Speech Day and Sports Day!
Thank you to all students, families, trustees and staff who supported our significant community events this week.
We were delighted to present this year’s Speech Day awards on Wednesday during two events in a marquee on site. In the afternoon we welcomed our current students and their families and later in the day we enjoyed the company of our Year 13 leavers with time to catch-up over a buffet supper.
Many thanks to recent alumni, Charlie Crichton, Jack Henniker, James Henniker and Tom Trace who returned to school to share their experiences and pathways since leaving DHSB.
They were able to pass on some useful advice too.
Mackenzie Pike, spoke about his time as School Captain and we enjoyed music performed by Ben Wotton 11C, Graham Butler 9P, Ethan Hale 11N, Dylan Lyndsley-Leake 11S, Alex Boghian 9N and Evelyn Wilkinson 12TJK.
Afternoon guests enjoyed canapes created by students with the support of Miss Hunns and Mrs Dean.
St Levan Shield
This week also saw the culmination of the 2022/23 House competitions where the House Captains proudly enjoyed the presentation of awards to students for all manner of endeavours this year.
On Wednesday we revealed the winners of the four main House competitions which run all year. All the House Captains have worked hard this year to develop their House ethos and this has centred around promoting good conduct, high academic standards, participation in competitions, both sporting and academic and charitable endeavours, raising over £3,000 for House charities. All of these have earned House Points.
All six Houses showed strengths but the House which took home the coveted St Levan Shield for the second consecutive year was Smeaton. They also won the Community Cup and Merit Shield with Priestley winning the Competitions Cup.
This has been my first year as Head of Houses and I have been honoured and proud to have worked with such a dedicated and hard working team of House Captains. Well done to all of you.
Miss Cunningham
Sports Day
On Thursday the whole school participated in our annual Sports Day held at Brickfields (postponed from July). The day concluded with an assembly to recognise and celebrate students who did well during the day’s events. The day ran smoothly and two records were broken.
Bryan Oldfield 9P set a new school record for the U13 100m event in a time of 11.54.
In the U12 800m, Eldon Young 8W broke the record by finishing in 2.27 which beat the previous record of 2.32 seconds held by Charlie Legg in 1984.
Many congratulations to both Bryan and Eldon.
Our Guest of Honour this year was former student Archie Hill who is currently at Exeter University. Archie plays for Plymouth Albion after enjoying five years at Exeter Chiefs. It was lovely to welcome lots of parents and even our former Head of PE Martin Moon whose grandson was competing in Year 9.
Mr Orkney
Sports Day Cup
The excitement through the day at Brickfields was matched with the anticipation of the results back at school.
Congratulations to the year group winners:-
Year 8 - Winstanley
Year 9 - Winstanley
Year 10 - Campbell
Year 11 - Campbell
Alternative events winners Edison and the other three houses were tangibly nervous and excited as the results were read out for the overall winners...Winstanley.
Congratulations to Winstanley and all the students who earned House Points by taking part in events. The spirit of competition was displayed perfectly throughout the day!
Miss Cunningham
Student Success and News
We are looking for students and families to contribute to the Head's Blog over the next few weeks.
If you have tried a new activity or challenge during the summer then we'd love to hear about it. We also want to hear about student achievements (please complete the form at the link below).
Examples include sports, photography, new hobbies or book recommendations.
Thank you to those who have already shared their news with us. We will be highlighting these examples over the next couple of weeks.
Well done to Maxim Smith 10C who has been Karting all summer and achieved some great results including fifth place in the south west championships held at Mansell Kart Track in Devon. This was a tough grid and Maxim (aged 14 compared to a lot of the other drivers, some of who are 16) did a fantastic job.
Also congratulations to Caleb Caleshu 11P who was called up to represent England in Stirling as the U18 teams of the four home nations met to battle for the Glorney Cup. Although England won all four encounters with Ireland and Wales, it was the Scots who eventually prevailed in the final match.
Caleb was in stunning form, competing for seven hours on his 15th birthday to wipe out two opponents. He won his first five games and built up a huge advantage in the final game before he had to concede a draw. Very well done!
PTFA Update
It was a lovely surprise for the PTFA to get a mention by the School Captain in his Speech Day speech. This was a great reminder of how much we achieved in the past 12 months!
Thank you Mackenzie.
We're starting it all over again! Please join us in our first meeting of the year, which is also our AGM on 26 September at 6.30pm, in the Conference Room (directly behind the Visitor Reception). We'd love to see you! Refreshments supplied too.
Mrs Kinsella
Staff News
A big well done to Mr Guy-Fierens and Mrs Wills who took part in a charity event with Run Devon last weekend, running from Tavistock to Saltram in very warm conditions.
They did this to raise money for Young Devon and there is still time to make a donation at this link.
Young Devon is a young people’s charity in the South West of England. Their mission is to make Devon a better place for all young people. Each year they work with over 2,000 young people, building quality relationships to help them thrive.
Thank you.
