This week our second Astroturf pitch was officially opened by Giselle Ansley.
Giselle is an English international field hockey player.
She plays as a defender for England and Great Britain and made her international debut in 2013. Giselle competed for England in the women’s hockey tournament at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where she won a silver medall and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, winning a gold medal in a penalty shootout against the defending champions Netherlands.
She said she was delighted to be at the school to open the new Watergate Pitch and to give some expert coaching to students from the school hockey club.
It is essential for the community of Devonport and the city of Plymouth as a whole that all generations have good-quality, year-round resources available for physical activity in order to have a positive impact on their health, well-being and happiness. In 2013 we built our first all-weather pitch and launched our Sport for All community programme to improve access to sport and fitness for the wider community. Five years on and this has been an incredible success with the community participating in both sport and social activities using the school’s facilities seven days a week and late into the evenings.
Demand is so high that we are oversubscribed with groups of people ranging from toddlers to veterans wanting to use our facilities and so we have recently raised funds to construct a new Astroturf facility. Our new outdoor pitch will provide opportunities for a wider range of sporting activities such as hockey and tennis in addition to providing more opportunities for sports such as football for our students and the community.
NCS Bronze Champion!
This week I was pleased to receive a letter from the NCS (National Citizen Service) senior schools engagement and graduates manager in Devon thanking us for our support and cooperation.
We have recently been awarded Bronze Champion School Status.
Ms Moreton explained more about NCS in the summer edition of DHSB Today.
Guest Speaker
Ms Moreton has also shared this photo of former student Robert Harvey talking to Year 9, 10 and 11 students interested in Armed Forces careers. She said, “It’s great to see recent alumni returning to share their experiences”.
Clubs and Activities
When we came back to school in September I invited all students to consider setting up new clubs and activities with the promise of small grants for any start-up costs.
Mr Berryman followed this up in his whole school assembly on the theme of employability skills by challenging all students to consider what they could contribute to the school community. You can read Mr Berryman’s assembly slides here and I have also copied the current list of clubs and activities for your attention.
Here’s all the information from Mr Berryman’s whole school assembly.
Grease is the word!
A large group of students accepted the challenge to get involved with our annual school production this year.
Details are now available so please save the date and order your tickets. It’s going to be a great show!
Staff News
Well done to Mrs Weaver who competed at an event called Holy Grit in Newquay. This was a 12km course with multiple obstacles, half headland and half on the beach/sand dunes.
Mrs Weaver said she loves a challenge and that the highlights were “trampolining into neck deep mud”.
Sports Update
Football
The school has four good results from national cup games this week. Well done to all teams!
It was a great start for the Year 7 football team who won 10 – 0 v Plymstock School.
The Year 8 team beat Tavistock College 2 – 0 to make it into round three. This was a “tense encounter”.
A great performance by the Year 9 side to win 4 – 1 away at Plymstock in the second round.
And the Year 10 team is through to the next round after a 6 – 2 win v All Saints.
Unfortunately the Sixth Form B team lost 3 – 2 away to Plymouth University 8ths.
Rugby
Congratulations to the U16 rugby side who beat a “spirited” Heles School by 47 points to 14.
Ultimate
Mr McConnell said, “A really great performance by our U17 team (Yrs 9, 10 & 11) in a 2 day tournament at Marjon. Fantastic wins against Falmouth Uni and Exeter Uni’s 1st and 2nd teams. Finished in 13th out of 16 teams against experienced uni/adult teams.
Future Events
Thursday 18 October – Final day of autumn term one
Friday 19 October – Non pupil day
Monday 29 October – First day of autumn term two (B week)
Thursday 1 November – Strategies for Success Evening
Wednesday 7 – Friday 9 November – School Production (Grease)