Leadership at Devonport High School for Boys is in safe hands this academic year, following the exceptional response to our recent Senior Prefect recruitment drive. An impressive 115 Year 12 students have grabbed the opportunity by the horns, stepping up to join our well-respected student leadership team.

The new cohort hit the ground running, making their initial commitment by giving up their time to support our recent Saturday morning 11+ events; welcoming families, guiding visitors, and representing the best of DHSB.

Looking ahead, these student leaders will play an integral role in the daily life and spirit of our school. Their ongoing responsibilities will include key weekly supervision duties, as well as providing vital support at major whole-school events throughout the year, including Open Evenings, Key Stage transition events, and charity drives.

Miss Cunningham, Head of Houses and Community, expressed her pride in the cohort:

"We are extraordinarily proud of the appetite for leadership shown by our new Year 12s. Taking on a Senior Prefect role requires dedication, reliability, and a genuine desire to give back to the school community. To see 115 students step forward so eagerly sets a fantastic precedent for the year ahead."

Congratulations to all of our newly appointed Senior Prefects. We look forward to seeing the positive impact you will undoubtedly make across our school community!

Celebrating ‘Dolly Parton Day’ at DHSB: Honouring a Global Literacy Champion

It has been an exciting week around reading at DHSB as we have been celebrating our first ever ‘Dolly Parton Day’ as part of our DHSB Year of Reading. We joined an increasing number of schools and communities in Britain and across the world to celebrate Dolly Parton and her rich legacy on a day which holds special significance as 25th September (9/25), is a clever nod to one of Parton’s most famous hits, 9 to 5.

Whilst many recognise Dolly Parton as a global superstar, singer, songwriter, and actor we reflected on her legacy as a champion for children’s literacy and reading. Dolly Parton was aware of the challenges faced by those who were unable to read or write, including her own father. She decided to use her position and finances to help children raise their aspirations through reading with the Dollywood Foundation and, later on, the Imagination Library. To date, this inspiring charity has gifted over 330 million free books worldwide, including over 6 million in the UK.

At DHSB, our English Department took the lead in bringing Dolly’s vision to life for our students. Students spent time during tutorial learning about Dolly Parton's life, her dedication to philanthropy, and her impact as a literacy ambassador. In English lessons Year 7 and 8 students used Dolly Parton’s song ‘The Coat of Many Colours’ to inspire their creative writing about how an ordinary object can inspire an extraordinary story. The final event of a busy day was a fun, themed reading quiz at lunchtime in the Learning Commons. Rounds included such varied aspects as matching characters from teen fiction to their locations and the challenge of ‘What would Dolly do’ scenarios? We were all impressed by how much the competitors knew about Dolly Parton and teen fiction! Congratulations to the team of Year 9 students called ‘Les Biggies’ who were worthy winners, pipping ‘The Jolenes’ to the winning spot. Kudos also to the Reception staff who came 3rd.

As we celebrated Dolly Parton’s incredible legacy today, we encourage our students to embrace reading as both a vitally important life skill and a relaxing pastime.

Thank you to all staff and students for their continued engagement and support in helping us foster a vibrant culture of reading at DHSB!

Sharing Our Reading

This week’s reviewers are Mrs McGowan, Success Hub Manager and Matthew in Year 9. They have both chosen to review their recent reading and want to encourage others to share too. Matthew describes his book from the Percy Jackson series as a re-reading and it is clearly a novel that he enjoys even on a second reading. The novelist Sophie Kinsella describes the process of re-reading as being like ‘visiting old friends’ and Matthew’s review reminds us that our favourite books can be re-read and be enjoyed all over again. 

If you have read a book recently which has entertained,  inspired or challenged you why not share this with others? Book reviews can be shared with Dr Downes - tracey.downes@DHSB.org.

Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

This book is a thrilling suspense novel. Esther disappears from her apartment without a trace. In her possessions is a haunting letter, which leaves her flat mate questioning how well she knows her.

Meanwhile, in a small town Alex has been watching a mysterious woman in the quiet coffee shop and has an innocent crush on her. But this quickly spirals out of control and into something far more sinister.

The reader is taken on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us.

Mrs McGowan

Success Hub Manager

Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

 (A re-reading)

The book is the fifth and final book in the series. The book is about the demi-gods trying to save the world. They are not expecting to win but anything could happen.

Overall I really enjoyed the book. I think there are lots of twists throughout the book and it made the novel very interesting. I think personally my favourite character has to be one of the gods, Hermes. He just always seems to be going against everybody's opinion and making everybody’s life even more difficult. I do feel that the characters feel as real as they could, considering they are the children of Ancient Greek gods. The story certainly kept me guessing just because you can never know what is going to happen next. Even re-reading it, I still forgot some of the twists that happen throughout the book so it keeps me entertained twice! My favourite part of the book was definitely the ending. This is because it was one of the few books I have ever read that actually tells you what happens after the main plot has finished; it gave me the sense that it was part of the real world. I think the whole series was written very well, especially the last book. I think that the novel did make me want to read the whole book through, without putting it down. 

