DHSB Achieves the Gold Green Tree School Award

We are delighted to announce that DHSB has been awarded the Gold Green Tree School Award by the Woodland Trust - a fantastic achievement that reflects the creativity, commitment, and environmental leadership of our students and staff.  This milestone follows the hard work celebrated in our previous update, where Year 9 students made an impressive push towards Silver.  Since then, our whole school community has continued to embrace the challenge, deepening our engagement with nature, sustainability, and eco-focused learning across the curriculum.

The Gold Award marks the next step in a journey that began with our Year 9 students’ enthusiasm to promote trees and nature through cross-curricular activities in Careers and PSHE.  Their work set the tone for the rest of the year, inspiring further action throughout DHSB as we advanced through the Woodland Trust’s programme.  To reach Gold, students and staff expanded their tree-themed efforts, drawing on subject expertise to create meaningful, curriculum-linked experiences that promoted both environmental understanding and eco-careers across the South West.

Achieving the Gold Award is a proud moment, and one that recognises the dedication of everyone involved - especially our students, whose passion for the environment continues to make a real difference. But the journey doesn’t end here. DHSB is now setting its sights on the Platinum Green Tree School Award, and plans are already underway for the next stage, including further community outreach, student-led environmental initiatives, and even more cross-curricular projects that celebrate and protect our natural environment.  Miss Taylor is working with Mr Scott on a new Climate Change Education (CCE) unit for PSHE next year too!

Congratulations to all students and staff who contributed to this outstanding achievement.

Mr Scott & Mrs Flack

Visit by Luke Pollard MP

It was wonderful to be able to welcome Luke Pollard MP to the school on Monday morning to talk to our budding politicians. Luke is always good value with insights into both the role of an MP and the pressures of being a Government Minister in a very unstable period in world affairs. Luke's passion for Plymouth shone through in the face of a wide range of informed and challenging questions from the DHSB students. Since 2025 he has been Minister of state for defence readiness & Industry and it was fascinating to hear about the threats to UK security from foreign regimes like Russia and China. He also talked about the importance of being able to work with other local MPs to benefit Plymouth and we hope to have our local Conservative and Lib Dem MPs visit us in the near future. 

Mr Macleod

Teacher of Politics

Model United Nations Simulation

Last Saturday, 14 members of year 12 and 13 were up at the crack of dawn to drive to Queens College, Taunton to take part in a Model United Nations (MUN) simulation with students from 35 schools across Bristol and the South West. Each school had been allocated countries to represent in 8 hours of debates across issues as diverse as advancing sustainable development goals, world hunger and climate change, regulation of AI in military applications, the war in Ukraine, child workers rights, the Israel/Palestine conflict and the world obesity crisis.

Students spent most of the day negotiating with the other countries in committees to produce resolutions which were then debated in a General Assembly with all 450 representatives in the afternoon. In negotiation they were not allowed to express their own view but had to represent the policies of their allocated country which took a lot of detailed prep in advance of the conference. DHSB were allocated Angola and, brilliantly, North Korea! A rogue state which allowed the more theatrical members of the group to disrupt proceedings with references to 'The Supreme Leader' as well as some pretty cool dark glasses!

None of the students had taken part in an MUN before and it takes a lot of nerve to speak in front of 450 experienced students in the role of a foreign Government but they did brilliantly and 2 DHSB students were given awards for their contributions during the day in the closing ceremony. These were chosen by the committee chairs for outstanding contributions to debate... Rocky Travers was commended for his representation of the views of Angola and Barnaby Hunt was awarded Highly commended for representing the views of North Korea.

Hopefully this will be the first of many such conferences available to DHSB students and thanks must go to the PTFA for kindly sponsoring the students participation. The PTFA provided ‘seed funding’ (rather than just paying for the students to go away), with the expectation that the experience will inspire the students to organise things in the school, so their funding should be seen as an investment rather than a gift!

Physics Challenge

Congratulations to all our participants in the Exeter Maths School Physics Challenge who clearly really enjoyed working together in a day full of super-hard physics problems and practical challenges competing against 21 teams from across the south-west. 

