17 July 2026
- Jul 17
- 11 min read
Today, we celebrated the conclusion of the 2025–2026 academic year with our traditional Final Assembly. The event celebrated a year filled with academic success, community spirit, and fierce house competition.
The assembly opened with an electrifying performance by the DHSB Soul Band, who delivered a soulful rendition of Bill Withers' classic, "Ain’t No Sunshine".
The assembly also gave students a chance to bid farewell to retiring staff members Mr Orkney, Mr Adams, Mr Riggs, Mrs Cory and Mr Espinosa and thank them for their dedicated service to the DHSB community.
The climax of the assembly was the announcement of the annual House Competition results. Attenborough House emerged as the overall champions and took the prestigious St. Levan Shield. Well done Attenborough!
The assembly concluded with a resounding whole-school sing-along of "Thank you for the music," sending students and staff off into a well-deserved summer break.
DHSB Summer Festival 2026
Sunshine, live music, and community spirit filled the south side of Devonport High School for Boys on Thursday as the school held its highly anticipated Summer Festival. The action-packed afternoon of fun and fundraising brought students and staff together to raise money for the House Charities.
Perfect summer weather allowed the school to become a bustling festival hub. The event offered a brilliant mix of traditional games and competitive sports. Attendees threw themselves into classic games like Dodgeball, Darts, Golf Putting, and the ever-popular Crockery Smash. On the Astro pitches, the competitive spirit was alive and well with a Football Tournament.
One of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the afternoon was Sponge the Teacher, which saw brave staff volunteers—including Mr and Mrs Bunney, Mrs Davidson and Mr Adams, Mr Winstone and Mr Bee, Mrs Wilkinson and Mr Orkney, Mr Barton and Mr Anderson, —willingly take to the hot seats to be pelted with wet sponges for a good cause.
For those looking to relax, the festival's Edgcumbe Stage served as the perfect soundtrack for the afternoon. Our talented student musicians performed a variety of crowd-favourite songs live, keeping the festival energy high and the crowds entertained.
Adding to the day's excitement was the Enterprise Marketplace, where Year 9 and Sixth Form students showcased their impressive business acumen and creative talents. The stalls, which operated on cash-only payments, offered an incredible selection of handmade goods, refreshing drinks, and delicious treats.
The school's "Refuel" team also fired up an outdoor BBQ, serving hotdogs and quarter-pound cheeseburgers.
The seamless coordination of the event was thanks to the tireless efforts of Miss Cunningham, Head of Houses and Community.
Our thanks goes to Miss Cunningham, the staff members and wonderful students whose generosity and teamwork made the DHSB Summer Festival 2026 such a great success.
With the bar set incredibly high, the school community is already looking forward to doing it all over again next year!
Physics Society News
DHSB Physics Society finished this year's programme last week by welcoming back former Physics Ambassador and DHSB student James Hills, returning from completing his Cambridge University Natural Sciences tripos in Physics. He presented an outline of the statistical basis of Thermodynamics to an appreciative audience.
For this meeting, we also extended an invitation to some of our top students in Year 9, who are eligible to apply for the COMPOS programme of assignments and free online tutor support to boost their attainment in Physics and Maths, if they want to be on a trajectory to follow in James's footsteps four years from now and study Physics/Engineering/Maths subjects at Oxford, Cambridge, or other similarly competitive universities. Details of how to apply are on the COMPOS website at https://compos.site.ox.ac.uk/, including the entrance assignment which will be posted on 17th August to select students for participation in the programme starting in the autumn of Year 10.
We are grateful to James for giving us a flavour of the kind of mathematical physics students on the Cambridge degree course can look forward to learning.
Dr Colvile
Head of Physics
DHSB Students Help Shape the Future of PSHE and RSE
Over the past six weeks, a group of Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and Sixth Form students from Devonport High School for Boys have been working in partnership with The Zone Plymouth as part of their Young People’s Participation Group programme. Led by Marie Bradford-Gale and Lily Reece, the project provided a valuable opportunity for students to share their experiences, views and ideas to help shape future support services and educational provision for young people.
The programme explored a wide range of important topics affecting young people today, including identity, pressures and expectations, online spaces and artificial intelligence, mental health, relationships and sex education (RSE), wellbeing support, and barriers to seeking help. Students were encouraged to discuss what works well, identify areas for improvement, and contribute ideas that could influence future school-based delivery and support services.
Throughout the sessions, our students represented the school exceptionally well. They engaged thoughtfully in discussions, listened respectfully to differing viewpoints, and demonstrated maturity when exploring complex and sometimes challenging topics. Their willingness to contribute openly and honestly ensured that the voices of young people were placed at the heart of the project.
