Our whole school assembly this week was led by Assistant Head, Mr Coombes, on the theme of seizing opportunities.
The assembly, which is available here for you to watch, also highlights our Where Are They Now alumni website feature.
If you’re a former student then we’d love to hear about your journey since leaving school. If you’d like to get involved in sharing your story please email my PA Sarah Nicholson at sarah.nicholson@dhsb.org.
Ten Tors Training
Thanks are due to Mr Ames, Mrs Wills and Mr Clifford for providing a brilliant opportunity for students to get involved in the Ten Tors Challenge 2022.
Mr Clifford has written this report as the season gets underway with all three teams this week completing their first training walk on the west and north of Dartmoor.
The morning temperatures and windchill made it feel like 1 - 3 degrees. This soon gave way to reduced visibility and a very low sweeping cloud base. All three teams dealt well with the change in conditions before a weather high provided an alpine-blue chilling skyline.
Blessed with good visibility all three teams worked well together and made good progress across the water-logged boggy north moor as many sank into the ground up to their knees.
The combined performances of all three teams made for a really encouraging start to the Ten Tors training season with both navigation and route selection completely on point.
Mr Clifford
Teams 45A and 45B converge on Ger Tor
Taking in the panoramic vista in chilling temperatures but clear blue skies on Little Links Tor
The 35 team near Kitty Tor
Student News
Mr Campbell reports that we hosted Torquay Boys Grammar School at the end of last week in a really hard fought chess championship match. Unfortunately it wasn’t our day losing 1.5 to 4.5
We wish Torquay Boys all the very best in the next round.
PSHEE Activities
This week in tutorial sessions Year 7 students learned about Growth Mindset - what it is, whether they have it, and how to develop it!
It was also the turn of 7N for a virtual live First Aid lesson with the Red Cross. We are working through the whole year group with these lessons which teach and support our students to be confident and useful members of the community.
Year 8 students had a financial literacy lesson about fraud, with details of some typical fraudulent practises and opportunity to discuss ways to avoid being drawn into fraud, or being caught by a scam.
The Year 9 lesson was the penultimate in the employer challenge series; students have one more lesson next week and then the finished presentations will be submitted to the three companies for judging. We have a final chance after half term for feedback and prizes for the most successful teams from each pair of classes.
Year 10 students have been working on CVs, in particular the personal statement section. Whilst the use of CVs in recruitment is certainly lessening especially for large companies who prefer to use electronic application forms, having a synopsis of achievements will always be useful for completing an online application, so CV prep remains on the curriculum for now!
The personal statement section is probably the most difficult but also the most important as it will need to be adaptable for different situations and even UCAS applications in a couple of years.
Several students in the past have also found this useful if they are looking for Saturday jobs - i.e. to hand in to several would-be employers as a ‘fishing’ exercise!
Year 11 students learned about T levels. These were trialled and introduced a few years ago in some areas of the country but locally are now going to be offered by City College from September this year. A T level is the equivalent of three A levels, and is aimed somewhere between an A level and an apprenticeship with an approximate 80/20% split between class based learning and industry experience.
This is a short film introducing T levels.
Year 11 students also tried out a new app called The Pay Index which allows them to compare university with apprenticeships and eventual salaries in different subjects and in different areas of the country.
That's it for Careers and PSHEE this week. Next week we will be in February, so a step closer to spring, we hope!
Ms Moreton
Walk-in Vaccination Clinic - Sunday 30 Janaury
Alex James, Clinical Lead at the Plymouth Albion vaccination site, has asked me to let you know there will be a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination clinic for 12 - 15 year old students (first and second doses) on Sunday 30 January from 9:00am - 5:00pm.
The walk-in clinic will be held at the Plymouth Albion Rugby Club, Brickfields, Devonport, PL1 4NE and the vaccine scheduled to be used is Pfizer.
On-site parking and disabled access are available at the site.
Sports Update
Football
A great end to the U13 central venue football competition with a 2 - 2 draw and 3 - 1 win.
Well done to everyone involved said Mr Campbell.
PSSP Secondary Rowing Event
Students at the Plymoutth secondary schools rowing competition on Wednesday put in a superb effort.
Special congratulations to Oliver Brew 10E who took first place and set a new record in the Year 10 individual male event.
Oliver Brew 10E
First place and a new record - Year 10
Owen Thomas 8N
First place - Year 8
Giles Pahdi 9N and Ben Lewis 9W
First and second place - Year 8
Dylan Witnall 7S and Daniel Gurney 7P
Second and third place - Year 7
Also, very well done to the DHSB Young Ambassadors who supported the primary schools rowing competition earlier in the day.
Mr Campbell said the students were a huge help in the running of the event.
Year 8 Basketball Central Venue
Mr Strang said the Year 8 basketball team completed their central venue fixtures on Wednesday with five wins from five matches.
Well done to all those involved.
