Our theme in school this week is ‘Planning for the Future’ and this was reflected in our whole school assembly on Wednesday.
DHSB belongs to the Heart of the South West (HotSW) Careers Hub.
A Careers Hub is a group of between 20 and 40 secondary schools and colleges located in the same geographic area, working with universities, other education and training providers, employers and career guidance professionals to ensure the Gatsby Benchmarks are delivered in each school and college within the hub and that careers outcomes are improved for all young people. Schools and colleges within a hub should have a shared vision of how they will work together to improve outcomes for the young people in their area.
Each school within the hub is also allocated an Enterprise adviser. On Wednesday we were extremely privileged to welcome to school our allocated Enterprise Adviser, Ralph Rizk, who is Head of Strategic Programmes at Babcock. Mr Rizk introduced introduce himself to the whole school during our assembly.
Mrs Edwards explained that an enterprise adviser is a volunteer from business who works closely with key staff in school to provide strategic support to ensure that we are planning for the future, providing opportunities for students, support, information, advice and guidance.
Mrs Edwards said ‘When I first met Ralph I was fascinated by his background and his career path and so I asked him to share his inspirational story with the school. We are delighted that he has been allocated to DHSB to share his knowledge and skills to ensure our careers provision continues to grow and develop.’
Ralph’s key messages were as follows:
Read more here:- Link to our whole school assembly presentation
Team Avanti
Congratulations to Team Avanti!
Just before half term they competed at the national final of the Greenpower Competition.
The team did very well with 34.4 miles travelled in the final race placing them 26th in the international field.
The team said, “Thank you to Silverstone UK for hosting the competition and the Greenpower Trust for another amazing racing season”.
We also want to thank Mr Ames, Ms Flack and the students’ families for supporting the team again this year.
A Play in a Week
During the half term holiday an exciting ‘Play in a Week’ was produced at DHSB. The script was created and performed by a group of 14 young people who live in the PL1 or PL2 area and go to DHSB, Marlborough Primary and High Street Primary, They were supported by a director and a writer from Theatre Royal Plymouth who led the group to achieve something they are very proud of.
The aim was for the young people to discover their common ground and to get to know their neighbours by creating something together.
Ms Nally said, “It was a busy and thoroughly rewarding week which will be followed up with a trip to TR2 and the main theatre to see the industry at work”.
Comments received following the Friday afternoon performance were all very postiive.
“It was wonderful, thank you to all involved for this unique experience. Especially pleased that this gave an opportunity to those who may not always be the obvious choice for drama”.
“So impressed by the performance of Journey to Devonport – a Play in A Week written and performed by students from DHSB and local primaries. They’ve come up with the whole thing since Tuesday working with the Theatre Royal Plymouth. I am just blown away”.
The Addams Family
Tickets for this year’s exciting school production are selling fast! Reserve yours either on Wisepay or by contacting Michaela Armstrong on 01752 208787.
Performances are at 7.30pm next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Student News
Wel done to Will Wooller 8N who participated in the recent Trafalgar Day Parade. Here are some extracts from the report Will wrote about his experience.
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle in which Nelson won a major sea battle against Napoleonic France. To commemorate this the Sea Cadets every year hold a parade and invite the Army Cadet Force and the Air Training Corps.
This year the parade was held on Horse Guards Parade.
All the cadets from my unit participating had mustered at HMS Raleigh to be driven to SCTC Excellent (the Sea Cadet Training Centre in Portsmouth). When we arrived we were escorted to HMS Bristol.
We were very busy rehearsing all day for the parade and then on Sunday we had an early start as we had to make good time to London.
Upon arriving in London we formed as a band and marched down to Horse Guards Parade Square. There we provided the musical accompaniment to the ceremonial aspect which consisted of march pasts and displays. After that was over we marched up the mall towards Buckingham Palace before turning into Wellington Barracks.
Jacob Long 7N also participated in the parade and is pictured here.
Very well done also to Milly Jinks
During half term Milly took part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race. The race itself started on Saturday morning and Milly’s team completed the race in 5 days 16 hours 7 minutes and 47 seconds. The team made history by becoming the first all-female crew to complete the race. They were also the youngest team this year. It was a big undertaking for the Skipper to take a group of young girls with little offshore yacht racing on such a challenging race. A third of the fleet retired as the conditions were too challenging or they had gear failure. The girls missed out on third place in their feet by just four minutes – quite remarkable after such a long race.
The girls were treated like heroes when they finished; even the President of Malta wanted to have his photo taken with them.
Milly says the event was ‘life changing’ and the experience has opened her eyes to more opportunities in the future.
International Links Update
As part of our international work we has been invited by the British Council to build links with schools in China. Mr Berryman will be travelling to Kunming in China on Sunday as part of this project. We are working in partnership with Marine Academy Primary with the aim of raising aspirations. Only seven English schools have been approached and the aim is that we will be taking students to our chosen link school before May 2020.
As part of this project boys will work with Chinese students on a link project. This will also be built into our curriculum which will result in Skype communication and outcomes at both DHSB and Marine Academy Primary. This is just a start of a relationship and we hope it becomes a legacy project where we can give students the opportunity to go to a country which they may never otherwise have the chance to visit. This links with our work about raising aspirations and our international schools award. In the future we hope that our Chinese school will visit us in an exchange.
This is only one opportunity which is being developed and we may be adding a trip to the USA as part of the Mayflower 400 celebrations, again funded by the British Council. We are also engaged in Erasmus projects with schools in the Czech Republic and are awaiting confirmation of a new project linking us to schools in Norway, Sweden, France and Spain. Again, this will be an opportunity for students to travel, experience and develop our International presence.
Excellent Work
This week our work has been submitted by Ms McCullar and is a copy of Daniel Atkin’s work on The Development of the Atom.
Ms McCullar said, “The task was to produce a project outlining the development of the atomic structure by looking at the various experiments carried out by different scientists over time. What sets Dan’s work apart from all other projects was the detail in which he wrote about all the key scientists and the effort he put into his project. He clearly spent time perfecting it and that really shows. The presentation was fantastic and the content went beyond what I asked. Overall it was a perfect piece of work”.
Alumni News
‘Fly the aircraft by looking out of the window’
This is just one piece of advice written by former student, Adam Bone, in our latest ‘Where Are They Now’ feature.
If you are a former student with a story to tell, please get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you!
Sports News
Badminton
Well done to the U19 badminton team who beat Heles School to win the Plymouth Schools Badminton Championships earlier this week.
Ms Davidson said, “Well matched teams and efficient effort all round! Congratulations both teams”.
Rugby
It was a busy week for the U15 team who won their third game of the season, beating Tavistock College 33 – 24 on Monday but lost 24 – 7 to Ivybridge in the Devon Cup on Tuesday.
Football
Mr Orkney reports that the 2nd XI lost to Plymouth University Dukes B in the Devon Wednesday League this week.
Basketball
The Year 9 team played at All Saints yesterday and unfortunately lost by four points in their first game of the year.
Future Events
Wednesday 6 November – Friday 8 November
The Addams Family school production
Friday 8 November
Year 8 report