Next week, on Tuesday 27th January, DHSB is playing a key part in the delivery of the Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorations at the Civic Centre with several students involved. This year's theme is 'Bridging Generations' which is a reminder that the responsibility of remembrance does not end with the survivors - it lives on through their children, their grandchildren and all of us. On the day, Year 9 student Hugh, will be sharing how a game of Uno between himself and his grand

Happy 130th Birthday DHSB! Today is Founder’s Day - on this day in 1896 Alonzo J Rider finally fulfilled his long held dream of owning his own school. He’d purchased a defunct school at the top of Albert Road for £5000, just before Christmas in 1985, and only three short weeks later he welcomed his first students. The rest is history as they say! We will be celebrating this milestone with a reunion event, for all former pupils and staff, at 12.30pm on the 28th March. Plea

Happy New Year! Welcome back to school for another exciting term. We hope everyone in our community had a good break and has returned ready and prepared for the term ahead. Admission Arrangements for 2027-28: Along with all other schools and academies, we are currently consulting on our admission arrangements for 2027-28 through Plymouth City Council. You are invited to look at the proposed new admission arrangements and to have your say on them until Sunday 11 January 2026.

What an incredibly enjoyable final week of term we have have all had. I just want to convey my sincerest thanks to all staff and students who have contributed to our many festive activities from our Nine Lessons and Carols and our Charity Food Collections to our Celebration Assemblies and Refuel Christmas Lunch. On behalf of everyone here at DHSB, we wish you season's greetings and all good wishes for the new year. As always, if you have any comments, questions or positive fe

Many thanks to Mrs Luing-Holmes and students who have been spreading Festive Cheer by sharing their music in and around Plymouth. There is still time to hear some of our festive music at events taking place next week as you are invited to attend our Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Andrew’s Church on Monday 15 December and our Christmas Concert in the DHSB Edgcumbe Theatre on Wednesday 17 December. The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Andrew’s Church, Royal Pa

Christmas arrived at DHSB this week. Christmas Trees have been erected and decorated, tinsel has been hung, the first Christmas lunches were served in Refuel and Mischief received a makeover! On Wednesday, staff and students enjoyed a Christmas lunch whilst listening to live music from our House Christmas band, and were invited to place a pin in a 'Where in the World?' board to show who where in the world they or their family are from. This is part of a project being organise

Throughout this month, students and staff have been raising awareness of men’s health issues including prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s suicide. The charity Movember encourages people to either grow a moustache, to move more or to host an event in order to start conversations with family and friends. Men are less likely to seek help for both physical and mental ill health, leading to worse outcomes. This serious message behind the light hearted nature of Movember

DHSB Achieves the Gold Green Tree School Award We are delighted to announce that DHSB has been awarded the Gold Green Tree School Award by the Woodland Trust - a fantastic achievement that reflects the creativity, commitment, and environmental leadership of our students and staff. This milestone follows the hard work celebrated in our previous update, where Year 9 students made an impressive push towards Silver. Since then, our whole school community has continued to embrac

This week Mrs Mintoft and Mr Liddington took three students to London with a special invitation from the Western Front Association. Oliver (Year 10), completed a research project on the DHSB Old Boys who died during WW1. Oliver's project was one of the winners of a special award that enabled him and two others to join the Remembrance day parade at the Cenotaph on Tuesday. The three boys, Luke (Year 12), Lewis (Year 11) and Oliver laid wreaths at Victoria Station for the Unkno

DHSB Year 9 Lead the Way in the Green Tree Schools Award This week, our Year 9 students have been on a real drive to promote trees across the school and beyond as part of the Woodland Trust’s Green Tree Schools Award. Through a range of creative and cross-curricular activities, they’ve helped DHSB achieve the SILVER Green Tree School Award. They now have their sights firmly set on achieving Gold and Platinum in the months ahead. To make the most of each teacher’s expertise, c

Fundraising for our House Charities commenced today with our first Mufti Day of the academic year. Last year over £7000 was generated for our House Charities through Mufti Day donations and sales at our Summer Festival. You can find full details of all the local, national and international charities each House supports by visiting the House dashboards on our website. This year instead of asking students to bring in a £1 donation on each mufti day, we're asking for a one off c

Our new House Leadership team We are delighted to announce the appointment of our new House Captains for the academic year. With 34 outstanding applications for just 14 positions, the selection process was highly competitive. The calibre of applicants this year was exceptional, making the final decisions incredibly tough for staff. After much deliberation, we are proud to introduce our new House Leadership team: Attenborough – Toby and Harshil Fleming – Vesan and Khushaal Joh

The DHSB School Captain for the coming year is Joshua (12ESM). I was overwhelmed by the number of students who applied and impressed by the strength of the candidates. However, there is only one position and Joshua stood out. I am delighted that he has accepted the post and I am sure he will be very successful in his new leadership role. Our retiring School Captain William, will be providing support to Joshua over the next few weeks. William said, "Josh really blew us all awa

Celebrating Our Green Tree Schools Bronze Award! We are delighted to announce that our school has been awarded the Bronze Green Tree Schools Award by the Woodland Trust! This achievement recognises the commitment of both students and staff to caring for the environment and promoting sustainability across our school community. The students have been taking part in nature-based activities and learning more about how we can protect our planet, our students have shown fantastic e

It has been such a busy start to our new academic year that we are still trying to catch up on all of the amazing events that happened over the summer holidays! I want to start the blog this week by featuring some of these: Costa Rica 2025 At 1am on the last day of the summer term, 17 DHSB students left Plymouth bound for London Heathrow. Meeting up with our travelling companions from Winchester at the airport, Team Clavel departed (after a delay for a new plane!) for San Jos

Thank you to all students, families, trustees and staff who supported our Speech Day celebration events on Wednesday. This year's Speech Day events were held in a marquee on the site on the 80th anniversary of DHSB moving into the part of the current school grounds which were formerly Stoke Military Hospital. In the afternoon we welcomed our former Year 7 to 10 students and their families with drinks on their arrival served by our prefects under the guidance of Mrs Cunningham

Welcome back and welcome to DHSB Year 7 and Year 12 I hope that you all enjoyed some time together as a family over the summer. It has been a real joy seeing all of our students and staff over the last couple of days; everyone has returned in good spirits and it has been lovely to hear the chatter and laughter filling the school site. For our new students arriving in Year 7 and in Year 12 it has been great to welcome them into our school community as they embark on their jour

We have loved welcoming back so many students to DHSB this morning to celebrate their GCSE results and to provide advice and guidance on...

It has been a lovely morning as we welcomed back pupils to celebrate their successes with friends, family and teaching staff and to...

School Development Plan As this academic year draws to a close I’d like to share with you the progress we’ve made towards the school development priorities during the final term. Please take a moment to read through our progress towards school priorities by following this link. Image courtesy of Mrs McGowan Farewell and thank you On Tuesday, staff said farewell to Simon Coombes who is retiring after 33 years at DHSB. (He managed to miss the last day of term by taking a group