Both teams performed impressively with Tom de Wilde, Leo Grieve, Ben Urbans and Tom Rickard taking the overall win and Caleb Caleshu, Iwan Sanders, Luke Madgett and Rohan Linden winning the Estimations round.

Below are a couple of their answers for ‘how many AAA batteries would be required to power a jumbo jet?’ and ‘what hoof pressure would be needed for a cow to jump over the moon?’

Mr Adams

Deputy Headteacher - Quality, Learning and Achievement

RNAS Yeovilton Careers Trip

Earlier this week, fifteen students from Years 10 and 12 had the exciting opportunity to visit RNAS Yeovilton for a careers-focused day designed to provide an insight into the Royal Navy within a Recruit & Attract framework.

The day began with students arriving at the Pavilion where they were welcomed and briefed on the schedule ahead. Shortly afterwards the group headed to the Fleet Air Arm Museum for a fascinating look at naval aviation history. Highlights included seeing a range of iconic aircraft up close - most notably Concorde, which captured everyone’s attention - especially how small it felt inside.

After exploring the museum, students returned to the Pavilion to enjoy lunch and reflect on what they had learned so far. The afternoon took them deeper into the world of naval careers, with a careers talk delivered by the Commando Helicopter Force (CHF). This session offered valuable insight into the wide variety of roles within the Royal Navy, the skills required, and the pathways available for young people considering a future in defence, engineering, aviation, or military service.

The visit concluded in the afternoon leaving students inspired, informed, and enthusiastic about potential career paths they may not have previously considered before a long drive back to Plymouth.

This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to broaden their horizons, discover new possibilities, and gain first-hand understanding of life within one of the UK’s key military organisations.

Many thanks to the staff at RNAS Yeovilton for hosting us, and to Miss Jensen for organising the trip.

Mr Manley

Assistant Head - Behaviour and Student Support

"I'm sharing some creative pieces with you from my Year 12 English Literature tasks for the weekly blog. Oscar produced a moving letter inspired by the novel 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan, capturing the main events, themes and symbolism in the novel. Izzy designed a newspaper style informative analysis of her novel of choice for independent reading, 'Trespasses' by Louise Kennedy, set during the Northern Ireland Troubles. Leonie and Parya

wrote poems inspired by Margaret Arwood's dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale', exemplifying the oppressive regimes the women are under."

Mrs Charlton

Teacher of English/ Second in Department/KS4 Lead

STEAM/STEM News

Excellent Work

Mr Spencer, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Coordinator, shared this game which Year 9 student, Rhys Davies, coded in Computer Science. The game chooses a random number from 1 to 1000, and asks you to guess it. It will tell you to guess higher or lower, and once you guess it, it will congratulate you and tell you how many guesses it took.

Well done, Rhys!

Industrial Cadets News

Last week our Industrial Cadets Gold award conducted a site visit to Schneider Electric (based in Southway) to meet their project mentor. The Gold award consists of a 6 month engineering project, in conjunction with an industry partner, to solve a STEM-related project within their company. Five year 12's have signed up, and I look forward to seeing their project.

Our Industrial Cadets Bronze award attended their virtual launch event this Tuesday. Their 12 week project involves choosing from four project briefs including building a sustainable school on an island setting, and designing and building sustainable buildings to survive climate change. Our group of eleven year 8 students is our biggest turnout for this project since we started! Both groups will also be working in conjunction with Schneider Electric and will meet their mentors next week!

Mr Spencer

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Coordinator

Rocket Club

This week in Rocket Club, run by Year 12 student Luke Madgett and supervised by Dr. Chapman-Greig and Mr Granville-West, the students were testing out their first attempt at a paper rocket powered by gas pressure. The challenge set was to build a rocket that launches the highest. They were calculating the height through the use of single and double observer trigonometry using clinometers to measure the angle and tape measures to measure the base distance. We set the Psi at 60 but other parameters were flexible including the number of fins.

The winning rocket can be seen in the image below.

