dedicated to subject mastery. This initiative gave our teaching staff the opportunity to delve into areas of their academic disciplines that inspire them, enhance their teaching, and enrich the curriculum we offer to our students.
Over several weeks, our teachers engaged in a variety of sessions, from mastering advanced physical demonstrations in Physics to exploring local history for cross-curricular opportunities, a behind the scenes guided tour of the National Marine Aquarium and even learning new skills like welding in Design Technology. Some sessions, such as ‘Trauma-Informed Creative Arts Teaching’ and ‘The Psychology Behind Mastery Learning’ focused on innovative strategies to support student success and wellbeing.
This programme was not only about equipping our teachers with the tools to deliver exceptional lessons but also about fostering their love for learning within their disciplines. The benefits of this approach ripple through our classrooms. Students are taught by teachers who are confident, energised, and deeply informed about the topics they teach.
For example, the English department focused on high-quality student outcomes through guided practice in their ‘First Go, Best Go’ session. Meanwhile, the Computer Science department explored how new physical computing sets, such as Lego Spike, could enhance GCSE and A level lessons.
We hope that learning from teachers who are inspired and continually improving their practice, helps to generate an enthusiasm and love of the subject in the students at our school.
We’re excited to see the impact of this programme unfold and look forward to sharing further updates.
Mr Winstone
CERN-tainly a blast! Mr Braun's out-of-this-world trip
As part of the subject mastery programme, Mr Braun was recently fortunate enough to make an incredible trip to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research - one of the world's largest and most respected centres for scientific research.
Mr Braun was part of the CERN UK teacher programme which selects approx 35 teachers from across the UK to attend four days of lectures, on-site visits, exhibitions and hands-on workshops to introduce participants to cutting-edge particle physics. The aim of the programme is to provide a direct link between CERN and Teachers of Science and Engineering to generate a deeper awareness around the overarching objectives and operations at CERN.
Following their visit, teachers returned to the classroom as ambassadors, able to pass on their enthusiasm and understanding of the subject to our next generation of physicists, engineers and IT specialists.
KS4 Physics Challenge Competition
Eight Year 10 & 11 students travelled by train to Exeter for the annual KS4 Physics Challenge competition this week.
Dr Colvile said, "Twelve teams of top students from schools across south-west England were there in a buzzy atmosphere answering estimation questions, a practical challenge, and six very hard questions (which were very hard)".
He added, "Well done to all involved and especially the DHSB Blue Team who won the prize for best performance in the Estimation Round".
As examples of Excellent Work here are the team's answers to some of the very hard questions.
Blue Team
Team members Luke Madgett 11S, Harry McCulloch 11L, Rohan Linden 11S, Jianyu Wang 11F.
Red Team
Team members Tom Rickard 11W, Ben Urbans 11A, Neel Shivane 10P, and Ayaan Chattergee 10W.
Creative Writing Club
Well done to Jude Tilley 8F who produced a poem in creative writing club for a national competition
The poem was selected to be published in their book!
Jude’s writing very cleverly refers to language and structural devices used in poetry - he has made a poem of the devices and we think it's fab!
Ms Charlton
Chess Qualifier for the English Schools Chess Championships
Congratulations to our chess team who won all six games against Torquay Boys Grammar School in their fixture on Wednesday, allowing the team to go forward to the second round of the national competition.
Mr Callicott
Excellent Work
Thank you to Mrs Wright who has shared some onshape work from Dlanyl Buray 8F.
She said, “Dlanyl has produced an outstanding individual showcase piece of house designs and a room interiors. He has shown lots of development in his skills and I am very impressed with his commitment and Onshape work”.
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!
Sports Update
Football
Year 7
Mr Bunney reports that the Year 7 football team played three games at the central venue competition this week, winning two matches against Eggbuckland and Coombe Dean and losing just one against Plymstock A.
Congratulations.
Year 8
Well done to the Year 8 football team who have progressed into the third round of the Devon Cup after a win against Teign School.
Year 9
The Year 9 football team lost their match against Stoke Damerel this week in what Mr Strang says was a "very competitive game".
Year 10
Mr Carpenter reports that the Year 10 team played some good football at their central venue competition yesterday but sadly the results of the two matches didn't go their way.
Athletics
There was some great athletics on display from Year 7 and Year 8 students at the Plymouth indoor athletics finals on Thursday.
Mr Carpenter says the teams did really well but they are still waiting for the final official results.