As we reach the end of an eventful and successful term my Blog this week demonstrates how the school supports students and helps to develop their talents in a diverse range of areas.

City College Young Chef Team Challenge

Well done to our two Year 10 teams who competed against several local schools at the Young Chef Team Challenge this week. Team B students were awarded the prize for best starter. This is a very competitive challenge and this is a huge achievement for the boys.

Mrs Boon said, “The students were all fantastic and produced some amazing dishes”.

Team A George Allan, Joe Hocking and Tom Gyllenship

Team B Harry MacDonald, James Gregory and Sam Cade

Student Investor Challenge

In September 2015, 13 teams of four students from Years 9 to 13 signed up to take part in the National IFS Student Investor Challenge, writes Mrs Lilley,

Of those teams, one team from DHSB ‘Baron Rothschildren’ went through to the semi-finals, making it to the top quarter of finalists and narrowly missing out on an opportunity to go through to the final round with a chance to win a trip to New York.

The competition gave each team a virtual £200,000 which they had to invest evenly between the short term live stock market trades and the longer term strategic investments. The trading prices of all stocks and shares went live each day half an hour after the stock market opened so all students had equal access to information.

If you would like to take part next year, then listen out in assembly and come to the meeting with Mrs Lilley in September 2017.

Adam Southern, Jonathan Dunn, Cameron Hart and Stuart Foxcroft

Rotary Young Photographer of the Year

The theme of the competition this year, organised by Plympton Rotary Club, was ‘Our Beautiful World’.

The winning photos, including those by Alex Rapson, will be exhibited at the Brittany Ferries embarkation lounge until 13 April along with art work from other schools in the area. There were also DHSB entries from Fenn Leppard and Tahmid Ahmad.

You can see Alex’s three images here.

 Fallen Tree

Clover

Web

Most Able and Talented Event

Four Devonport Year 9 students took part in an all-day Most Able and Talented event hosted by Notre Dame School. Students explored translating skills and spontaneous speaking and were winners in the translating section.

The Link Partnership (TLP) is made up of five secondary schools in Plymouth (Devonport High School for Boys, Devonport High School for Girls, Eggbuckland Community College, Notre Dame Roman Catholic School and St. Boniface’s Roman Catholic College) who work closely together to facilitate student enrichment.

Students who took part were Som Bagchi, Ben Adams, Toby Leung and Kofi Bruce.

Galvanic Skin Response Devices in Psychology

Thank you to Mr Tombs for sharing what’s been happening recently in Sixth Form AS Psychology lessons.

This week, AS Psychology students have been using Galvanic Skin Response devices loaned to us by Plymouth University School of Psychology. The devices detect changes in the conductivity of the skin due to perspiration and can be used to detect whether someone is lying.

Students devised an experimental condition to test against a standard condition. The standard condition is based on a lie about whether an image shows a fruit or a vegetable. This had been developed by some of last year’s AS students.

Some groups tried varying the type of image shown. One group investigated the possible effect of the time images were shown on how easy it is to detect a lie. Another investigated the effect of lying to a researcher of the same or different gender. No significant effects were found but the ground was laid for developing and testing further hypotheses.

Thank you to Dr Jeremy Goslin from Plymouth University for managing and developing this project and to Mr Forte and Mr Shahin for their technical support.

Mr Tombs concluded, “Thank you also to the AS Psychology students for showing what is possible and for rising to the challenge”.

DHSB Today

I’m pleased to be able to share the electronic version of our recent school newsletter with even more examples of student interests and achievements.

PTFA Easter Raffle

Thank you to the PTFA who organised the annual Easter Raffle and raised £1772.28, the best-ever grand total profit.

Thanks also to parents and students for their support, especially those students who kept asking for extra tickets to sell. We hope the lucky winners enjoy their prizes and tasty Easter eggs.

Ben Harding is pictured drawing the winning tickets

Sports Update

Students receive national call up

Special congratulations to two of our Ultimate players, Oscar Parsons and Oscar Payne, selected for the Great Britain U17 team competing in the European Championships in Belgium this summer.

With Thomas Ringrose making the U20 squad for the World Championships DHSB has three international players again this year. Well done all.

 Oscar Payne and Thomas Ringrose are pictured from the left on the back row

Oscar Parsons is first left on the front row

Marjon Festival of School Sport

Earlier this week a group of 28 students from Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in the Festival of School Sport hosted at Marjons. The purpose of the event was to offer students across the city the opportunity to try sporting activities that they may not ordinarily get the chance to take part in. A total of ten different activities were on offer for the boys including invasion games, netball, water polo, mountain biking, futsal, badminton, cricket, lacrosse, street dance and climbing.

Mr Carpenter said, “Over the course of the day our boys gave a great effort and brought back a substantial medal haul as reward for their performances”.

Football

Mr Bunney reports the Year 8 football team finished the season this week with a 3 – 0 win over Hele’s.

He said it was, “A brilliant performance”.

Staff News

Last weekend Mr Huq, Mr Burt and Mr Strang took part in the Plymouth Men’s Day Out, collecting £150 in sponsorship for St Luke’s Hospice.

Their route took them past our school entrance.

Future Events

24 March – Final day of the Spring term

11 April – First day of the Summer term (A week)

Saturday 14 May – PTFA Coach Trip to Bath

Why not join our PTFA on their day out in Bath.

Visit the Roman Baths, take a trip down the River Avon, browse around the fabulous independent shops, visit the Art Gallery, simply sit and enjoy a tasty meal at one of the lovely eateries…