Oct 5, 2018

5 October 2018

I am delighted to announce the name of the DHSB School Captain for the coming year.

This morning Toby Leung accepted the post and I am sure he will be very successful in his new leadership role.

Harry will provide support in a handover period over the next few weeks and later this term there will be time to thank him for his extensive contribution to the life of the school community.

This week in the Head’s Blog I’d also like to celebrate our contributions to the wider community and highlight some of the special relationships we have with partners outside school.

Engineering Education Scheme

Mr Morris took six Year 12 students to the launch day of the Engineering Education Scheme at HMS Raleigh.

He said, “One activity the teams took part in was the Damage Repair Instructional Unit which is the Royal Navy’s simulator to train seamen to work on a ship in distress doing tasks such as plugging holes. Several of them got thoroughly soaked”.

Regional Oracy Conference

Dr Stears attended the oracy conference which was held at Plymouth Marjon University last Friday. The conference was part of a DfE funded 18 month project to promote oracy within primary and secondary schools across the city and was focused on helping staff continue improving their practice and leading the development of oracy in their respective schools.

Dr Stears said, “The students who had been part of my initial oracy development at DHSB were speaking freely, with no notes, to the assembled teachers and university researchers about their own perceptions of the successes and problems of oracy within the class last year and school as a whole this year”.

I invited the boys to ‘Lunch with the Head’ today to find out a bit more.

Schaefer Mann, Rick de Wilde, Oscar Zimmerman, Alex Sheridan, Joe Watkinson.

DHSB Seascape Project

This is a very exciting, new project working in partnership with UTC Plymouth and with representatives from RIO (Real Ideas Organisation) and M Subs.

Students are building an autonomous small yacht, named Seascape, and are pictured here working on the yacht’s GPS (Global Positioning System) which will be critical in future trials and competitions.

Classroom to Moon Challenge

This October, representatives of Plymouth City Council are aiming, collectively, to walk for 79,000 hours (the time it would take for one person to walk to the moon).

We joined the team to walk from DHSB to City College where we handed over the friendship flags and backpacks to the next group of students.

The Plymotion team said, “Great to see @DHSBoys out walking with our Astro Mo to tackle the challenge and on such a lovely day too. Well done everyone”.

Choices Evening

Ms Moreton our Information, Advice and Guidance Coordinator is providing an opportunity for students who are looking for advice on pathways after GCSE or A level exams.

If you’d like to know more then please come along to the Choices Evening on Thursday 11 October at 18.00 in the Edgcumbe Theatre.

Speakers will include Build Plymouth, DC Training, Cornwall College and Amazing Apps UK.

Sixth Form Enrichment

Ms Davidson and Sixth Form students were pleased to welcome Dr Ian Hodgins to school this morning. Ian, a former DHSB student, is very generous with his time and gave a lecture on the history of the NHS in Plymouth.

Year 7 Families

In school this week we’ve spent time investing in our partnerships with the families of new Year 7 students.

Parents and carers were invited to our ‘tea parties’ to meet their son’s Form Tutor and Head of House. Here you can see the peer mentors who were on hand to greet parents on their arrival.

Greenpower Update

Many congratulations to our team who were invited to take part in the Greenpower Racing international final this weekend.

Mr Ames gives some background here and we look forward to hearing more about the team’s progress in the next few days.

The school’s Greenpower car performed very well in the two heats at Predannack Airfield and Castle Combe. We started the racing season in 30th position and are now 23rd on the grid. In our last race we set a new record distance in our car of 35.76 miles. This weekend we’ll be taking part at the international final at Rockingham Motor Speedway, Northamptonshire.

Excellent Work

For our examples of excellent work this week I’ve invited Mrs Downes, Head of English, to tell us about the school’s Literacy Challenge.

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic” (J.K. Rowling’s character Dumbledore)

Our ability to draw on the most effective words to communicate our thoughts and feelings is integral to who we are as humans. Furthermore, a wide vocabulary is critical to being successful as a reader and as a writer; the latest English Language GCSE specification includes the phrase ‘extensive and ambitious use of vocabulary’ as a top band requirement.

The current literacy challenge for Years 7 – 10 is focused on using more complex and sophisticated vocabulary to describe a specific. The standard of entries has been high with more than 100 students submitting an entry each week.

Week 1 Pumpkin picture using procure and jubilant

Winner: Laurie Thomson 7C

After months of tender care, the farmer was able to procure the most colossal pumpkin in the country; he wore the blue rosette with pride and with a jubilant expression on his face.

Runner up: students from 10S

Sebastian stood there jubilantly – he couldn’t believe how cheaply he procured the magic beans.

Week 2 Milky Way Picture using fervour and modicum

Winner: Gabriel Baktys 7E

The photographer, who always took pictures with fervour, had a dream of one day seeing the Milky Way, even if it was just a modicum of it.

Runner up: Hugh Lettington 8C

The stars lit up with fervour and not a modicum of darkness was left.

Laurie and Gabriel

Whole school assembly

As usual, I’d like to share the slides from our whole school assembly to give families the opportunity to discuss the themes further at home. This week the assembly was led by Mr Coombes on the subject of priorities.

Click here to read the assembly slides

Ten Steps to Happiness

Sports Update

Cycling

Well done to Hugh 8C for completing the Tour de Moor 51km Bike Challenge last weekend.

Also congratulations to Mr Jenkins who won the masters cycling race at the Royal Cornwall Showground.

Well done to you both!

Football

The DHSB A team lost their Devon Wednesday League match 3 – 1 against Plymouth Students Union A this week but the Year 8 football team convincingly won their first game of the season against Eggbuckland in round one of the national cup.

Well done to all involved.

DHSB A

Year 8

Rugby

Another two good performances for Year 9 Rugby with wins over Eggbuckland and St Boniface.

Well done also to the Year 8 team who secured victory against Stoke Damerel and a particularly strong side from St Boniface.

Year 9