Mr Spencer

Teacher of Science, KS3 Science Coordinator &

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Coordinator

Dan Moulding (Year 11) and Ed Lee (Year 10) have been selected for the 29er UK Class Development Squad 2025/2026. Selection was based on their "excellent performance and attitude at the indicator events".

Edward also came 8th in the National Championships and won a race in the World Championships!

Well done, Dan and Ed!

Ethan Stewart, Year 8, competed at the Western Area Regional Schools competition at Kingsley College. He was representing DHSB and brought home Silver and secured his place at the 2026 National Schools Championship!

Well done, Ethan!

Year 9 students Euan Greenfield and Zac Adams took part in the Water Polo Under 15’s National Championships in Manchester, last weekend.

Scoring over 10 goals between them, they helped their team Newton Abbot, into a top ten position in the Country, and won six out of the eight games they played against very strong national competition.

Well done Euan and Zac!

Festive Cheer!

Well done to our performers in VPXG who sang at Chaplins Superstore last Sunday.

You can catch the group who will be singing a selection of Christmas songs at events around Plymouth including:

• Winter Wonderland, Central Park 6.30pm Tuesday 25 November

• Plymouth Christmas Markets, Plymouth City Centre 5.00pm Friday 28 November

• Winstones - Kitley Farm, Yealmpton 1.00pm Saturday 6 December

• Winter Wonderland, Central Park 6.30pm Tuesday 9 December and Thursday 11 December

• Abbey Hall (behind St Andrews Church), City Centre after St Lukes Light a Life Services 4.00pm 6.00pm, 8.00pm Tuesday 16 December

Sparx Maths and Sparx Reader

Each week we celebrate our highest performers in both Sparx Maths and Sparx Reader, two of our core homework platforms. We are proud of all of our students who complete their homework each week to such a high standard but these students deserve a special mention.

Congratulations!

Sports News and Updates

Rugby

The Year 10 Rugby team lost to a strong Plymouth college team on Tuesday but scored five great tries and never gave up! 

Badminton

This week the U19s won their Badminton match against Hele's School and the U16s won both their games beating Plympton Academy and Hele's School!

Great Badminton was played by all!

Plymouth and West Devon Schools Cross Country

DHSB entered a team of 27 students in the Plymouth and West Devon Schools Cross Country championships on the 13th November. All competing showed great determination with lots of brilliant performances. Lara finished 3rd in the senior girls, with our intermediate boys placing 3rd as a team in their event. In the junior boys category, Tristan finished 2nd and the team won their category as a result. Meanwhile in year 7, Alfie placed 4th and the team finished 2nd overall.

Well done all!

Year 8 Basketball

At the first night of the Central Venue Basketball matches, the Year 8 team were beaten in a close game to Torbridge and then won their second game of the evening, against Stoke.

Well done to those who were involved!

Year 8 Football

The Year 8 Football team had an excellent win in the 4th Round National Cup game away at Exmouth on Wednesday. The score line see-sawed between the two teams but DHSB managed to win it 3-2 in extra-time with a great goal from Noah D.

A brilliant game from both teams!

DHSB Christmas Concert

You are warmly invited to join us for a magical evening of Seasonal Music from our wide range of ensembles across the school, at 7pm on Wednesday 17 December in the Edgcumbe Theatre.

Our PTFA will be running a mulled wine and drinks bar, from 6-7pm.

Tickets cost £4.00 for an adult and £3.00 for a child and can be purchased by following this link.

See you there!

Amnesty International Write for Rights

Amnesty International  (a global human rights charity) has started its Write for Rights campaign and would love your support.

Write for Rights is an annual campaign where you can write a letter to a choice of eight people who have had their basic human rights abused. You can write to either the perpetrators of the abuse (usually the government) or a letter of compassion to the victim. Don't worry if you're not good at writing, they would also love drawings.

This link has a bit more information but if you have any questions please feel free to email them or Mr Macleod.

Protecting our human rights is so important, especially in our current climate so I hope you can help out.

Thank you so much.

Mr Macleod

Teacher of Politics