We have reached the end of term, the end of the year and I am very proud of our community.

Our students have shown a great focus, resilience and determination to succeed, our staff have worked tirelessly and been highly effective in providing great learning and wellbeing support for our students, I am proud of the governance and leadership at the school for leading and supporting our community.

Finally I am extremely grateful and appreciative of our parents and families who have been excellent in supporting your children and the school during this challenging time.

Together we have tried to make the end of this term as normal as possible for students and staff.

On Wednesday we celebrated our annual Speech Day, albeit not at the Plymouth Guildhall, but in a special Sixth Form assembly and in our tutor groups.

Many of the traditional elements such as my Headteacher’s report and greetings from the Lord Mayor were included and the assembly concluded with the announcement of the St Levan’s Shield competition winners. This caused alot of excitement in tutor groups!

Joe Watkinson is pictured giving his School Captain's report

We are grateful that Dr Ian Hodgins, a local GP and former student, agreed to be our Guest of Honour and you can listen to his speech in our virtual presentation which is available here.

St Levan Shield Results

Merit Shield

3rd place Campbell with 90 points

2nd place Edison with 92 points

1st place Newton with 102 points

Community Cup

3rd place Winstanley with 203 points

2nd place Campbell with 232 points

1st place Priestley with 234 points

House Competition

3rd place Campbell with 13 points

2nd place Priestley with 15 points

1st place Edison with 17 points

St Levan Shield

3rd place Priestley with 106 points

Joint 2nd place Campbell and Edison with 127 points

1st place Newton with 128 points points

Congratulations to Newton House who won the St Levan Shield

Refuel Christmas Dinner

Each year group was able to enjoy a Christmas Dinner this week as Mr McConnell and Mr Higgins arranged a Covid-19 secure way of ensuring all students could be served hot food, with a different year group each day having the opportunity to buy tickets for Roast Turkey or Nut Roast with all the trimmings. It was delicious!

Final Whole School Assembly

Today’s assembly was full of fun as well as having serious reflections and messages for the end of term. Students enjoyed a whole-school Kahoot quiz masterminded by Ms Moreton and Ms Buckler, and received a special visit from Father Christmas who delivered chocolates to every form room.

We also premiered our version of A Christmas Carol, DHSB Style, which involved staff re-telling the story of Scrooge Roberts who was persuaded to bring some festive cheer to the school in spite of Covid-19 restrictions!

Well done to George Cleeland-Smith and Noah Evans who filmed and edited this year’s Christmas staff video and thank you to everyone who took part.

The outtakes were especially enjoyable!

Sixth Form Sport

The Sixth Form teams joined in all the fun on Wednesday when they chose to play their match in fancy dress!

Saying Farewell

We are sorry to say goodbye to Ms Williams who has provided cover in the English Department this term and to Ms Boon, Head of Food and Nutrition. We wish them both well in the future.

Ms Williams

Ms Boon

Hour of Code 2020

Students from all year groups at DHSB joined the 100 million other children around the world in this year's Hour of Code.

The Hour of Code, organised by the nonprofit Code.org and over 100 others, is a global movement that believes the students of today are ready to learn critical skills for 21st-century success. We are so pleased DHSB took part again in 2020.

We were also privileged to share the Hour of Code with the MFL Department this year! Mrs Brooking and her team worked with KS3 Spanish classes to deliver the Hora del Código!

Las computadoras están en todas partes, cambiando todas las industrias del planeta. ¡La buena noticia es que estamos trabajando para cambiar esta realidad! Si oíste hablar de la Hora del Código antes, es posible que sepas que hizo historia. Más de 100 millones de estudiantes han participado en una Hora del Código!

"The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket science and anybody can learn the basics," said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. "Over 100 million students worldwide have tried an Hour of Code. The demand for relevant 21st-century computer science education crosses all borders and knows no boundaries."

Mr Scott

Excellent Work - Computer Science

Ben Wotton 8C has used his computer science skills to code a fantastic game using Unity. The game 'Space Shooter' demonstrates his understanding of the key concepts of game design, which will come in useful after Christmas when all Year 8 Enterprise classes will be making a computer game with Mr Scott, Mrs Corboy and Ms Buckler.

Ben said "I have been working on this game in Unity for a couple of months now but I haven't yet fixed some of the bugs inside the game. It runs using WebGL so you can run it in Google Chrome. I have based the theme on Space Invaders and I have found some non-copyright sounds of the internet to use as the music".

The UK is well known for its games development. The following games were all made in the UK: Grand Theft Auto (Edinburgh), Elite Dangerous (Cambridge), Candy Crush (London), Batman: Arkham (London), Sonic Forces (Leamington Spa), Burnout Paradise (Guildford)...and many more.

Mr Scott says you can play Ben's amazing game at this link.

Thank You Message

Mr Manley has shared this lovely thank you message received from the Plymouth Foodbank.

Thank you again for taking the time and trouble to drop down the generous donations collected by the school over recent weeks. We are so very grateful of your support and for nominating us as one of your chosen charities this Christmas. I am delighted to confirm that the total amount of food donated amounts to an incredible 266.14 Kgs. We will acknowledge this with a certificate to you in the post in due course.

Once again our sincere thanks for all your help and ongoing support. It means so much and will make a huge difference to the work we do here at the Plymouth Foodbank.

Wishing you, your colleagues and all the students at DHSB a fantastic Christmas and a Happy 2021.