I’m highlighting our Creative Arts this week with an invitation to our Christmas events.
Our Carol Service, with nine lessons and carols led by Year 7 students, will be held on Monday 16 December at St Andrew’s Church, Royal Parade at 7:00pm with the doors opening at 6:30pm.
Admission is free with no tickets required, and we are supporting Shekinah by asking for donations via this link or the QR code on our poster (we are unable to accept donations of cash either in school or at the Carol Service).
Funds raised will help Shekinah to support homeless people and provide shelter and care to families in poverty.
On Thursday 19 December we are staging our Christmas Concert at Stoke Damerel Church. Please buy your tickets for this event in advance by scanning the QR code on the poster below.
There will be mince pies and mulled wine from 6.00pm - 7.00pm with a relaxed performance for anyone with sensory needs, followed by lights down and the full performance from 7.00 pm - 8.00pm.
In addition our vocal group VPXG (Vocal Performance Christmas Group) and individual students are taking part in many events at many venues across Plymouth and the South West and you may see them when you are out and about Christmas shopping.
See the full schedule from Mrs Luing-Holmes at this link - we'd be delighted to receive your support.
Our A level musicians will be performing at the Christmas Live Lounge at the Bread and Roses in Ebrington Street on Monday 9 December from 7:00pm onwards.
Curriculum Challenge Week
Before our main Christmas events though, next week sees our annual Curriculum Challenge Week.
We wish all students and staff an enjoyable and safe week in all their various activities and visits.
Please check our special X hashtag each day for updates and photos - #DHSBCCW
Fundraising
This week has seen our wonderful House Captain Team in full charitable action with bake sales, hot chocolate stands, a penalty shoot out challenge and even a push up challenge for the competitive amongst us!
On Wednesday we saw Attenborough, Leslie and Windsor with their activities and today we had Fleming, Johnson, Scott and Turing with theirs.
The students were as generous as ever at getting involved with all on offer and there has been a truly charitable (and competitive) atmosphere on the colonnade this week.
Together students have raised over £307 for Children in Need.
Miss Cunningham said, "Amazing effort this week folks".
Student News
Many congratulations to two students who entered classes in the Plymouth Speech and Drama Festival this year.
Adit Sobti 8A won three awards and was placed first in public speaking, poetry reading and sight reading.
Dylan Gould 8F came second in set verse and was placed first and awarded gold medals in prose reading, sight reading, acting monologue and own composition verse.
Well done Adit and Dylan!
Also, very well done to James Kendall 7J who represented Devon in the Inter-County Squash Championships in Bristol last weekend, travelling as part of the U13 Devon A team.
James won his match against his opponent from Avon three games to two which helped Devon to place second in their draw. He is waiting to hear if Devon will progress to the national finals in Sheffield next year.
Congratulations James!
Congratulations to Neythen Powell-Jones 7S who took part in the Camborne Music Festival where he won best performer of the festival, beating many more experienced adults and younger people.
On top of this, he was placed first in several brass sections and won 'most promising player' and 'best brass'.
Well done Neythen!
Don't forget you can let us know what you have been doing by completing this form. I've enjoyed reading all your news and look forward to sharing more in future Head's Blogs.
Please complete this Google Form if you have something for me to include.
Excellent Work
Thank you to Miss Nally who has shared examples of Excellent Work this week from her Year 8 class.
She said, “Here are some examples of excellent work produced by members of 8T last term. Their English project was entitled 'Celebrating Diversity' and these examples of creative writing were all written in response to short stories written by authors about different cultures and experiences".
Miss Nally added, "We have a poem by Josh Hill, two stories about journeys by Ryan Block and Conrad Linden, and Rudra Chauhan's final assessment piece. Their classmates nominated them for excellent work and we hope you agree”.
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!
80 Acts of Social Good
This week in year group assemblies we talked about our new initiative in commemoration of the upcoming Holocaust Memorial Day.
Ahead of the citywide memorial and our whole school assembly in January we launched '80 Acts of Social Good' as our interpretation of the Holocaust Memorial Day theme which is 'for a better future'.
Students have been invited to contribute acts of social good which can be anything from helping a neighbour, to participating in a beach clean or making small changes to benefit the environment.
We are asking students to document any acts they carry out and share them with us. From this we will select students to represent us at the memorial service on 27 January 2025.
The students were all incredibly respectful and many have already signed up ready to contribute. We are really looking forward to learning about the ways in which our students engage with this.