The feedback gathered through the programme will help inform the development of high-quality resources and session materials that align with statutory PSHE and RSE guidance while reflecting the real experiences, needs and preferences of young people.
We are incredibly grateful to Marie Bradford-Gale, Lily Reece and the wider team at The Zone for facilitating these sessions and creating a supportive environment where students felt able to share their perspectives. The partnership has provided invaluable insight that will help us continue to strengthen and enhance our PSHE and RSE provision at DHSB.
Most importantly, our students demonstrated the values that make us proud to be part of the DHSB community. They acted as excellent ambassadors for the school, showing maturity, empathy, curiosity and respect throughout the programme. Their contributions will help shape support and educational resources that could benefit young people across Plymouth for years to come.
Mr Scott
Leader of Careers & PSHE
The results are in! Well done to the following students who recently passed their exams:
Alex (Y10) - Grade 5 Violin - Merit Otto (Y8) - Grade 4 Violin - Merit
Alex (Y7) - Grade 4 Violin - Pass Julius (Y8) - Grade 3 Violin - Merit
Jerome (Y&) - Grade 3 Violin - Merit Benjamin (Y12) - Grade 5 Guitar - Merit
Reuben (Y10)- Grade 4 Guitar - Merit Tristan (Y8) - Grade 1 Guitar - Merit
Hugo (Y12) - Grade 4 Guitar - Merit Drew (Y8) - Grade 4 Drums - Merit
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.
This week not only are we celebrating the Sparx Winners of the week, but we are celebrating a group of students who have engaged exceptionally well with Sparx this year. The highest 3 are:
Aaron Lee (8S) 96,785 SRP equivalent to 161 hours of reading
Ryan Yu (8S) 95,858 SRP equivalent to 161 hours of reading
Jorik Kocis (7L) 81, 388 SRP equivalent to 136 hours of reading
Congratulations and well done!
Last weekend, students from Year 10 completed their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Assessment.
Despite the very hot weather, all 36 participants successfully navigated the challenges of their respective routes. To ensure student safety, we worked closely with our partners at Dynamic Adventures to make necessary adjustments. The walking groups successfully relocated from Exmoor to Dartmoor to benefit from shadier conditions and an earlier start, while the cycling teams proceeded from Plymouth to Ilfracombe with adjusted start times to avoid the midday heat. A huge well done to all the students for their resilience and adaptability, and thank you to the staff and the team at Dynamic Adventures for their support in making this assessment a success. Thank you again to parents for their support of these remarkable young people and for their assistance with returning borrowed equipment on time this week.
Quotes received about their experience at the weekend included:
"I enjoyed the routes as they had lots of good break spots and cool views, the camping areas were definitely better than the training but there were still lots of midges at each camp site, the showers at the second camp were really good and helped a lot when the weather was so hot. We saw lots of cool animals on both the training and the final expedition, my favourite were the highland cows and frogs." - Oak.
"I enjoyed watching the sunrise as we were lucky enough to venture through the night and walking across the twilight terrain" - Bill.
"What I enjoyed most was setting off before sunrise and walking on the moors when it was very quiet and peaceful. I liked walking on footpaths on the moors and in the forests more than on roads." - Leo
The final expeditions of the year are taking place during the first week of the summer holiday, with 21 Gold Award participants taking part in either a walking expedition in Eryri, North Wales, or canoeing the river Wye.
Mr Guy-Fierens
Duke of Edinburgh Award Manager
We are delighted to celebrate the outstanding achievement of Year 8 brothers, Oliver and Oscar, who have both been selected for the UK Lions U14 Hockey Team following an exceptional performance at the prestigious UK Lions U13 Regional Tournament in Nottingham.
Representing the West Panthers U13 squad, the boys impressed selectors from across the UK during one of the country’s leading junior hockey events. The annual tournament brings together many of the most talented young players from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the UK Lions programme identifying those who demonstrate not only exceptional technical ability, but also teamwork, character and potential. 4 players from the West region have been selected as part of the 30 strong squad.
Selection is just the beginning of an exciting twelve-month programme. As members of the UK Lions U14 squad, Oliver and Oscar will take part in a series of elite training camps and fixtures designed to accelerate their development while creating lifelong friendships with talented players from across the United Kingdom. Their programme includes training and match opportunities in Manchester and Nottingham, an international tour to Northern Ireland, warm-weather training in Málaga, Spain, and an overseas tour to the Netherlands, where they will compete against some of Europe’s strongest junior hockey teams.
