It was Founder’s Day on Wednesday and we marked the occasion by taking delivery of a new set of postcards which have been designed using photos from our archives.
It has been fascinating to see that many areas of school life in the early years (a broad curriculum, recruiting subject specialist staff willing to lead extra-curricular clubs and activities, student leadership and the house system) are still very much part of DHSB today.
The school was founded on 16 January 1896 and we are starting to plan our 125 anniversary celebrations which will be held during 2021. If you would like to receive further information then please sign up at this link to ensure you are on our mailing list.
Future Chef
Well done to Josh Higman and Josh Cumberland who participated in the local finals of the Springboard Future Chef cooking competition this week.
Hosted by City College and judged by industry chefs, students were challenged to cook a two course meal for two people with a budget of £7. DHSB students were the youngest in the final and although they did not progress to the next stage they cooked some fantastic dishes and developed their practical skills under time pressure and in a professional environment.
Josh Cumberland
Mushroom ravioli with a creamy mushroom sauce
Raspberry frangipani tart
Josh Higman
Sticky lemon salmon with beetroot puree and a beetroot, feta and walnut Salad
Melt in the middle chocolate pudding with strawberries
Excellent Work
Today I’m pleased to share excellent work from three subject areas.
Dr Stears has sent me a PowerPoint presentation created by Year 11 students James Cunningham, Sam O’Connell and Marshall Pease who are studying GCSE Ancient History. All the class members are presenting their own research and this was a particularly outstanding presentation. The boys also answered questions and added further comments to the slides.
Dr Stears said, “All the students share their work on Google Class to support the learning of others”.
The next example is from Head of Physics, Dr Colvile, and his 8W class.
Dr Colvile shared this description, “Daniel Atkin’s take on the classic ‘journey of a cheese sandwich’ level-assessed task is so brilliant I’m sure you’ll agree it’s worth celebrating. I added Usain Bolt to the task description as a context to try and get the students to connect beyond the small intestine all the way to the mechanics of the muscles. The last page is from Andreas Isaias, also 8W. The wow factor came at the end of his essay; not only is it a poem, but he brings in the 100 metre sprint…well I’ll leave you to read how he does that”.
The final example of excellent work this week is from Mrs Downes, Head of English. Her Year 9 class was given ten minutes to explain if they thought mobile phones were a status symbol.
The task meant that the class needed to incorporate several ideas on mobile phones in society while using complex vocabulary to convey their ideas (in line with our whole school literacy focus on using more sophisticated language).
Remy Bray managed to use several key words accurately in explaining his opinion.
Students of the Week
Each week a student is nominated as Student of the Week receiving a certificate and voucher in assembly. Mr Adams met a group of those who had been nominated during November and December for ‘Lunch with the Head’ today.
Noah Evans for his fundraising for the Little Hearts Matter charity.
Charlotte Treharne who stepped in at the last minute to referee a first team football match.
Ben Harding for his resilience and ‘don’t give up’ attitude during a recent cross country race.
Jack Smith and Reuben Hellings who showed outstanding citizenship when a student was injured on the Year 7 playground.
Harrison Lake for going above and beyond the requirement of his prefect duties.
Ben Adams for stepping in to lead the prefects at the Year 7 parents evening.
Joe Melmouth, Bailey May and Sam Nieva for assisting a gentleman to push his car up a hill so that it could be jump started.
Whole School Assembly
Mr Martin led our whole school assembly this week on the theme of responsibility.
He said, “The theme of the assembly concentrated on the question, what am I responsible for? My actions, my words (spoken and written) and my thoughts are my responsibility and therefore I need to be mindful of how I use them. In addition my responses are also my responsibility.”
You can find out more by reading Mr Martin’s assembly slides here.
He concluded with this story about a father whose son was prone to frequent angry outbursts.
The father gave the son a bag of nails and a hammer and told him that every time he had an outburst he must hit a nail into the wooden fence. After a while the son had stopped having these angry outbursts and no longer needed to hammer a nail into the fence. The father congratulated his son and then told him for every day he remained calm, he could remove a nail from the fence. After many days all the nails had been removed and the son was elated.
The father praised his son but then reminded him that the holes had not gone and still could be seen.
The message is simply we must be responsible for what we do as it can leave marks on others, for example, causing hurt.
Sports Update
Football
The Year 7 team is to be congratulated on reaching round six of the national cup. Unfortunately on Monday the team lost at home 4 – 0 to St. Peter’s School, Gloucester. We wish the visiting team every success in the next round.
Mr Orkney said “Well done boys and Mr Manley. Great effort to get this far”.
The Sixth Form A team is back to winning ways after beating Plymouth University 6 – 1 in the Devon Wednesday League this week.
In addition, the school has recently received the Larry Speare Merit Award. This is a special award for our positive contribution to the league and we’re very pleased to be recognised in this way.
Very well done!
Basketball
Mr Strang said ‘What a performance from the DHSB Year 9 basketball team in the Plymouth Schools Central Venue [this week]. Two wins and a tie against strong opposition. Well done all.”
Future Events
18 January
Year 11 Report
23 January
Year 8 Parents Evening
23 January
PTFA meeting