This week's celebration assemblies gave us the opportunity to commend students for their attendance and commendations this term.
Students were also recognised as our ‘Student of the Term’ for each form.
Progress Towards School Priorities
This week I am sharing a link to an overview of our current school development plan and the progress we’ve made towards the priorities so far this year.
Please take a moment to read through our update.
Hardboiled History
Once again we have had some fantastic entries in the Hardboiled History Easter competition.
Students were asked to decorate a hard boiled egg as a historic person. The overall winner was Jack Toms in 9P with his fantastic interpretation of Edward I, II and III. The extra info about them also helped secure his win as well as the pun Hammer of the Scot(ch) egg!.
The other entries all win a prize house points and commendations as it was really hard to choose between them.
Well done and thank you to the following students:-
Jakub L 9P for Eggward Teach, the pirate
Jonah L 8N for Boris Johnson
Jakub Z 7N for Edward V peering through the window of the Tower of London before he was never seen again.
Zack S 8P for Churchill
Will L 7E for Richard the Duke of Yolk.
A cracking effort from all!
Mrs Mintoft, Head of History
Creative Arts Round Up
Ensemble Evening
WOW!
What an ‘egg’plosion of talent we saw on Thursday night.
With over 80 students involved we saw performers of every different style and experience in a showcase of Music and Drama, and a wonderful prelude to the entertainment with an Art display and electronica music and visuals in the foyer bar.
All students from Years 7 to 13 showed us both technical and expressive accomplishments in performance, and the joy and pride in Creative Arts when work is produced after hard rehearsal.
Thank you to all who supported this event and a huge well done to everyone involved.
Here are a few images from the daytime rehearsals taken by Miss Marsh.
E'gg'xim Dance Movement Workshops
Fantastic news for DHSB!
Exim Dance have agreed to fund dance/movement workshops at DHSB for a whole term starting on 24 April. This will be open to ALL students of all ages and will be in the Theatre.
Exim Dance is a community dance company based in Stonehouse www.eximdance.org.uk and this is an incredible opportunity they have agreed to support.
The first session will be on Monday 24 April from 3.30pm - 4.30pm in the theatre. Please bring PE or loose clothes and water. I strongly encourage students to try this, especially for their mental wellbeing.
E'gg'xam News
A huge well done to our musicians who have passed instrumental grades! Such dedication and hard work goes into this:
Austin Mair Grade 5 Cornet Merit
Elliot Mair Grade 5 Tenor Horn Distinction
Zen Kanwar Grade 3 Flute Pass
IMS students: (Autumn results)
Tommy Bentley-Bonsey Grade 6 Drums Distinction
Elias Haine Grade 1 Drums Merit
Tarka Liddle Grade 3 Drums Merit
Tom Rickard Grade 3 Drums Merit
E'gg'citing Workshop Opportunity
Our singing teacher, Cameron Mills, has organised the Director from the West End production of Les Mis to come down and provide an hour workshop with students in May, and two hours with the students of Cameron. This is an incredible opportunity for our school, not offered to any other in the city, and particularly relevant for anyone moving in the direction of musical theatre in careers and training.
More details after Easter!
And finally .. Instrumental Lessons
We will be welcoming Tony Hollick back after a time away to mend a broken hip! A reminder for anyone interested in instrumental lessons starting after half term we can offer bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, ukulele, voice, piano, brass (trumpet, cornet, euphonium, trombone, tuba), woodwind (flute, clarinet, sax), drum kit, violin, cello.
Please get forms in as soon as possible to start after Easter. The form link is here or pick up a hard copy and return to Mrs Luing-Holmes or Mr Newton in school.
Mrs Luing-Holmes
A Level Politics
This afternoon six A Level Politics students attended an event at Christ Church in Estover.
Sir Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Labour Party, visited to speak briefly about what Labour would do for Plymouth and the greater United Kingdom, as well the importance of voting at the local elections next month.
Following that, Sir Keir spoke to us about our A Level Politics course and what we’re currently studying. Whilst he did not stay for long, we found it very interesting to meet him and hear his speech, at such a pivotal time for the Labour Party and British politics as a whole.
Meeting and talking with members of the Labour Party, including local councillors, to share views and opinions on local issues was also intriguing. We thank Gail of the party for allowing us to attend as a group of local politics students.
Noah Evans
Excellent Work
Mrs Pearson has sent us today’s example of Excellent Work.
She said, “9a2 have been creating excellent models of Hydrocarbons using Molymod kits. They even rose to the challenge to make decane - containing ten carbon atoms”.
