What an incredibly enjoyable final week of term we have have all had.

I just want to convey my sincerest thanks to all staff and students who have contributed to our many festive activities from our Nine Lessons and Carols and our Charity Food Collections to our Celebration Assemblies and Refuel Christmas Lunch.

On behalf of everyone here at DHSB, we wish you season's greetings and all good wishes for the new year.

As always, if you have any comments, questions or positive feedback to share please send an email to headteacher@dhsb.org.

Here is our Week in Pictures

Celebration Assemblies

The eagerly awaited Santa races - many students winning prizes for their excellent attitudes and behaviour this term:

There were noisy celebrations!

Carol Service

Thank you to Ms Luing-Holmes and all of the Year 7 staff team involved in organising the Carol service at St Andrews. It was a lovely occasion to get everyone in the mood for Christmas. Thank you to all of the generous donations to Shekinah, we managed to raise £277 for the charity.

It was wonderful to see so many families and members of the community attend the free event.

House Charity Food Collections

A huge thank you to all of you for supporting the food bank collections, our minibuses were full when Mr Manley and Miss Cunningham and our some of our House captains dropped off our donations.

Both the Plymouth Foodbank (Oasis) and Devon Provide were extremely grateful for our support. Thank you everyone!

Thank you to our students: Agsheyan Praveenthan, Jay Fox-Hopwood, Bobby Li, Grace Shianyana and Max Phillips.

Christmas Concert

Wow what a fantastic event!

We all had an enjoyable evening of seasonal performances. The groups involved were Noys, VPXG (Vocal Xmas Group), Windband, Brass Band, Advanced Strings, Junior Strings, Soul Band and soloists/duets. The theatre was packed and it was a great night out for all the family.

Learning Commons Advent Challenge Winners

As usual, there is always a real buzz around the competition for the DHSB learning commons advent challenge. Special thanks to Mrs Parkes who creates this, this year there was a very fascinating artificial intelligence twist.

A Special Christmas Question Time with Mr Macleod

A slightly alternative question time exploring questions such as should we publish to UCAS if you are on the naughty list or not?

Sixth Form Christmas Carols

A fun packed session for our Sixth Form, including, the 12 days of Christmas

 Our Final Whole School Assembly for 2025

A chance to reflect on the year gone by, watch some fantastic student musical performances and of course.... a sports hall full of Christmas Karaoke!

Student Success

Congratulations to Ethan Stewart who has been selected to represent EMMA (England Mixed Martial Arts) at the IMMAF World Championships in Serbia this February — an incredible achievement. Unfortunately, there is a lack of funding to support atheletes, Ethan is fundraising through various activities which you can read about here

Fancy training a robotic reindeer?

This December, Cognition Learning invites you on a robotics adventure with a holiday twist! Train your very own AI-powered robotic reindeer and help deliver all the presents before the big day. Sessions are at the Market Hall in Plymouth, spaces are limited – book now!

PTFA Update

It’s been a busy week for the PTFA to end the term with. On Monday we served refreshments before the Carol Service at St Andrew’s Church. It was a first for the PTFA and very successful. The non-alcohol mulled wine was so popular we sold out! A big thank you to teachers Mrs Cairns and Mrs Franklin, Isa, Sarah and Joanna for organising the refreshments. 

A special mention and thank you to caretaker Aaron for helping to unload and load the car with our supplies in the pouring rain!

Round 2 saw us serving refreshments at the Christmas Concert. A big thank you to teacher Mrs Downes, Joanna, Jenny, Audrey, Sally and Isa.  Our urn warming the mulled wine suddenly stopped warming the mulled wine! Luckily a replacement urn was sourced! Crisis averted and calm restored!

If you are able to help at one of our events, please submit this form:

PTFA Volunteer Expression of Interest Form

If you have already submitted a form and not received an email, please check your spam folder as one was sent this week, thanks. 

We are now looking for volunteers to help with our refreshments bar at the school production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ on the 11th, 12th and 13th February. Any help is appreciated.

Our first meeting is on the 14th January, 6.30pm in the Conference Room (directly behind the Visitor Reception). Please join us if you can - we’d love to meet you.

From all of us at the PTFA, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Beverley Kinsella

PTFA Liaison 

We are excited to invite you to our DHSB@130 Celebration Event on the 28th of March 2026, from 12.30pm to 5.30pm. This event commemorates 130 years of our school's history and enduring legacy.

Tickets cost £20.00 and are now on sale. Price includes a delicious buffet lunch and the opportunity to look around your school. Former student and now staff member, Dave Riggs will be giving a talk relating to the history of DHSB too.

We will have a bar and you will be able to celebrate with our own DHSB IPA ‘Colonnade!’ Open to all alumni and former staff members. We hope you can join us and please spread the word!  Treat yourself to a ticket for a Christmas present :)

More details and tickets here:

https://www.dhsbalumni.com/shop

School Development Plan

Finally, you can find our School Development Plan update for the last term here

On behalf of everyone here at DHSB, we wish you season's greetings and all good wishes for the new year. We will look forward to welcoming our students back to school on Monday 5th January 2026!