Welcome back
It has been delightful to welcome all students back to school this week. We have had an extremely positive and successful start, it has been wonderful to see the joy, happiness and hear the laughter return to classrooms and the school.
I am incredibly grateful and proud to our students, staff and you as parents/carers for the way you have responded and supported the new measures and rules to ensure that students and staff can safely return to school.
It’s been a very positive first week back and there are some photos from around the site at the foot of this Head’s Blog.
Key messages were given in our virtual whole school assembly on Wednesday. Students and staff ‘joined’ the assembly in their tutor groups and you can access the presentation at this link.
Student News
Well done to Joseph Stell who walked the whole of the South West Coast Path over the summer.
Joseph walked mostly on his own and was occasionally joined by his dad. He undertook 37 days of walking, in three stages, 52 days from start to finish with mostly wild camping with a bivvy bag or less commonly, as a treat, a one man tent.
The South West Coastal Path association has contacted Joseph’s family as they think he may be the youngest person to do this ever!
Congratulations Joseph.
We’d like to feature news from other students in the next few weeks. If your child was involved in something during the summer that you’d like to share, please complete this Google form to let us know what they have been doing. Thank you.
DHSB Wellbeing
Students focused on the five ways to wellbeing on Tuesday, spending time thinking about what wellbeing means to them and how they can be proactive in supporting and improving their personal health and wellbeing. Students should now know and understand the following:-
Each of the five ways to wellbeing positively enhance wellbeing.
When you have these positive experiences you will change how you think and behave, enhancing your mental capital and becoming emotionally more resilient.
The five ways to wellbeing are simple, accessible and achievable for everyone.
Choosing to act and engage in the five ways to wellbeing will result in improved physical and mental wellbeing.
Next Friday students will be completing their Personal Wellbeing Action Plan.
Mr Manley
eSafety Advice
It’s been all go in the Learning Commons this week with all our wonderful students back and ready to learn. We have been busy supporting all of them with their tech needs and this week in tutorial we looked at the Children's Commissioner's ‘Digital 5 a day’ - based on the NHS’s evidence-based ‘five steps to better mental wellbeing’, the digital 5 a day campaign gives children and parents easy to follow, practical steps to achieve a healthy and balanced digital diet.
For further details on what was covered - please click here
As we welcome our new Year 7 students it seems like a good time to share a resource to help parents and students to use and understand the tools that we use here at DHSB as a Google Reference School.
This guide covers the basics if you and/or your child have not used a chromebook before and has instructions on how to move from Microsoft tools to Google. The tech help site is specifically for students, so to view that they will need to be signed in. Also included is a link to Google Applied Digital Skills - a series of videos to help anyone at any level with essential digital skills for today's world.
Ms Buckler
Alumni News
We always enjoy hearing from our alumni and this week received this photo of Adam Hill (Senior Cabin Crew) and Patrick Sozer (Senior First Officer) who flew to Athens and back on the same flight.
Adam said, “We just got chatting and it came about we both went to DHSB. Patrick left the school in 2004 and I left in 2010”.
Congratulations to Dave King who retained his 110m hurdles title in an exciting race at the British Championships last week. You may have seen him as the event was televised. Well done Dave!
If you are a former student with a story to tell then please contact us at headteacher@dhsb.org.
Transport
All of the local travel companies have written to us this week to inform us that there are young people that attend school in Plymouth that are failing to abide by the strict rules about travelling on buses and trains. Please ensure that you make sure that your son/daughter is aware and follows these rules such as they must wear a face covering:
The Week in Photos
Year 7 students arrived at school on Monday
And I had an opportunity to talk to them in their first assembly
Year 12 students also had an induction day
New members of staff were warmly welcomed to DHSB too
It was fantastic to see PE lesons again (with all control measures in place)
New measures include sanitising stations at Refuel
And extra hand washing facilities
The new one-way system is working well
With clear directions in place
And regular reminders about sanitising hands and wearing face coverings
Many students opted to cycle to school
More News
To hear more news from the school please continue to read my Head’s Blog each Friday and follow us on Twitter @dhsboys and @danjjroberts
