This week's Head's Blog emphasises and celebrates the importance of our broad and balanced curriculum offer at the school.
It is excellent to see that, despite the restrictions still in place as a result of Covid-19, staff and students are able to engage successfully in opportunities that help them grow and develop personally, socially and emotionally.
This weekend we have four teams of students out on Ten Tors training walks. The teams are working towards an event planned for 27 June 2021.
Also, DoE training continues apace with eight walking teams out this weekend on their practice expedtiions (three days for the gold teams and two days for the silver teams).
The gold canoeing team received a day of training at Dartington last weekend.
Student News
Very well done to Joshua Daniel 7E who played exceptionally well in his first outing for the Devonshire B Team and successfully won both of his matches with his partner. Joshua even managed to serve six aces in his Men’s tennis debut.
Joshua was awarded Man of the Match; aged just 12 years he is the youngest player in the Devonshire Men’s Teams. Both his level of play and attitude are outstanding, always positive and encouraging the team.
Well done Joshua!
Mr Manley
Intermediate Maths Challenge
Congratulations to Orlan Hartley 9N who achieved a silver certificate and best in year, Scott Howley 10N who gained a gold certificate and best in school, and Arthur Law 11N who gained a gold certificate and best in year.
All bronze, silver and gold certificate winners are listed here - well done!
Bronze
Asad Ali 9E
Ewan Piercy 9C
Daniel Atkin 10W
Rick de Wilde 10S
Archie Chalk 10S
Addison Mee 11W
Silver
Orlan Hartley 9N Best in year
Turab Ali 9C
Samuel Hibbert 10N
Ayush Kunwar 10S
Sakthivelan Pandy 10W
Rufus Sadler 11E
Gold
Scott Howley 10N Best in school
Arthur Law 11N Best in year
Fintan Pawley 11C
Mrs Wills
Excellent Work
Ms Davidson, Assistant Head Post-16, sent me these screenshots saying, “Year 13 student Elizabeth Moor produced the most amazing EPQ and although I can't share it in full as it's being submitted this summer, here are two screenshots showing some aspects”.
An EPQ is an extended project qualification which is an independent research task and involves either writing an extended essay of about 5,000 words or creating a product with an accompanying shorter essay of about 1,000 words.
Libby worked on this title.
To what extent does being an elite athlete affect oral health?
Ms Davidson said, “Whilst I approved this as a legitimate project, I couldn't fathom how far it could develop or even that there would be much evidence. How wrong I was! Libby linked the oral health of elite athletes to so many developed factors from eating disorders to the wearing of gum shields. The conclusion and evaluation were superbly supported by evidence and I have learnt so much from her work. There is definitely scope for her to take this to PhD level in the future in her career as a Dentist”.
Well done Libby.
PSHEE Activities
Tutorial lessons this Friday are very easy to report, as all four year groups 7 - 10 have the same activities.
Firstly we have been asked to ensure the showing of a Railway Safety presentation, which is refreshed annually. It comprises a series of fairly hard hitting film clips around safety on and around the rail network. If you wish to see these, the link is available via your child’s tutorial google classroom.
Following this important but potentially quite difficult topic, the second half of the lesson is devoted to another, more lighthearted, annual event; our spelling, punctuation, and grammar challenge.
Students are asked to use at least four of the six words allocated to their year group (see link below) to write a very short story, poem or limerick of not more than 100 words, which must be spelled properly and be grammatically correct.
Winners will receive a certificate, and overall year group winners, judged by Ms Moreton and Mr Manley, will also receive a small prize. Entries must be emailed to sue.moreton@dhsb.org by Monday 14 June.
I was amazed at the ingenuity of some of the entries last year, and am looking forward to more of the same!
More details next week, which is also the turn of school exams for Year 8 students, in class, and Year 10 students, in the Sports Hall. Good luck everyone.
Ms Moreton
Excellent Work
You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, Year 7 students had a PSHEE lesson about fairtrade. They discussed in groups the allocation of the price of a bunch of bananas in the supermarket to the shop, the importer, the transporter, the farmer and the worker, and discussed how fairtrade works to ensure that a fair price is paid to everyone in the supply chain.
Mrs Ferguson has shared this example of Excellent Work created by two of her 7E students, Bozhidar Sivrev and Charlie Somerville.
Sports Update
The Year 7 B team house football competition has come to an end with Smeaton beating Priestley in a keenly contested final played in great spirit.
Priestley
Smeaton
On Tuesday the school hosted the Plymouth Schools U15 summer football tournament with seven teams taking part.
Here is a photo of our Year 10 team who performed very well despite not winning overall.
Also on Tuesday, we were delighted that the school golf club was able to meet for the first of seven after school sessions.
Mr Carpenter said, “The golf club swings into action again this evening at Boringdon Park with great instruction”.
Thursday saw the first session of this year's surf club.
