I’m very proud of our staff and students and this week there are an incredible range of achievements to share with you.
I would also like to draw your attention to the update on our progress towards our school development priorities which can be found at the foot of this Blog.
I attended the opening performance of The Tempest on Tuesday evening and was very impressed with the talent and skill not only of the cast but the whole production team.
Here are just a few of the comments we’ve received:-
‘Well done everybody. Really enjoyed this’
‘Amazing performance of The Tempest tonight. Well done to all concerned, some fantastic performances and stars in the making’
‘This evening’s student led performance of The Tempest was a triumph. I’m so proud for, and impressed by, you all. Bravo’
The Tempest photos by Tahmid Ahmad
Alumni
Ms Moreton would like to invite any recent alumni who are in Plymouth for the Easter break to come into school to talk to current students about university choices on 31 March 2017.
Please contact her at sue.moreton@dhsb.org
British Biology Olympiad
The British Biology Olympiad (BBO) is a competition run by the Royal Society of Biology.
The competition is open to students around the world and challenges those with an interest in Biology to expand and extend their talents.
This year our students have been enormously successful in this competition with five students, Regan Lee, Ellie Harding, Joshua Porter, Rueben Martin, Madeleine Lee, achieving Gold.
Mr Widdecombe said, “This is a tremendous achievement as only 6% of students who take part are awarded Gold”.
Four students also obtained Silver, Molly Mees, Luke McMullan, George Soper and Jack Tucker, which is also an excellent achievement.
Regan Lee and Ellie Harding, having been awarded high Gold passes, were selected to advance through to round two, competing for a place in the national UK final. In this round Regan Lee was placed in the top 16 and has been successful in securing a place. He will be competing for a place in the International Biology Olympiad.
Excellent Work
This week I would like to highlight some Year 7 artwork from Mr Head.
The project was called ‘Remastered’. Students were given the task of reinventing famous works of art using just squares. A few various apps were used such as Piskel, Pixil and Google sheets.
Mr Head said, “This was a difficult task requiring imagination as well as technical prowess”.
Amazing Spaces – Digital Project
Also producing excellent work are our Digital Leaders and some primary pupils they are working with.
Mr Butcher said, “40 Year 5 students from Stoke Damerel Primary visited us last week and quickly got to grips with our network system and new pieces of software. Their curriculum theme for this term has been geographical amazing spaces, and they soon found out how big the World Wide Web is. Next, they used a gadget from the Code Academy to take a body of text and squeeze it to be as small as possible. The principles and reasons for data compression clearly understood. Our digital leaders will be using encryption at the centre of their next session with the Year 5 students”.
Sports Update
National Schools Sevens Tournament
Many congratulations to our U13 and U16 teams who competed at the Rosslyn Park National 7s Rugby Tournament in London.
Mr Strang said, “Over 270 schools took part in the competition with our U13 playing some fantastic rugby to win all five of their games. The squad has trained every week since September and should be congratulated on their outstanding performance. By winning all of their games DHSB is placed as one of the best 7 aside school teams in the country.
Mr Orkney added, “One of our greatest rugby days and the best since the national cup quarter-final. Well done students and staff”.
The U16 team also played extremely well but faced some tough competition and didn’t make it through to the knockout rounds this year.
Football
Our Year 7 football team beat Coombe Dean 3 – 1 and Heles 2 – 0 with some excellent football and cracking goals at the central venue competition this week.
Also, it was a fantastic day on Wednesday for the 1st XI side who beat top of the league Dartmouth 5 – 1. This puts both teams on 24 points.
Hockey
Well done to the following students who took medals in the Plymouth 7s and the Devon 7s competitions.
A squad – First place in both competitions (Fred Williams, Oscar Burnard, Tom Doyle, Sean Rump)
B squad – Second place in the Plymouth 7s and third place in the Devon 7s (Seb Ingham, Harrison Houlberg, Charlie Mountain)
The boys play for the Plymouth Marjon U14 team and have recently qualified for the regional finals which will be hosted at MarJon at the weekend.
Topping the group would send the team to the National Finals at the Olympic Park in May.
Swimming
Congratulations also to two teams of DHSB students who represented the school at the Devonport Royal School swimming gala earlier in March. We also teamed with DHSG to create two mixed relay teams.
A Team – Cameron Williams, Finn Washburn, Sonny Davies and Thomas Suckling B Team – Samuel Hughes, Henry Macdonald, Adam Greep, Finn Washburn
The A team came second to Plymouth College in the boys 4 x 50m freestyle relay.
Additionally Cameron Williams represented DHSB at a national swimming competition. He travelled to Liverpool International Swimming Pool to swim in the ESSA (English Schools Swimming Association) Inter-Divisional Championships
He was selected by the South West region to swim as part of the Junior Boys 4 x 100m freestyle relay. The team finished second overall and received an ESSA silver medal.