Well done Oliver and Oscar, we look forward to hearing about your time on the squad over the next year!
Year 10 student Mason was recently selected to play for the Devon U18 team and competed in the South West Boys Championship at Weston-super-Mare Golf Club. Organized by the South Western Counties Golf Association, this six-county regional event featured teams from Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Cornwall, and Dorset.
Mason delivered a great performance, scoring gross 73 in his first 18 holes followed by an even better gross 70 in the second round to secure a top-20 finish! His performance helped the Devon team finish as runners-up, missing out on the title to Somerset by just four shots.
This superb result was a great way to end a week that saw Mason set a new Junior Course Record at Exeter Golf and Country Club and winning the Gross event, scoring an impressive three-under-par 67.
Well done, Mason!
I can’t think of a better way to end our brilliant year than to announce the winners of our annual photography competition! As always, the standard of the entries was incredibly high! We loved looking at them all - viewing them on the new large screen in the theatre showcased them perfectly!
Our grateful thanks to Miss Hicks, Teacher of Art and Design, for judging the competition. It was no easy task and I certainly did not envy her.
A big well done and congratulations to Ellis (7S), for being awarded First Place with his fantastic morning photograph taken at Saltash train station, as the sun was rising, and the train was pulling in. Ellis said ‘the bridge loomed over me. Showing the true beauty of where we live.’
A big well done and congratulations to our Second Place winner, Maxim (12KAL), for his amazing photo of a go-cart at Forest Edge Kart Club becoming airborne after hitting a kerb.
Our Third Place goes to Pablo (9L), for his stunning photograph taken as the sun shone through some trees in Dartmouth when he was on a hike with his dad. A big well done and congratulations to Pablo too.
Ellis, Maxim and Pablo will receive an Amazon voucher of £50.00, £30.00 and £20.00 respectively as their prizes.
Five very worthy winners were awarded Highly Commended for their entries, they are:
Jasper (7A) - for his photograph taken at Hobbiton Park, New Zealand
Archer (8T) - for his photograph of the Frecce Tricolori, the display team of Italy, taken at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.
Gael (8A) - photograph taken during a walk through Central Park with his brother and best friend. Gael says ‘the afternoon sun really makes the photo look majestic to me.’
Bodhi (9W) - stunning flower and wildlife
Arley (11F) - looking across the Arno River in Florence, Italy, showing the historic Vecchio Bridge.
A big thank you to everyone who entered the competition - looking through the brilliant entries is always a highlight of our year.
And, what a phenomenal year the PTFA have had! We’ve organised our usual three major events: the Alton Towers daytrip, and the Summer and Christmas Discos. We’ve also poured many, many, too many to count, drinks at various school events - from the 11+ exam mornings to the 3-performance school production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ Other income has been derived from ‘Your School Lottery’ and kind donations.
The above has enabled us to fund many extras this year for DHSB’s community. We were delighted to fund a CanSat project, condom demonstrators and condoms, a trip to the Model United Nations Simulation Conference, a new projector for the theatre, keyboards and musical equipment, two full size football goals, basketball kits, match balls and electronic scoreboard, DofE kit, mirrors and weights for the Fitness Suite, a lighting desk for the theatre, a recording system for the theatre, three thermal imaging cameras, two art racks, a wheelchair, a ramp, an EpiPen, a DHSB flag for our flag pole, items for music technology recording, radio mikes, lights, and last but not least, cables! Showing my age, and being reminded of The Generation Game, I’m tempted to add ‘cuddly toy’ there.
A whopping total of just over £42,000!
All of the aforementioned is amazing, and it really can’t be achieved without our volunteers and supporters. A very big thank you to you all.
An extra special thank you too to the PTFA Committee for all that you do to make the PTFA the success that it is. I look forward to seeing you in September when we will start all over again.
Our first meeting is Wednesday 16th September, in the Conference Room, which is directly behind the Visitor Centre. Please join us if you can, we’d love to meet you. Inevitably we lose parents every year as their children leave DHSB - so you are much needed and would be made very welcome. Refreshments supplied.
If you are able to help at an event, even if its just for an hour or two, please submit the form below - your help would be much appreciated:
Any questions, I can be contacted at ptfa@dhsb.org
From myself and the PTFA, we hope you have a lovely summer.
Mrs Kinsella
PTFA Liaison
As we come to the end of our school year I am reflecting on the last few months of the Alumni Association - the highlight of course being our 130th Anniversary event. Click below to read all about the event, and other news, in my latest Alumni Newsletter:
Have a lovely summer.
Mrs Kinsella
Alumni Engagement & Archives