With the cancellation of the Ten Tors Event again this year the organisers offered schools an opportunity to plan their own activities.
The Ten Tors website says the intention is to keep the Ten Tors flame burning brightly and provide young people with the chance to again enjoy, experience and learn about the wonders of our wild open spaces.
Many congratulations to all the DHSB students who completed their own Ten Tors Challenge last weekend and any thanks to Mr Ames, Mr Clifford, Ms Davidson, Ms Hunns and Ms Trower who supported the challenge.
Mr Clifford has written this report.
Against all the odds and with little training undertaken owing to the ongoing Covid restrictions Ten Tors 2021 got underway for all our DHSB teams.
Visibility or lack of it was to test our teams’ discipline to navigate in very testing conditions throughout the day, trusting in their map and compass when in total white out conditions when unable to use and see landmarks and features on the ground.
There were some great examples of leadership, teamwork and resilience out on the moors all carried out whilst maintaining a sense of purpose and humour which was needed during the afternoon where almost all the teams finished in monsoon weather conditions.
Dartmoor at her best!
The Ten Tors training team wish to congratulate each and every team member who have well and truly earned their Ten Tors 2021 medals in what has been a difficult and challenging 12 months.
Here’s to Ten Tors 2022!
Mr Ames added "The 55 mile teams were from Year 12 and completed 35Km. The 45 mile team was from Year 11 and completed 30Km and the 35 mile teams were from Year 10 and completed 25Km.
55A
Alex Richardson - Leader, Tom Murrin, Ollie Carty, Rob Derry, Isaac Freeman-Wright, Rob Dorrington
55B
Jessica Floyd - Leader, Holly Smithson, Victoria Greenaway, Daisy Guilor, Megan Angell, Jessica Patterson
55C
Jude Pearson - Leader, Elliot Chapell, Charlie Sleeman, Archie Armstrong, Josh Hawkins
45
Will Goldstone - Leader, James Parsons, Arran Pannell, Tom Turner, Archie West
35A
Tom Brown - Leader, Sam Perkins, Ben Carty, Andrew Brodie, Jamie Fewings
35B
Rick De Wilde - Leader, Ben Richardson, Joe Summers, Schaefer Mann, Ted Wilkinson
Stop Press!
We're delighted to report that former student, David King, has been added to the athletics squad for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games following the acceptance of World Athletics ranking invitations. The announcement was made this morning.
Dave, who is a British Championships silver medallist, will join Andrew Pozzi in the men’s 110m hurdles.
This is a fantastic achievement; we wish Dave all the best and look forward to watching him compete in Tokyo.
Student News
Well done to Matthew Newton 11E who has been selected to compete in the triple jump event at the English Schools Athletics in Manchester in July. This places him in the top 16 athletics for this event in the country.
We wish Matthew all the best for the event and look forward to hearing about the competition.
Excellent Work
This week we are sharing more essays written by students for the annual Independent Schools Religoius Studies Association Theology, Philosophy and Religion essay competition.
Mrs Wardle and Miss Walker were delighted with the number and standard of entries and asked Mrs Nicholson to read, judge and provide feedback on all the submissions.
Well done to all the students who wrote these excellent essays.
PSHEE Activities
This week is not only the last week in June, but the final week of Pride month, which is dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ communities all around the world. To recognise this, our early morning tutor activities this week which normally focus on, for instance, numeracy and literacy, have had an LGBTQ+ theme.
Students have learned a little bit of the history, and been asked what "pride" means to them. They also learned some facts and figures, and took part in a gender identity quiz and crossword.
Finally this morning they completed the week by revisiting ideas on how to be an LGBTQ+ ally, such as challenging derogatory language, staying open minded, and doing their own research.
Do you know what the redesigned rainbow flag stands for?
See the answer to this at the foot of today’s Head’s Blog.
In their tutorial lesson this week, Year 7 students were learning about road safety, thinking about pedestrian and cyclist safety especially in and around the school grounds, while the Year 8 lesson was about Sexism. They considered images and traditional portrayals of male and female genders in the workplace, and how adverts had changed over recent years to reflect alterations in perceptions, as well as life expectations placed on girls and boys with the use of phrases such as "man up!"
Our Year 9 students had a presentation by Ms Davidson, Assistant Head Post-16, on aspirations, Sixth Form, university study and Oxbridge admissions. She was supported by Mr Tombs, Head of Psychology, who conducted an experiment to show how easily our goals and targets can be affected by others. Fascinating stuff!
Finally the Year 10 classes were reversed from last week with 10C, 10E and 10N looking at the science of sleep, and 10P, 10S and 10W learning about contraception and STIs from the terrific team at The Zone in Plymouth. Feedback last week was excellent from both students and tutors for an engaging and informative presentation.
Well that's it for another week - two and a half to go to complete this extremely odd school year. Weather still very mixed, but the sun is shining as I write, and is hopefully here to stay for a bit longer!
Ms Moreton
Proposed New Health and Wellbeing Centre
We’ve been asked to support a local engagement programme, being jointly run by the NHS and Plymouth City Council, on a proposed new health and wellbeing centre in the city.
The programme began at the end of May and continues to 4 July, with project partners keen to hear from local people about the services and facilities that could be included in the new centre.
More information
Plymouth City Council and the local NHS are working on plans for a new, purpose-built health, care and wellbeing centre in the west end of Plymouth, in the vicinity of Colin Campbell Court.
The West End Health and Wellbeing Centre would include a range of services, which could include outpatient services accessible to people across the city, all under one roof. The new building would not only provide a much-needed modern health and wellbeing facility, it would also help kick-start the regeneration of the area.
To have your say, please fill in a short survey at this link:-
To read more about the project, please use this link:-
Stoke Damerel Church Summer Fair
Our neighbours at Stoke Damerel Church have asked us to let you know that they are holding a Summer Fair tomorrow, with all Covid-19 safety guidlines in place.
And Finally
Do you know what the redesigned rainbow flag stands for?
I asked Ms Moreton for the answer to this question and she said, “The six stripes in the widely popularized rainbow flag of today each represent an idea that resonates with LGBTQ+ people: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for peace, and purple for spirit. The new colours added are black and brown representing people of colour; pink, baby blue and white represent trans people”.