Each week I share the theme which is being explored by staff and students in school to give an opportunity for you to discuss this at home as a family with your child.
This week our theme is ‘respecting others’ and each House hosted an assembly which was led by their House Captains.
This theme applies to all our activities and relationships and at our eSafety event for parents on Wednesday evening, Ken Corish reminded us that being online is an extension of our usual environment. We should treat our online friends with the same respect that we show to our friends and acquaintances when we are not online.
Lorna Taylor, our Family Support Advisor, who arranged the event said, “Ken’s presentation provided some very useful facts and highlighted some common misconceptions around the use of the internet. Mr Corish also shared some interesting ways to manage our children’s use of the internet and to ensure that they are doing so in as safe as environment as possible. It is a parent’s responsibility to monitor their child’s online activity”.
Ms Taylor added, “A couple of points that I thought were thought-provoking were the age of the average gamer and how we should lead by example when requesting that our children put their phones away at the dinner table or bedtime. Additionally he shared how we can programme our routers to limit internet access which something I will try out this weekend! By the way the average gamer is aged 38 and most game designers are making games for this target audience”.
The slides from the talk will be uploaded to the school website shortly and parents will be alerted by text message when they are available.
Following Mr Corish’s talk, Ms Buckler, Director of the Learning Commons, was in London on Thursday to complete the CEOP Ambassador training.
CEOP is a command of the National Crime Agency and works with child protection partners across the UK and overseas to identify the main threats to children and coordinates activity against these threats to bring offenders to account.
Ms Buckler explained, “CEOP protect children from harm online and offline, directly through NCA led operations and in partnership with local and international agencies. As part of this CEOP create up to date and relevant resources for teachers, parents and students on staying safe online, these are backed by the latest research and the Ambassador course means that I am now able to deliver these materials to DHSB and the wider community”.
Resources for parents can be found at this website – click here.
Social Media Age Restrictions
We also heard from Sgt Keeler at Charles Cross Policy Station this week. He has asked us to share this guide to the current age restrictions for social media sites.
He said, “We can find that children have access to accounts despite them being under the age to do so. This would require false dates of birth to be input at the time of the account being set up and as such we are trying reduce the risk to these vulnerable people by ensuring their parents are aware of the strict age limits required for specific types of social media account”.
A Whole School Approach to Digital Skills
And finally on this theme, a reminder that technology can be used responsibly with huge benefits to the school community.
Please see this link to the current edition of Hello World magazine and scroll to pages 40 – 41 for a feature on DHSB written by Ms Buckler.
Fundraising Update
During the Easter break our School Captain, Toby Leung, was pleased to announce that we have raised £1.056 towards One Tree Planted.
He said this amount will plant 1,371 trees and sequester 30,000KG of CO2. Pictured is Toby and his team planting a tree in the DHSB grounds to mark Word Earth Day.
Year 11 Careers Links
Steph Moore from CSW Group joined Jenny Wall our regular CSW Careers Adviser for the final meeting of this year’s Year 11 Careers Link students. A representative from each Year 11 class has worked with Jenny and Ms Moreton as a careers liaison to pass on information to their class, test out resources, attend events such as the Skills Show and help to organise and take part in Takeover Day. Well done to Aidan Ricketts 11C, Owen King 11E, Elias Klockars 11N, Ed Epps 11P, Logan Rossiter 11S and Seb Long 11W.
Individual Success
Congratulations to Cameron Williams who took gold in the 100m breaststroke junior final at the British Championships in Glasgow.
He followed this by finishing in bronze position in the 50m breaststroke junior final.
Well done Cameron.
Congratulations also to Jeff Forkuo, seen here receiving his man of the match award for Plymouth schoolboys football.
Mr Carpenter said Jeff led the side well in the tournament along with other DHSB students Luca Tsianavas, James Morley and Christian Moss.
Sports Update
Football
Well done to our Year 7 boys who are Plymouth Champions after beating All Saints in the final of the competition. This match was held at the end of last term.
Congratulations also to our Year 10 team.
This team has won the Plymouth Cup for the second year running. Well done all!
Sports Spring Newsletter
Our PE Department published an update of all sports activities and achievements at the end of the Spring term (thanks are due to Mrs Needham and Alfie Carlisle for their work on this).
And finally
Welcome back to staff and students who enjoyed the school ski trip during the Easter break.
Future Events
Friday 26 April
Year 8 report
Saturday 27 April
PTFA trip to Alton Towers
Monday 29 April – Friday 3 May
Year 9 exam week