The sun shone on Year 13 students on the first day of their exams (and their last day gathered together at school) on Wednesday and we enjoyed their cheer and delight in scrolling through their Year 7 photos as well as their company for several last lessons and brunch together .

We wish them all success in their endeavours and look forward to 13 Sept when we hope they will join us for a celebration event before they head out independently to new adventures.

It's important to remember that where there may not be continuity for us in classes and form groups, there are strong relationships that carry significant weight in other contexts for our maturing young people. The huge cheer acknowledging thanks to Numa Rahman from the catering team in the leavers assembly is super evidence of the regard that our students hold for everyone in our community who contributes so positively to their wellbeing.

To the Year 13 form tutors we also say, 'Thanks a million for all your influence,and consistency, kindness, patience, tolerance, humour, and wisdom'.

Ms Davidson

Sixth Form Enrichment and Tutorial

Year 12 covered workshops and presentations on 'Decision-making' and the need to give time and effort to planning their next steps. We are grateful for the input from Judy Kay from Careers South West and also from Ms Wilkinson, Mr Burt and Unifrog.

DofE News

Last Friday saw the Silver DofE cycling and walking teams take part in their practice expeditions.

The cycling group set off, with panniers packed, from Dynamic Adventures in Dartington; returning both nights to Dynamic Adventures to stay before embarking on more expeditions during Saturday and Sunday.

Feedback from Dynamic Adventures was that they were a lovely bunch of students.

The walking groups started their expedition from Plym Valley Railway spending two nights wild camping at Nun’s Cross and then Riverside before finishing on Sunday at Widdecombe on the Moor.

The weather during the weekend was kind to them with more positive feedback from Dynamic Adventures.

Everyone is looking forward to the assessed expedition in June.

Pictured here are groups of students taking part in their bronze practice expedition the previous weekend.

Mrs Huq

Student News

Congratulations to Will Wooller 11N and Chris Wooller 10N who took part in the Sea Cadet South West area band competition last weekend, competing against bands from Birmingham to Bridgwater and into Cornwall.

This is a hugely skilled discipline that requires individual ability and musicianship as well as excellent teamwork and collaborative working.

Will and Chris had a massively successful day, where they were in the best band overall winning best band, best arena display and best dressed band.

Individually they also did well. Will won the best solo musician category, and Chris won best drum major and was placed fifth in the individual musician category.

Student News

Mrs Burdon has shared that The Box in Plymouth launched a young person’s drawing competition with the overall theme of ‘For the Joy of Drawing’.

We are delighted that two students from DHSB had winning entries - Reuben Keeling 7W and Victoria Meeson 13KES.

Many congratulations - their work will be displayed at The Box during 2023.

STEAM News

This week's STEAM blog post is by Jack Benzie 10E who has written about his time as a mechanic with DHSB Team Avanti and the competitions the team has participated in, including the international final of the F24 electric car competition held at Goodwood.

The Greenpower car competition is a national competition that allows secondary schools to build and race their very own electric cars. Our car was built from scratch and it has been handed down throughout the years to different drivers and mechanics. I was lucky enough to be one of those mechanics. To become 1 of the 4 mechanics we all were chosen by our D.T teachers and we also have 4 drivers that race the car. These are normally Year 7 students who are light and easy to get in and out of the car in a pit stop.

As mechanics we began meeting once a week at lunchtime to begin improving the car after the long break with COVID. The car hadn't been raced in over 2 years and some of the parts had become worn down and seized up; the first few weeks were spent going over the car and looking for any obvious faults that we could see. After that we began looking at improving the overall power output of the batteries to the car…

Read more here

Junior Maths Challenge

Thank you to Mrs Wills who has given us these highlights from this year’s Junior Maths Challenge.

Samuel John 7S gained Gold, Andrew Banciu 7E gained a Gold certificate and Best in Year.

Oscar Mohammed 8C, Neel Shivane 8P, Stanley Kingdom 8S, Ayden Small 8W all gained Gold, whilst Arley Walker 8W gained Gold and Best in School.

Andrew Banciu, Neel Shivane, and Oscar Mohammed have been invited to take part in the Junior Kangaroo in June, whilst Arley achieved highly enough to be invited to the Junior Mathematical Olympiad.

Mrs Wills said, “We are really proud of all 38 students who took part”,

Creative Arts Update

Musical Theatre Workshop - Last few places available!

Our singing teacher, Cameron Mills, has organised the current director from the West End production of Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera to provide a workshop on Tuesday 23 May from 3.30pm - 5.00pm in the Sixth Form Centre. This is an incredible opportunity for our school, not offered to any other in the city,and particularly relevant for anyone moving in the direction of Musical Theatre in future career ideas. There are only a few places left, to sign up, find ‘Musical Theatre Masterclass’ on MCAS. Hurry!

PTFA - alumni visit

The Vocal Performance Group were treated to an afternoon with Mike Dixon who has worked in the West End and on large productions with a glittering array of stars for many years. He came to school to talk about his experiences and encourage our young musicians - pictured here with Mike.

