Each Friday I share our theme of the week to give an opportunity for you to discuss this at home as a family with your child.
This week our theme is ‘personal values’ and this was explored in our house assemblies on Wednesday.
In addition this week staff and students have used resources produced for ‘Time to Talk Day’.
“Mental health problems affect one in four of us, yet too many people are made to feel isolated, ashamed and worthless because of this. Time to Talk Day encourages everyone to be more open about mental health – to talk, to listen, to change lives”.
Senior Maths Team Challenge
Very well done to our Senior Maths Challenge team of Sixth Form students who joined aspiring mathematicians from across the UK in the national finals of the prestigious maths challenge on Tuesday. The finals, which took place in London, are run by the UK Mathematics Trust.
Somsubhro Bagchi (team captain), Robert Liu, Aidan Ricketts and Lalit Kathiresan finished in 22nd place (88 teams qualified for the national finals from 1,100 who entered the competition).
A big thank you to Mr Huq who has entered students into the challenge for 12 of the 14 years he has been teaching. His teams have reached the national finals on most of these occasions.
Ultimate National Championships
A big thank you also to Mr McConnell who took six teams to the Ultimate National Championships last weekend.
Mr McConnell was supported by parents and three Year 12 students who were acting as coaches. Alfie Al-Moosawi, Sam O'Connell and Ewan Dodson displayed great leadership and were a real credit to the club.
There were five teams competing in the U17 competition finishing in fourth, sixth, tenth, eleventh and sixteenth places (out of 24 teams). We had one team in the U14 section and they were placed eleventh out of 17 teams.
Mr McConnell said, The U17 first team finished fourth out of 24 teams, our joint highest finish ever. So close securing third place leading 5 - 4 at the buzzer with possession left to play, Flux equalised taking it to universe point. So close to winning it but it wasn't to be. Well done everyone.”
He added, “The U14s finished in eleventh place out of 17 teams. They've learnt lots this weekend and understand Ultimate far better now”.
Youth Speaks
Thank you also to Mr Riggs who supported students at the second local round of the Rotary Youth Speaks competition. The event was held in the Edgcumbe Theatre on Saturday.
Asad Ali, Finlay Stewart and Austin Pearce from Year 8 took part and progressed through the local finals to the next round at Bodmin College on 29 February.
Ten Tors Training
Last weekend was very busy for DHSB with Ten Tors training also taking place on Dartmoor. Students were well supported by Mr Ames and Ms Davidson.
Excellent Work
Our example of Excellent Work this week has been submitted as evidence of good work done by Ms Nally's 9a/En2 English class.
Ms Nally says, "The class used amazing analytical skills to break down Shakespeare's use of language and work out Juliet's complicated feelings. Their ideas were independent and collaborative and built up to achieve a really high level of verbal response. I simply scribed what they said".
Individual Student Achievement
Well done to Leo White 10S who has been racing in the South West cyclocross league since September. The season has just finished and involved 12 races at venues across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset. Leo came first in his age group to become the South West Under 16 Champion. He was presented with his trophy at the end-of-season presentation last Sunday. This means he is the current South West Under 16 Series Champion in both mountain biking and cyclocross.
Leo is now looking forward to the 2020 mountain bike season, which begins next month. He will be trying to retain his title in the South West series and will also be competing in the national mountain bike series for the first time. Leo has also been meeting up to train with British Cycling's National School of Mountain Bike Racing over the last few months at venues across the country.
Sports Update
Indoor Athletics
Well done to the Year 8 and 7 indoor athletics teams who competed at the Plymouth School Championships this week. The Year 8 teams finished second overall and have qualified for the county finals.
Table Tennis
Congratulations to our U13 and U16 table tennis players who played at the county finals this week with some students making the quarter finals.
Badminton
Four students took part in the regional finals held at Paignton Community College on Wednesday and finished in fourth place. Well done to Mackenzie Tuckwell 10S, Quentin Tse 11E, George Teague 11E and Luke Oakarr 11C.
Basketball
The Year 8 basketball season came to a close this week with a match against Coombe Dean. Both teams split into two for a round robin with some good basketball on show from both teams.
Rugby
The Year 8 rugby team were well beaten this week in a friendly match against Ivybridge. Good efforts by all the team though with hopefully lots of lessons learnt in defeat.
Football
Well done to the Year 7 football team who beat Teign School in round one of the Devon Cup - a great performance from the team with thanks to Sarrel D and Sam L for coming in at the last minute to fill in some late unavailability.
Year 8 students placed at the central venue competition with three more students making their DHSB debut – well done all!
The Year 11 team is playing a Devon Cup match at Tiverton this afternoon.
Future Events
10 – 12 February Year 11 additional mocks
Wednesday 12 February Emotional logic Year 7 parents event
Thursday 13 February Year 10 parents evening
Friday 14 February Final day of spring term one
Sunday 16 February Ten Tors training walk 3
Monday 24 February First day of spring term two (B week)
Monday 24 February Bronze DofE training at 15.20
Wednesday 26 February Mousetrap performance at the Theatre Royal
Friday 28 February Year 12 report and Year 13 report