I think that there were two things that I didn’t like about the book. Firstly, a couple of the characters were too predictable and Riordan made it obvious what was going to happen to them. Secondly, I didn’t really understand what Poseidon was doing throughout the whole book.

Overall though, I think that this novel was a very good way to round off the series and I think that it is definitely a book that I would recommend to anybody who likes action, fantasy, ancient history or adventure books.

Star Rating 4.5 / 5 

Matthew

Year 9 

Peru 2028: Student Fundraising Success

After the successful launch of the Peru 2028 expedition in June 2026, some of our incredible students have already started their fundraising journeys. Year 10 students Luis and Oliver have been hard at work raising the funds needed for their trip in many different ways. They have sold homemade jewellery, hot dogs and cakes, and worked hard on the weekends to complete some physical jobs for a local garage. Through their activities, the boys have shown amazing drive and commitment to their fundraising journey and are a real credit to themselves, the school and the wider community.

Well done Luis and Oliver for raising almost £1,000 so far and for being so determined to show the DHSB core values in our community. You are an inspiration to me, the school and the wider community.

Please keep an eye on the Head's Blog for further Peru 2028 updates in the future!

Mr Liddington

Teacher of Humanities

Physics Society Seminars

This week's DHSB Physics Society featured two of our Year 12 Physics students presenting seminars in support of their application to be Physics Ambassadors, infront of an audience of students from years 9 to 13. Neel explained what we would see, and what we would look like, if we fell into a black hole. James then explained how hydrofoils work. Tayler, in support of his application to be Physics Ambassador (Competitions), also started the selection process for November's KS5 Physics Team Challenge.

Dr Colvile

Head of Physics

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!

Year 8 student, Jerome, recently passed his ABRSM Grade 3 Violin Practical exam with a Merit.

Jerome’s journey with the violin began in Year 3 during his regular music lessons at Manadon Vale Primary School. In Year 4, he began formal training under Mr. Taylor, achieving his ABRSM Grade 1 in Autumn 2023 and Grade 2 in Autumn 2024. Recognizing Jerome’s natural talent and dedication, Mr. Taylor encouraged him to continue advancing his studies and he now trains under Mrs. Dawn.

In addition to his exam success, he regularly performs violin and sings in his native language, Malayalam, at cultural events.

Well done, Jerome!

Well done to Year 8 student Moses, who won two gold medals at the weekend!

Moses attended his first trial session with Caradon Swimming Club a couple of weeks ago and was immediately invited to join as it turns out he is a natural. He was encouraged to compete in their annual Club Championships at Lux Park Leisure Centre, Liskeard and won Gold in his age categories in the 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle events.

Well done and thank you to the DHSB staff who raised £300 for Macmillan by holding a bake sale for staff on Thursday. There were plenty of scrumptious cakes for sale and Mrs Luing-Holmes who organised the event received a visit from a little being who decided to join her period 4 and after school classes today and sent this message "if you have been affected by loss through cancer, a little messenger came to say thank you for eating, making and buying cake today. It’s never happened before in Jervis - enjoy!"

A very big thank you to Katherine, Jade, Erica, Joanna, Kat, Sam and Bill for all their help providing refreshments at the second 11+ event last Saturday.  It was another busy morning! 

In other news, we are holding an EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) as we would like to update our constitution. Our current governing document is the 2008 Parentkind Constitution. The governing document sets out the fundamental rules and procedures we must follow. We would like to replace it with the Parentkind 2021 version. The main difference being that online meetings are permitted. With the exception of a period during Covid, we are currently not able to do this. After discussions, we feel that this change would be beneficial to the PTFA.

Legally, in order to update our constitution, we need to hold an EGM where every member, which for us is every parent, is invited. It would be a very short meeting, just a formality to cover the above. If you are able to come it would be much appreciated as we need a quorum to proceed.  If we do not have a quorum, we will need to reschedule the EGM.

The EGM is scheduled for the 14th October at 5.30pm, in the Conference Room which is directly behind the Visitor Reception. Perhaps you live nearby or maybe you will not be too far away, on the way home from work, and could pop in? We will make it as short as possible - hopefully no more than 20 minutes.

Parentkind states ‘Is your constitution older than your school’s WiFi? Time for an update!’

A big thank you in advance.

Mrs Kinsella

Alumni Engagement & Archives / PTFA Liaison

The Year 8 Rugby team started off their rugby season strongly on Tuesday with two wins against St Boniface and Plympton Academy.

Well done!