During the Easter holidays we received the sad news of the death of HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh.
We feel honoured that Prince Philip visited the school in 1961 when he met students taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, founded in 1956.
It is very positive to see so many years later that Prince Philip’s legacy continues; last weekend Year 10 students were taking part in their practice bronze expedition and we have more students out this weekend.
Mr Huq said, “ Year 10 students are finally able to catch up with their bronze expedition. Well done to the five teams who completed their assessment this weekend”.
Whole School Assembly
Our assembly this week focussed on Public Sexual Harassment and the tragic death of Sarah Everard. We explored how street harassment continues to be an issue in the UK, and around the world and how our community can make a difference and contribute positively to society.
Our students engaged extremely positively and discussed the impact of unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances and intimidating behaviour and thought about how the current situation can be improved.
Student News
Very well done to Rick and Tom de Wilde, 10S and 8S, who completed a five day dinghy sailing course at Mount Batten Watersports Centre during the Easter break.
They achieved Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the Royal Yachting Association Youth Sailing Scheme. They not only had great fun but also developed their stamina in very cold, windy and wet conditions.
Excellent Work
7E students have been learning how to write a great ghost story over the past half term. Mrs Delve and Mrs Johnson have been impressed with the way the whole class coped with remote learning and are thrilled with the outcomes.
Mrs Delve and Mrs Johnson have shared seven stories which were selected by the class as very good. The seven winners were: Harry Worrell, Jack Garcia, Illias Giannapolis, James Brinkworth, Oliver Brumpton, Francesco Massaiu and Harry McColloch.
Please click on the links to read the stories and prepare to be scared!
PSHEE Activities
In their PSHEE and Careers tutorial this week, Year 7 students continued with session three of their Emotional Logic series, this week looking at Identifying losses and relating these to emotional "stepping stones".
Year 8 students considered the power of kindness, and thought about loneliness and how they could support someone who was lonely, or recognise and take action for themselves.
Year 9 students began their last two sessions working on the Employer Challenge, so that we can submit their finished films to Babcock, Princess Yachts and Bailey Architects at the end of this month for feedback.
Year 10 students had a fascinating live virtual presentation by the company Medical Mavericks when they watched live demonstrations of various bits of medical equipment such as ultrasound, and also learned more about some of the specific medical roles that use them.
Year 11 students caught up with the whole school assembly on Equality from Wednesday as they were busy attending the virtual Skills Show during Wednesday's lesson, researching different routes, employers, universities etc. They are busy over the next few weeks with exam assessments, but will have a couple of visiting speakers that had to be postponed during Covid closure.
Ms Moreton
PTFA Update
Mrs Kinsella has asked me to remind you about the annual fundraising raffle and other PTFA initiatives.
Please read her update here:-
Tickets for the annual raffle cost £1.00 each and for £10.00 you will get 15. There are some great cash prizes and an Amazon Echo Show 8 to be won. Please support us if you can. Tickets are available to buy on WisePay.
We are also running an online music quiz. This costs £5.00 to participate and is done in your own time before the deadline. It comprises of a 15 minute video with 5 second music snippets. All you need to do is guess the song title and artist.
The winner will receive 25% of the proceeds as their prize and two runners up will receive one of our lovely new leak proof DHSB travel mugs.
If you would like to take part, please email ptfa@dhsb.org. I will then send you the PTFA bank account details to pay and you will receive the link. My thanks to our friends from the PTFA at Plymouth High School for sharing this with us.
As you are aware we have had to cancel all of our fundraising events so we would appreciate any support you are able to give.
Just for your information, an email was sent to all students before Easter with details of our photography competition. We will choose 12 winners to feature in the popular PTFA Academic Calendar which will be available to purchase in the summer.
Thank you to those who came to our last PTFA meeting. Our next one, by Zoom, will be on the 12 May at 6.00pm - it would be lovely to see you there.
Any questions please email me at ptfa@dhsb.org
Beverley Kinsella
PTFA Liaison and Alumni Coordinator