Blog: Jo Ricks

DHSB students represent Plymouth in the Devon Games to Inspire 2010

Following the great success of table tennis this year we recieved an invite to attend thie trials for the Plymouth team for table tennis in this years Devon Games to Inspire. The aim of the Devon Games is to provide those young people that are not yet representing their county the opportunity to compete in a massive competition, competing against other counties within the South West.

DHSB entered 8 students from years 7 and 8 that have been attending the table tennis club on a regular basis this year, working with the young coach Ollie from year 12. From the 8 students that attended 3 were selected to for a 5 man team! What an achievement as a school in the first year of growing table tennis at DHSB.

Good luck to the boys at the Devon Games to Inspire in July 2010.

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Exemplary students attend London 2012 student leadership conference

4 students from the 'Leadership Academy' and 'Girls Active' group were selected to attend the London 2012 student leadership conference at Launceston College on Friday 25th June. The conference was intend to raise the students awareness and enthusiasm for the hosting of the Olympic games in London on 2012.

The two groups have been trying to develop ideas at school for promoting the games around the school and with other departments. Hence, this seemed the perfect opportunity for us to get involved.

Following the mornings activities during the break the students were asked what they had learnt, the response from one student was;

" How little I know about the Olympics and Paralympics, never mind London 2010".

"Perfect", this could be the way most students at school think, how can we change that? The students worked together with other students from a number of schools in the South West to develop ideas and thoughts on how to promote the 7 values of the Olympic and Paralympic games within our school.

Just before lunchtime the students got the great pleasure of listening to the former Olympic rower Peter Gardner speak about his Olympic  journey, trials and tribulations. Peter was a great speaker and very motivational in his message for the conference. See the photo below of the group with Peter himself.

At lunch the organisers of the conference from the SSAT (Specialist Schools and Academies Trust) commented that;

" The students that you have bought from Devonport High School for Girls are lovely, exemplary and very proud of their school and the leadership work that they are doing."

Well done to all the girls that attended. We look forward to bringing their ideas back to the groups and starting to grow an understanding of the impact the London 2012 can have.

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Leadership in PE beginning again at DHSB

In an attempt to introduce the concept of student leadership in PE lessons at KS4 at DHSB   we trialled a modifed version of  'Day  Sportsleader Course' with 30 year 10 students.

The course was designed to provide the students with an understanding of what leadership is and develop an understanding of the skills and qualities required to be a good leader. The course was also intended to develop a further understading of communication, organisation, planning and leading short activities to small groups. The students started at 9 pm and finised at 3pm so the course was intensive to ensure an basic understand of sports leadership in just one day.

All students that effectively completed the course receive a Plymstock School Sports Partnership certificate of recognised for their hard work throughout the day. The hope is that sports leaderhip within PE will be provided at Year 10 in the future through the Sports Leaders Level 1 Nationally recognised qualification and for year 12 students the Community Sports Leaders Level 2 award. Those courses are due to start during the next academic year of 2010 - 2011.

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'Change 4 Life' get bikeabikity

Through the support from the Plymstock School Sports Partnership the DHSG 'Change 4 Life' group got the opportunity to receive free bikeability training course. Bikeability is the 21st Centry version of cycling proficency. The course was designed to meet the needs of all the members of the group. For some members that was learning to ride a bike for the first time but for others this meant learning to ride a bike safely on the local roads that surround DHSG.

WHAT A SUCCESS for all members of the group. 5 girls from the group of 10 had either never ridden a bike or had only ridden a bike with stablisers. Consequently the course lasted for 2 days for some students and for others for various reasons only lasted 6 hours.

Tuesday saw those that had no expereince on a bike work through the day on either learn to get on a bike, start a journey and ride in a straight line unaidded. For others however, progress was more extensive so they spent the day learning to get started and completing various skills to enable them to go out on local roads to complete the  Bikeability level 2 National Standard cycle test. Two students had never ridden a bike until Tuesday and by 3pm Wednesday they had passed Bikeability level 2 . What an outstidning achivement? Well done to those girls in particual!

Wednesday was Bikeability Level 2 day. The students spent the entire day learning how to ride the local roads safely and effectively. This included; using minor roads, major roads, turning left and right at road junctions safely, U-turns etc. All students that were involved in the day successfully acheived Level 2 Bikeability National Standard of cycling.

Well done to all girls that were involved!

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Water based 'Learn 2 Row course'

A further 6 students are in the process of completing the waterbased 'Learn 2 Row Course' with Kev Sellar our Community Rowing Coach. Last night the group worked incredibly hard to fight the terible rowing conditions at Mount Batten. All improved remarkably over the 2 hours, we look forward to next weeks session to see the further improvements.

Photos will be posted so watch this space!!

Well done all!!

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