A letter has been sent to parents and carers today with more details.
Miss Cunningham
Bite Back Project
This week we launched the Bite Back project to Year 8 students writes Mrs Parkes. This is a youth-led movement empowering students to take action against the deceptive tactics of the food industry. The project began with an assembly led by inspiring youth activists, introducing students to the hidden injustices in our food systems. Through a series of workshops, students will investigate food culture and collaborate with peers, teachers, and caterers to design solutions that prioritise student health.
After these initial sessions, a dedicated team of School Food Champions will take the lead, applying their new found knowledge of leadership, campaigning, and advocacy to drive meaningful change, both in school and local communities.
About the Bite Back Project - read more here
For further information about this exciting project at DHSB, please contact Mrs Parkes at claire.parkes@dhsb.org or visit https://www.biteback2030.com/
Let's work together to create a food system that supports the health and wellbeing of young people!
Mrs Parkes
PTFA Update
What a brilliant day Wednesday was!
In the morning several of us watched the online ceremony of the Parentkind National PTA Awards. We didn't win our category (Secondary/Post-Primary PTA of the Year) but we were delighted and very proud to come in the top three!
A big thank you to all of our committee members and volunteers - we really can't do it without you.
In the evening we had a great meeting. We were happy to approve two grants which were beautifully presented by Mrs Luing-Holmes, Mrs Wright and student Tom, totalling £2700.00.
Mrs Luing-Holmes' grant was to fund one year's work with the Plymouth Racial Equality Council Team and Mrs Wright's was to cover the costs of racing and to replace parts of the greenpower car to make it more efficient and 'lead us to victory'.
We also finalised details for the forthcoming Christmas disco. Ticket sales will close at midnight on Sunday 24 November or sooner should we reach capacity.
If you are able to help at any of our events, please submit the Google form linked below and we'll be in contact. Future dates are Thursday 19 December 2024 for the Christmas Concert at Stoke Damerel Church and 12 - 14 February 2025 for the school production of 'Into The Woods.'
These are all evening events and we will be providing the refreshments.
Finally, our AGM is on 11 December 2024 at 6.30pm. It will be ONLINE this year and we'd really appreciate it if you are able to join us as we need a quorum to be able to appoint our officers and committee. It will be a short meeting and more details will follow.
Please follow our social media for updates on forthcoming events:
X (formerly Twitter) @DHSBPTFA
Thank you.
Mrs Kinsella
PTFA Liaison
Alumni News
Technically not DHSB, however, some of you may know some ex-students of our former neighbours, Tamar High School, who would be interested to hear about a forthcoming reunion which we are hosting here - just in the Tamar half of course.
The reunion is being organised by former French teacher, Dave Padfield, who taught at the school from 1978, until it closed in 1990. I had the pleasure of meeting Dave when he visited DHSB recently. The photo shows him in his classroom and brought back great memories for him!
The event takes place on Saturday 29 March. It's an afternoon event starting at 12.30pm and tickets cost £20.00 which includes a buffet lunch and a tour of the school.
Click here for more details and tickets:
Thank you.
Mrs Kinsella
Sports News
Well done and congratulations to all students taking part in fixtures during another busy week for extracurricular sport and a big thank you to the staff members who lead these activities.
Football
The Year 8 football team progressed into the next round of the Plymouth Cup with a win over St Boniface. There was some great football on show from the students.
Mr Callicott said, “Well done to the Year 8 B team who won their match against Sir John Hunt with great performances from everyone”.
On Tuesday, the Year 9 football team secured a hard fought 1 - 0 victory over Stoke Damerel in the national cup, earning their place in the fourth round.
Mr Strang said, “ In a tightly contested match, as reflected by the narrow scoreline, Freddie Edwards delivered the decisive goal to seal the win. The team now eagerly anticipate their next challenge against St Boniface College in the upcoming round”.
Badminton
Students in the U16 badminton team were back in action this week with wins against Heles and Coombe Dean in the Plymouth Schools central venue league. Well done.
Basketball
Mr Manley reports two wins from two games for the Year 8 Basketball team this week.
Congratulations to the team!
And Mr Strang said the Year 9 basketball team beat Plymstock School 27 - 22 on Thursday to remain unbeaten in the league.
Well done to those involved.
Netball
Mr Orkney reports that the Cheetahs netball team was back in action on Wednesday with a narrow 11 - 8 defeat away to Plymouth High for Girls.
