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17 January 2025

This year's DHSB Ten Tors training commenced for all teams last Saturday with minibuses leaving school before dawn with a forecast of rapidly melting snow. 


We were pleasantly surprised to find the snow-free ground at our start was not too muddy, the rivers not too high to cross, and beautiful snow still on the higher parts of our walk.




The snow did slow the teams down a bit, which we would expect when it's knee deep and every step sinks into a drift, but there may have been other reasons for delay at a couple of points where teams passed each other... 



Special thanks to Year 13 students who helped including checkpointing from an igloo, as well as to the hardy parents of current and former team members who augmented DHSB staff to ensure we had sight of all the groups for most of the day. 


We currently have 31 students training for our allocation of four teams of six students, so there's also still an element of selection taking place on this walk and our next on Saturday 1 February.

Dr Colvile


UK Youth Parliament


We are delighted to announce that two of our students, William Higginson 9A and Lucas Busuioc 7L, have been nominated to run in the upcoming Youth Parliament elections in Plymouth. Both students have worked hard, submitting thoughtful campaign ideas and attending two preparatory workshops. This Saturday, they will record their official campaign materials. The elections will take place across Plymouth from 3 February to 7 March, with more details about their campaigns to be revealed soon. 


We are incredibly proud of William and Lucas for their commitment to making a difference and wish them the best of luck!

Mr Scott



Excellent Work


Year 11 German


Mrs Ball has shared an example of Excellent Work this week.


She said, “This is an example of a GCSE German Higher Writing question 2 which is the extended 150 word account on two bullet points. This was a current Year 11 student's mock writing from November 2024. I think we can all agree that this bodes really well for the summer”.


Congratulations to this student on a very accurate and well structured answer.  



Primary Scholars


The first 2025 session of DHSB Primary Scholars took place on Monday with our newest young recruits. What a pleasure it was to see them all engaging so brilliantly with the resources. We are now taking bookings for March. All sessions are free!



Please complete the form to express your interest in your child attending our next Primary Scholars block.


Also, please follow the link if you would like to know more about the Atom Learning online learning platform (free for Pupil Premium students).




Excellent Work


Year 9 Chemistry


Mr Winstone has shared these examples of Excellent Work from his Year 9 Chemistry class who have been looking at covalent bonding as part of exploring how bonding and structure affect material properties.


This is Eoin Hewitt's work where he has drawn dot cross diagrams for various molecules and then used the Molymod kits to represent them in 3D.




Sparx Maths and Sparx Reader


Each week we celebrate our highest performers in both Sparx Maths and Sparx Reader, two of our core homework platforms. We are proud of all of our students who complete their homework each week to such a high standard but these students deserve a special mention.


Congratulations!



PTFA News

Thank you to everyone who came to our meeting this week, especially the new parents, it was lovely to meet you. 


A big thank you to Josanne and Emma Luing-Holmes for stepping in as Chair and Secretary at the last minute - it was much appreciated.


During the meeting we were delighted to approve a grant request from the Design Technology Department for £5673.00 to buy a new chip forge and grazing hearth.

Other items on the agenda included our annual Alton Towers trip and the summer disco - more details to follow once everything is confirmed. 


Our next meeting is on 19 March at 6.30pm - please join us if you can. The Conference Room is directly behind the Visitor Reception.

Mrs Kinsella



History Update


Yesterday was Founder's Day - we are 129 years old. 


We have Alonzo J Rider and his vision to thank for this. From little acorns, mighty oak trees grow… 


Ten years after Alonzo opened his school in 1896 we know that there were 94 students enrolled and just three years later in 1909 this had doubled to 187. In 1913 DHSB was “the largest boys' school affording secondary education in the Three Towns of Devonport, Stonehouse and Plymouth”.


By 1940 the school had expanded to 700 students and today we have 1304 students on roll.


Next year we will be celebrating our 130th anniversary. Please submit this form to register your interest in our 2026 130th anniversary event: 


Mrs Kinsella



Sports Update


Table Tennis


Well done to our U13 and U16 table tennis students who played in the second round of the regional table tennis competition on Saturday.


Mr Callicott said they performed really well but sadly didn't progress to the next stage of the competition.



Football


Mr Bunney reports that congratulations are due to the Year 7 football team who won back-to-back games this week against All Saints in the Plymouth Cup on Tuesday and 4 - 3 in extra time against St Peter’s in the Devon Cup on Wednesday in what was a brilliant game between two really good teams and was close to going to penalties! 



Mr Manley said that the DHSB 1st XI lost their Devon Wednesday League match against the team from the Naval Base with a scoreline of 5 - 4.










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