As a school we are always striving for excellence in all areas and for the last two weeks our catering team has been working with Chefs In Schools, a charity working to revolutionise catering in schools.
The catering team is currently going through a training programme which will see the food we offer in the school evolve over the coming months, with a healthier, more exciting offering in line with the aims of Chefs in Schools.
The changes have already become very visible at the lunch offering in Refuel (our main refectory) with new dishes appearing with more fresh vegetables, salads, fruit, condiments and freshly made bread accompanying the main meals and we are encouraging students to come and try the new menus and let us know what they think
A main meal, dessert or piece of fruit and a small bottle of water costs £3.00 (or £2.50 for just the main meal). Other alternatives at lunchtimes include jacket potatoes, pasta and a range of filled rolls.
New Menu
Mr McConnell our Estate Manager said, “Working with Chefs in Schools has been a real eye opener for the catering team regarding what is possible to achieve with school catering. The quality of our main meal offering is now really exciting and we want students and staff to come and see what we are doing in the main refectory at lunchtimes, try the food and give us some feedback. We are initially focusing on improving the lunch offering and our main meals but over the coming months this will spread to morning break. I really hope everyone enjoys the direction we are taking”.
Chefs in Schools added, “We’re delivering nutritious, delicious, inexpensive, generation-powering, mind-opening, society-changing food in schools – and inspiring and enabling schools across the country to follow our lead”.
Plymouth Symphony Orchestra
We were delighted to welcome the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra to the school this morning, a first for both the school and the orchestra. Our students were awed with dazzling renditions of film music from Star Wars, Gladiator, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park and 633 Squadron as part of the orchestra’s drive to encourage young people to experience music of all forms and then hopefully to get involved in the creative arts themselves.
And our own students Max Chapman, Tristan de Rochefort-Roper and Joe Smith were key players in the orchestra this morning.
This is the latest step in a growing collaboration between PSO and DHSB that has seen members of the orchestra working with students in our own musical ensembles, as well as encouraging young people to attend live concerts by sponsoring free tickets to PSO concerts for school-age students.
Thanks to Anne Kimber, the orchestra’s conductor, and all the orchestra members who took time off work to give the students this wonderful experience.
Our School Captain, Mackenzie Pike, presented flowers to Anne.
Mr Adams
Annual Abbot's Way Walk
Huge congratulations to all 26 students who started and finished the Abbot's Way Walk on Sunday in the fog and mizzle. Teams worked well together to ensure we had a 100% finish rate.
Two of last year's Ten Tors 55 mile team (Rick de Wilde and Schaefer Mann) with Tom Robbins and Archie Forgan, shaved several minutes off DHSB's previous fastest time... but ended up being excellent pace-makers for members of the 2023 35 mile team (Otto Malm, Seb White, Iwan Sanders and Noah Reid) who completed the 23 miles across Dartmoor in six hours, overtaking all who started ahead of them to be the first of all 64 teams to reach the finish.
Our thanks to all parents who supported and made this possible, as well as staff and volunteers who spent the day on the moor or back at base. Selection for our 2024 45 mile and 55 mile Ten Tors teams will be made from the Abbot's Way Walk participants (while Year 9 and 10 students are currently completing their written applications for the 35 mile team).
Dr Colvile
Student News
Well done to Maxim Smith 10C who competed at the BNL Karting Championship in Genk Belgium last weekend.
This was his first major European race and he travelled with his team over to the famous Genk Karting Track where Max Verstappen won the same championship at the same track ten years ago. Maxim was driving on a grid with 35 other drivers from different European countries and it was his first time ever driving in Belgium.
He had bad luck in qualifying with his chain coming off followed by a mechanical failure to the kart in the pre-final. However he didn’t let these setbacks affect his confidence or concentration and managed to climb up the grid to finish in 26th place in the final.
This is an amazing achievement considering the calibre of the other drivers on track, some of whom have been competing for their country for years whereas Maxim has only been competitive karting since last May.
Well done!
Sports News
Football
Mr Strang reports that the U13 football team lost 3 - 1 to Ivybridge in the National Cup on Wednesday.
He said this was a tightly contested encounter and Sam Gibbs 8P scored the goal for DHSB.
Mr Manley says the DHSB first XI started the season away to Lipson Academy with an excellent result.
Well done!
Rugby
The Year 7 rugby squad played in the central venue games at Stoke Damerel on Wednesday after school. Mr Strang says there was considerable improvement throughout the afternoon and DHSB remained unbeaten.
Well done to everyone involved.
And finally this week, the U14 rugby team were in action on Tuesday winning all their games in the Plymouth School's competition.
Congratulations.
