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10 January 2020

Each Friday I share our theme of the week to give an opportunity for you to discuss this at home as a family with your child.


This week our theme is ‘equality’.


Our school nurse introduced herself to all students during two assemblies on Wednesday and made students aware of her drop-in sessions to be held once a month in school.

Her name is Heather Eastmond and she will be in Ingle 1 during break two, usually on the second Wednesday of each month (confirmed dates will be in the school calendar shortly).


The Eco-School Award


As we shared with you back in September one of our whole school priorities is focusing on improving our environmental ethos.


We have signed up to the journey to become an international Green Flag Award Eco-School. The programme is designed to raise environmental awareness among young people and is run by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy. Internationally, the programme is the largest educational programme in the world present in 67 countries and 52,000 schools. Our school is now part of this global community working to create environmental change for the benefit of future generations.


The Eco-School programme empowers students and staff, raises environmental awareness, improves the school environment and can also lead to financial savings for schools. Being an active member of the programme will be something our students will remember for the rest of their lives.


The programme focuses on ten important global issues:


Biodiversity, Energy, Global Citizenship, Healthy Living, Litter, Marine, School Grounds, Transport, Waste. Water


During the last academic term we spent time recruiting student Eco-School Ambassadors. Their first job was to complete a self-review and audit our school community against the Eco-School framework, this involved liaising with many people across the school to gain an accurate picture.


Following our review as a group we have prioritised the most significant areas that we would like to improve at DHSB, we also recognised that there are many things to celebrate even some that we were not all aware of. The areas that we will be working towards improving over the next couple of years are:


Marine


Reduce single use plastics in school and other projects to raise awareness of marine issues e.g. do a beach clean, use environmentally friendly cleaning materials etc.


Waste


Reduce the school’s overall waste by developing recycling at the school, increase the number of products made from recycled materials, explore composting waste.


Litter


Reduce litter on the school site, create an anti-litter policy and improve all areas of this including in our local community.


Biodiversity


Raise the profile of biodiversity of the school grounds developing projects around this.


Healthy Living


Increase the number of healthy meals and fruit available at Refuel.


Student Leadership


Thank you Joe Watkinson for this photo. Joe said, "The final house captaincy leadership training is underway [this morning at DHSB]. We highly value student leadership and these opportunities give students valuable experience that they can use throughout their life".


Excellent Work


Our examples of Excellent Work this week have been submitted by Mrs Mintoft. She said, “Following a series of lessons on building and developing empires and the impact of these on different places, the students were set a task to research the conditions of slaves in the New World, particularly the Caribbean. They were asked to write an account that would persuade parliament to act to abolish slavery. In this piece they needed to include at least three primary sources to evidence their points. The two pieces of work here demonstrate a huge effort not only to carry out and included the research but also to consider the presentation of their work”.


Please click on these links to read an extract.



Relaxed Admissions Information Sessions


Jo Nally, our Fair Access and Partnerships Coordinator, is inviting parents, carers and primary school pupils to her relaxed information sessions due to be held at a variety of local venues during January and February.


Parents will be able to find out more about the 11+ tests and admissions process, and ask Jo any questions they may have.


Please pass this invitation to any families you think will find this useful - thank you.


Alumni News


We were delighted to hear in the New Year Honours list 2020 that Harrison Nash has been awarded the British Empire Medal for his services to young people in South Africa.

Harrison is Charity Director at Maranatha Care Children (UK Charity) and Programme Manager, Maranatha Streetworkers Trust, South Africa and we support these charities through your donations for tea and coffee at parents evenings.

Congratulations Harrison - well deserved!



Chris ‘Woody’ Woods was named locally as one of the Plymouth born people who have risen to fame in the last decade.


Despite being kept busy playing drums with the successful British band Bastille, Chris has always kept in touch with us here in school. The band is currently preparing for the release of their third studio album Doom Days.



Dave King, who won the British Championships in 2019 (110m hurdles), has moved to America to train in a bid to achieve his long-held ambition to compete at an Olympic Games. We wish him all the best with his training and possible selection.



Ian Hodgins works locally as a GP and is very supportive of the school with regard to researching our history and delivering lectures to Sixth Form students. He has been invited to give the ‘pause for thought’ on Radio Devon next week.


Ian will be on air each morning at 6.15am each day from 13 – 17 January 2020 and his messages will be linked to articles from DHSB school magazines especially the 1905 edition. We’re looking forward to hearing what he has to say.



If you are a former student with a story to share then please get in touch with us at headteacher@dhsb.org or @dhsboys. Thank you.


Sports Update


Football


Despite three narrow defeats, Year 8 had a fantastic evening of central venue Football with six boys making their DHSB debut.


The Year 9 central venue football took place at TorBridge High and it was good to see new faces getting the opportunity to play competitive football. Results played four, won two, lost two.

Well done to the 13 students involved.


Good luck to our Year 11 team playing a National Cup v St Peter’s School today. Follow Mr Manley on Twitter @shaunmanleyPE for results and news of the match.


Climbing


Pictured here are students are the climbing club ‘learning the knots before getting up the wall’.


Basketball


A brilliant start for the Year 8 basketball team at the central venue league this week with two wins from two against Plymstock and All Saints.




Future Events

Monday 13 – Friday 17 January Year 10 Exams

Tuesday 14 January Ten Tors night navigation

Wednesday 15 January Year 9 Parents evening

Thursday 16 January Founder’s Day (1896)

Friday 17 January Year 11 report

Sunday 19 January Ten Tors training

Tuesday 21 January Year 8 parents evening

Wednesday 22 January PTFA meeting

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