Student News
Mrs Cairns has shared this photo of students at this week’s Christian Union meeting with a beautiful Easter cake made by Luca Braschi 10W.
Students were looking at the importance of the resurrection, led by Jacob Phillips, youth worker at St Paul's Church in Stonehouse.
PSHEE Activities
This morning saw an alumni event for Year 10, Year 11 and Sixth Form students.
I started this activity a few years ago mainly as a mini UCAS fair; i.e. asking recent leavers currently at university but home in Plymouth for Easter to come and talk for a few minutes about their course and university. However, this has evolved and whilst there is still an element of this, many of the visitors are now older alumni who left us several years ago and have undertaken many different routes to their current positions.
This year the line up includes apprentices and established professionals as well as those still undergoing academic study or working prior to continuing with a career such as officer training for the Army.
They each spoke for a few minutes, and it was great to see how they have all flourished, albeit in many different ways (pictures in the Sixth Form report below).
The Year 7 lesson looked at money management, learning to understand and explore different methods of making a financial transaction, and think about possible future developments. How long do you think cash will survive? And when was the last time you wrote a cheque?
Year 8 students began completing an interactive STEPs booklet which aims to develop their knowledge and employability skills, and Year 9 students completed their two weeks of careers research using different sites to explore the myriad choices available, and maybe even to narrow down those choices to something more focussed and manageable.
So all that remains is to wish you all a happy (and sunny) Easter break - we return on Monday 17 April for the summer term.
Ms Moreton
Sixth Form Tutorial and Enrichment
Our Alumni were super this morning, inspiring students with descriptions of their paths from school to current careers. We are extremely grateful to all who took time out of busy lives to share their wisdom. Thank you to Will Reis, Callum Lyons, Steve McNeillie, Jackson Spry, Billy Fletcher, Jack Finlay and Andrew Breaks.
Some Year 12 and 13 students stayed behind to talk to the guests in more detail after the event. Thank you to Ms Moreton for organising such a useful and insightful experience.
In the Sixth Form we said a fond farewell to Mrs Waitt today as she begins her retirement and welcomed Mrs Michelle Marsh into her new role as Sixth Form Attendance Officer and Administrator.
As an aside from all of this important news I would like to thank Izzy Jeffrey, Millie Adams and Hugh Talbot for finishing the very hard jigsaw puzzle in the Sixth Form Centre ...started several weeks ago by many hands but today the three students completed it in less than an hour! Closure and mission accomplished on this mindful activity.
Ms Davidson
Chess Club Update
The school chess club would like to thank those who made it possible to purchase a set of digital clocks at the start of the season. Here, our players demonstrate how much easier it is to see the time outstanding.
To conclude the term, we ran a competition over two Tuesdays with 20 players and awarded prizes for overall winner and best score for a Year 7/8 student.
Both James Trenam-Nash 8W and Daragh Grimes 8N won four games, with the tie splitting in favour of James.
Jack Chen stormed through with 6/6.
In the last week of term, Caleb Caleshu concluded Plymouth Chess Club’s competition by becoming Club Champion. We suspect this has never been done by a 14 year-old in the club’s 125 year history!
Photo credit: Ben Wotton.
Mr Butland
PTFA News
The PTFA were delighted to welcome guests to the school Spring Ensemble Concert yesterday where we operated a bar for refreshment and enjoyment. A big thank you to Joanna, Lianne and Melanie for their help.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 9 May at 6.00pm in the Conference Room (to the right, as you drive in to school, behind the visitor reception). We'd love to see you there!
Also, please remind students about our calendar photography competition. The deadline was initially today but we have extended it until Sunday 23 April for any photo opportunities during the Easter break. We have had some fantastic entries so far!
Wishing you all a lovely Easter break.
Beverley Kinsella, PTFA Liaison
Sports Update
Rugby
Well done to our Year 7 rugby team who finished as runner up in the Cunningham Cup.
This was a great fun day of rugby.
Cross Country
Great performances for our cross country team on Monday.
First and third places again for Eldon and Leo in Year 7, and third for Dan in the JB with a great overall team performance, and, in his final appearance as an IB for DHSB a first place for Henry!
Well done everyone.
Football
Football was the winner again!
It was fantastic to see so many get the opportunity to play competitive friendly football.
Well done to all those involved.
Also this week, Well done to the Year 10 football team who put in a strong performance against Newton Abbot College in the Devon Cup semifinal yesterday and are now through to the final for the second year in a row - brilliant stuff from all the players.
Indoor Rowing
A huge effort from all involved - congratulations!