Thanks to Mrs Kinsella for arranging this visit,

Samba at City College

Year 10 students are in workshops this and next week learning traditional Samba drumming with master of the art, Colin Seddon. Pictured below are half our Year 10 GCSE Musicians enjoying this practical workshop at the City College Creative Arts department.

Congratulations

Well done to Will Wooller and Chris Wooller for their achievements in music last weekend (pictured above in student news).

Well done also to the following students in their music exams:

Isaac Dent - Grade 3 Guitar - Merit

Hugo Nguyen - Grade 2 Guitar - Merit

Oliver Broughton - Grade 3 Piano - Distinction

Dates for the diary

26 May - pop up music event in Refuel - open to all students at lunchtime

22 June - Classical recital evening - ticket only - Grade 5+ players

14 July - Summer festival - in school - band stage

Instrumental lessons

If you are interested in starting lessons in September, here is the form. Please note our singing, guitar, drums and bass lessons are full for this term.

Copy of instrumental music lessons form

PSHEE Activities

The Year 7 lesson this week looked at the issue of Fairtrade, using a bunch of bananas to discuss fair payment for growers, suppliers, and supermarkets - would you/do you pay extra for goods with the Fairtrade logo? Why, or why not?

Year 8 students, following on from their study skills lesson last week, looked at the importance of resilience - also very useful with exams looming. They tried to define it, and also looked at ways to help develop this vital skill. How would you advise someone to bounce back after a disappointment? How could you help someone else - or yourself - to do this?

Year 9 students had a speaker from the Police, to talk about the use of drugs and County Lines distribution. It can be very easy to get sucked in by individuals who are expert at grooming and promising ever more rewards until you realise that you are indebted and cannot stop. It is important to stay aware of these scenarios and, to borrow a slogan which probably shows my age, 'Just say no'.

Year 10 students were looking at conspiracy theories as part of the Prevent strategy, and a group were also working with the Army Signals Corps on IT skills and investigations with Mr Scott.

Mr Scott said, “The Royals Signals team visited the school this morning to work with a group of 20 Year 10 students exploring the role the Army plays in countering cyber attacks across the United Kingdom and beyond. The students were led through a cyber detective challenge which aimed to highlight issues around the way social media companies such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram use their data, for good and for bad, and how they can protect themselves from their data being exploited. The students were really engaged and made links to their GCSE Computer Science course, particularly the unit around network security”.

Year 11 students are now in the thick of exams, although they attend normal lessons if not in an exam, focusing on revision of course.

One more reminder for them to ensure that they have plans in place for results day (24/8/23) - Plan A for hoped-for results and Plan B just in case.

A glimpse of the sun at the weekend - let's hope there is more to come, and more re the tutorial programme next week.

Ms Moreton

PTFA News

It's been busy for the PTFA this week! We've met some new Year 6 parents, held a meeting for the Alton Towers trip volunteers and got over 500 tickets printed for the Alton Towers trip on Saturday - approximately 500 students will be departing at 5.00am on 11 coaches!

A big thank you to PTFA Committee members Joanna, Melanie, Mike, Lianne, Sally and of course the volunteers.

We're looking forward to meeting more Year 6 parents next Wednesday.

Tickets are still on sale for our summer disco at Pryzm on 11 June. Follow this link to buy tickets:

https://www.dhsb.org/shop

The disco is open to students of DHSB, DHSG, PHSG, and their guests in years 7, 8 and 9.

Our last PTFA meeting is on 4 July at 6.00pm in the Conference Room (just to the right behind the Visitor Reception as you enter DHSB). We'd love you to join us. Refreshments supplied! Any questions please email ptfa@dhsb.org

Mrs Kinsella

Sports Update

Football

Firstly, an update from last week and huge congratulations to the Year 11 football team who won the Plymouth Cup with a score line of 3 - 1 against Coombe Dean in the final played on Friday afternoon.

Mr Manley said, “This was a fitting end to five brilliant years of football for our Year 11 team. Well done to everyone who played today and to everyone involved during their time at DHSB”.

Pictured are the Year 11 team after this week's victory and when they started at the school in Year 7.

In Sixth Form football, congratulations to our 1st XI team for winning the double after beating Plymouth Uni 4 - 3 in the league cup final this week.

Plymouth 5K

It was the Plymouth 5K last weekend and three students from DHSB did absolutely brilliantly. There were 296 runners, with 45 in the U20 category and the atmosphere at the race was fantastic with lots of support around the course.

In second place overall (first U20) was Ben Marriott 18:18.

In fourth place (third U20) was Dan Salmon 19:35

In twelfth place (fifth U20) was Freddie Blight 20:25.

All three students also represented their counties at the National Inter-County Cross Country Championships at Loughborough in March and have continued with their hard work in training.

Well done!

Cricket

Many congratulations to the U15 cricket team who have progressed through to the next round of the West Devon Softball Festival, to be held in Exeter.

Well done also to the U14 cricket side who beat a spirited Stoke Damerel CC this week in round one of the Devon Cup.

It was a good day yesterday at the U13 central cricket competition as the U13 team won their only fixture of the evening and the U12s won both of their matches.

Mr Campbell said, “It was a really strong team performance and all should be proud of how they played”.