It’s our first week back following the Easter break and already the school has been incredible busy, both in and out of the classroom.
Congratulations to our Young Enterprise team, LiNK, for winning the Best Business Award this week.
They finished ahead of all other Plymouth schools, and take their project through to the next round.
Mr Jenkins said, “Young Enterprise (YE) plays an important role by giving our KS5 students a great opportunity to continue the entrepreneurial spirit that we aim to ignite upon their arrival here in Year 7. We feel passionately that YE provides the chance for our students to develop their ability to take calculated risks and hone their team working skills all under the pressure of satisfying a board of shareholders. Our team this year, LiNK, has just been crowned the West Devon YE overall winners with separate awards for Innovation, Social Enterprise and Interview. Their product, a diary aimed at dementia suffers, has been recognised nationally by the Alzheimer’s Society and will be presented at their national conference next month. The group has been superbly supported by Laura Handley and Matthew Rashleigh from Babcock. The team will now go onto the regional finals at the start of May”.
The school has also been nominated for an award for the entrepreneurial spirit shown by our students by the Good Schools Guide magazine.
We’re very proud of the team’s project and achievement as we also are of our Engineering Education Scheme team who won an award for Contribution to Business at their celebration and assessment day on the last day of term before Easter. They missed out on the overall prize but performed very well and their final written report was also commended.
The team worked closely with engineers from UTC Aerospace on a device which would encourage/enforce the wearing of safety glasses in workshops and laboratory areas.
Excellent Work
I have several pieces of excellent work to share with you this week.
Mr Morris has nominated this animation by Finlay Morgan in 8P submitted for Business Enterprise. The task set was to create a one minute animation using any form of media (ensuring no copyright laws were broken). Finlay used stop motion with clay models and Lego which is very labour intensive as each shot needs to be moved slightly without disturbing the camera.
Mr Morris said, “For a Year 8 student to achieve this level of finish is an excellent achievement and shows dedication above that of his fellow students for this task”.
Miss Walker has submitted excellent work by Daniel Boyns and Jack Todd 7C who were asked to produce a token of remembrance to commemorate an inspirational leader.
Daniel’s was outstanding because he had an original idea and produced a radio that played a speech by Winston Churchill.
Jack created a beautiful piece of art and provided a detailed explanation to reflect upon the actions of Yusra Mardini.
Miss Walker added, “Both students demonstrated a thoughtful approach and presented their work to a high standard”.
500 Words
I’m also pleased to let you know that the work of two Year 8 students has been selected to go through to the next round of the BBC Radio 2 500 words competition.
Please take a moment to read their stories at these links.
The Boy in the Mirror – Ben Bracey 8E
Linus Wright and the Moonlit Murders – Lorcan Owen-Gibbons 8N
The Diana Award
Congratulations to Aled Griffiths who has been invited to be a judge for the national Diana Award. Well done Aled! We look forward to hearing more about what this involves.
Year 11 Photos
Tempest Photography was in school this week to take our annual Year 11 form photos. Students will have received information from Mr Martin about how to place an order for a photo.
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Update
Many students will be out this weekend taking part in both Silver and Bronze practice expeditions.
Fundraising
Mrs Green sold cakes this morning and during lunchtime to raise money for St Luke’s Hospice. The total raised was just over £100 and this will be donated to St Luke’s via her family who are taking part in the London Marathon on Sunday. Their combined sponsorship total is £5777.26.
Easter Break
DHSB students and staff were also very busy during the Easter break with activities including a ski trip to Bormio, a practice Gold DofE expedition and Ten Tors training, as well as GCSE revision workshops.
Well done to Jack Carroll who was part of a Plymouth Raiders team who claimed victory at the Easter Eurobasket tournament held in Prague.
Mr Orkney and Mr Burt both commented that it was great to see five DHSB students in the Devon U15 Rugby team which played Cornwall last weekend.
Thank you to all staff who gave up their time to ensure all these Easter activities took place successfully and safely.
Alumni News
Many congratulations to Maurice West, an old boy of the school and long-term Governor, who was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Herald Business Awards last evening.
We’ve recently received some images from a former student and I thought you’d like to see the similarities between these two photos, taken in c1950 and 2018.
Future Events
21 April – PTFA theme park trip to Alton Towers
26 – 27 April – Year 11 GCSE Art exam
27 April – Year 8 report
28 April – PTFA trip to Bath
7 May – Bank Holiday (school closed)
8 – 11 May – Year 9 exam week
8 – 11 May – Year 12 exam week
9 May – PTFA meeting
11 – 13 May – Ten Tors Challenge