Everyone Succeeds
Today I’d like to share my termly update on the progress we are making as a school towards our current priorities and to ensure that we strive to achieve our vision that ‘Everyone Succeeds’.
We have targeted the most significant challenges since September and have formed our School Development Priorities.
You’ll find my update at the foot of today’s Blog (and at this link) but first please the rest of this week’s news.
DHSB Today
I’m pleased to share with you the summer edition of DHSB Today. As always our school newsletter is packed full of interesting and important updates about the school.
One of the best things about our school is that our strong traditions and great heritage are blended with cutting edge modern day innovation. A great example of this is our wonderful student leadership. Just like the founding Headteacher of DHSB, Alonso Rider, we still firmly believe in devolving power and responsibility to our students.
Many of our student leadership opportunities were created over 100 years ago; you can see many old pictures from the archives on the old boys website. We believe the first prefects were created back in 1905 with the first real mention of them appearing in the school magazine in 1911.
I am extremely proud of how we are building a culture and environment where our young people can flourish and have a positive impact on their local, national and international community. This edition of DHSB Today demonstrates just that with so many fantastic contributions from students, I would like to single out George Allan in Year 12 who has shown great leadership in bringing this edition together; thank you George!
From everyone here at DHSB we hope that you enjoy catching up on all the exciting things that have been happening. Please support our school community by sharing this edition of DHSB Today with your family and friends.
Rotary Young Writer Competition
We welcomed two members of the Plymouth Mayflower Rotary Club to school this morning, President Bob and Barbara, who were here to present certificates and prizes to students who had entered this year’s Young Writer competition.
Over 30 DHSB students, from a mixture of year groups, participated in the local club round of the competition and four students had their work submitted to the district competition (Luca Tsianavas, Sam Brundell, Billy Carlton and Lewis James).
Well done to all these students, especially Lewis, who was awarded third place in the district section of the competition.
Excellent Work
Our excellent work this week also highlights some writing from students.
Ms Steer’s Year 9 English class was given an image from the First World War that linked to the poem ‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen, one of the fifteen GCSE named poems in the ‘Power and Conflict’ Poetry Anthology. The image portrayed WW1 soldiers in the trenches and they were tasked to devise a piece of creative writing based around the image and the poem.
Lewis Mears 9N wrote a poem which summed up the tone and theme of the poem exactly. The poem has also been entered for the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Truth (please click the link to read Lewis’ poem
I’m also sharing some writing from Mason Norcliffe 7N.
Mason recently entered a flash fiction competition run by an American Library. There were over 700 entries and I’m delighted to say Mason was one of the top ten finalists.
Beacon of Hope (please click the link to read Mason’s flash fiction)
Summer Fayre
Sunshine greeted our visitors this afternoon who were on site to enjoy our Summer Fayre.
Stalls and activities were led by Houses and all money raised will be donated to this year’s House charities.
Here are just a few images from the afternoon.
As you can see, students, staff, parents and visitors had a lot of fun, consumed a lot of food and raised funds for our chosen charities as well as coordinating a collection of toiletries and cleaning equipment for Open Hearts Open Borders.
Everyone Succeeds
Here is the link to my termly update on the progress we are making as a school towards our current priorities and to ensure that we strive to achieve our vision that ‘Everyone Succeeds’.
Future Events
16 July – Open morning at 9.00
17 July – Sports day
19 July – Sports day (reserve date)
20 July – Final day of the summer term (school closes for students at 12.40)
16 August – A level results day
23 August – GCSE results day
3 September – Non pupil day (staff training)
4 September – Non pupil day (staff training)
5 September – First day of the autumn term (Year 7 and 12 induction)
6 September – Whole school return