Today we celebrated a successful and productive academic year as a community with the 2023 DHSB Summer Festival.

The changeable weather unfortunately meant we couldn't share this with our full community of parents and carers as we had hoped, but we didn't let the rain dampen our spirits.

95% of activities went ahead and the boys were free to enjoy the festivities all afternoon. We had our old favourites such as Mr Orkney's Big Mouth, Crockery Smash and the Enterprise Marketplace, plus a wide array of challenges to suit all tastes - Rubiks Cube Speed Challenge, Memory Games, Nerf Gun Challenge and Prize Pong to name a few.

We also introduced a new activity with the Football Speed Cage. This was very popular and shone a light on our students’ competitiveness! There were many food stalls available with students selling hot and cold food and drinks, we had tasty smoothies, a liberal splashing of sweets and treats and even some fruit skewers.

We were also incredibly pleased to have a whole afternoon of the most fantastic live music from our talented musicians at DHSB. This programme was coordinated by our Creative Arts Director, Mrs Luing-Holmes, who along with the rest of the music department have supported the students in producing a wonderful jewel in our Summer Festival crown. In the words of ABBA - Thank you for the Music!

The House Captains have been working very hard for a number of weeks in preparation for this event and I think it is safe to say they will go home today very tired, but also incredibly proud of all they have managed to achieve. Maybe not the weather we had hoped for but a festival for all of our hard working students to enjoy. We will have a total next week of money raised for the House Charities.

Thank you to all who have donated items. We really couldn't have done it without you.

Miss Cunningham

Student News

Very well done to Oliver Broughton 7S who achieved great results at the recent Plymouth Leander competition, which included teams from across Devon and Cornwall.

Gold 200m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke

Silver 100m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 200m IM

Bronze 50m butterfly, 200m free, 50m free, 50m backstroke

Oliver also won the best male athlete aged 11+ - congratulations!

DofE News

Well done to 79 students from Year 9 who have successfully completed their expedition section for their Bronze award. They walked across Dartmoor, starting at Shipley Bridge, camping overnight and then finishing at Postbridge.

46 Year 10 students then took part in their Silver expedition. We had cycling teams starting at Ilfracombe heading back to DHSB, and walking teams out on Exmoor doing a loop to and from Dunster. They all did brilliantly - congratulations.

Mrs Wills

PSHEE Activities

Well we've made it to the penultimate week of term, which is also my penultimate week at DHSB as I am finally retiring after eighteen years (more on that next week)

This week was the last week of regular tutorial lessons, with just the Celebration assemblies to go next week.

The Year 7 lesson today was all about Road Safety, especially in and around school both as a cyclist and pedestrian.

Year 8 students learned about Superbugs, using lessons developed by the Pfizer organisation, covering bacteria, antibiotics, penicillin etc.

The Year 9 classes looked at film classifications and also gaming age restrictions, and the final Year 10 lesson for the term was based on Barclays Lifeskills diversity in the workplace activities.

Ms Moreton

PTFA News

Firstly we are delighted to announce the winners of our photography competition. The 12 winning photos will be used to produce our fundraising academic calendar. These can be purchased on MCAS and will be ready in September. The calendar has the school term dates and the 'A' and 'B' weeks to make school life easier.

The judges had a very tough task on their hands! The photos were great - we have some very talented photographers here at DHSB! First place goes to Jake Gamble 12SD for his amazing and evocative photo of Tamar Bridge.

Second place goes to Arley Walker 8W for his lovely mushroom photo and third place to Arran Pannell 13ALG for his fantastic birds on the beach photo.

Arran Pannell - third place

Arley Walker - second place

Jake Gamble - first place

The eight runners up who will also have their photos in the calendar are:

Chloe Baker 12ATW

Corban Croot 7P

Joseph Dennis 9W

Edward Eastwood 7P

Thomas Jane 10E

Max Roberts 8E

Ciaran Smith 9C

Eldon Young 7W

Congratulations to all the winners! Double congratulations go to Edward Eastwood as both of his entries are winners. Thank you to everyone else who submitted entries and special thanks to KBG Chambers who have sponsored our calendar this year and judged the photos.

In other news, what a busy and fantastic couple of weeks the PTFA has had! We held our final meeting of the year and were delighted to approve three grants totalling just under an incredible £6000.00! They were for nine tents, including a kitchen one, for the popular Ten Tors event, a blast chiller for Food Technology classes and medical testicular exam simulators with six posters. A special mention to the two students who gave us a great presentation on the blast chiller - how could we refuse?

We also framed nearly 50 11 plus certificates of achievement signed by Mr Roberts - it's not too late to buy one! Details on MCAS.

For the first time since Covid we have had an almost normal year. We've organised two discos at Pryzm with the very popular Alton Towers trip in sandwiched in between as well as serving refreshments at school events.

So on Tuesday last week we gave ourselves a big pat on the back and had some well deserved Prosecco!

On Wednesday and Thursday last week we met the new Year 7 parents at the transition morning events. It was lovely to meet you and hope to see you again at one of our meetings or events. My thanks to Joanna for coming along to help.

On Tuesday this week the PTFA served refreshments at the DHSB Open Evening. Viewing a potential school is thirsty work! Thank you to Joanna, Lianne and Julie.

Keep an eye out for a new fundraising event next year - PIG RACING! Yes you read that correctly!

Our first meeting of the year, which is also our AGM, is on 26 September in the Conference Room. This is the room directly behind the Visitor Reception. Please note it will now be at a new, slightly later time, of 6.30pm. Please join us if you can, we'd love to meet you! Refreshments supplied.

Any questions email ptfa@dhsb.org. Wishing you all a lovely summer.

Mrs Kinsella

PTFA Liaison and the PTFA

Sports Update

In sports news this week, students enjoyed after school clubs in Surfing, Tennis and Golf.

Cricket

Pictured is the U14 cricket side who beat Stoke Damerel CC by 30 runs in their last game of the season

Mr Orkney says that Harshil top scored with 44 and in the previous game against Tavistock, captain James scored 50.

Also, congratulations to the Year 10 team, taking a win by 33 runs with a fantastic 50* from Jack Martin v Tavistock.