Devonport High School for Boys
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Devonport High School for Boys (DHSB) is a selective grammar school in Plymouth, United Kingdom. It has an intake of approximately 900 boys in the lower school (UK School years 7-11) and about 270 in the VI Form (UK School years 12 and 13). There are about 75 teaching staff.
Founded in 1896, its catchment area includes southwest Devon and southeast Cornwall as well as Plymouth. Pupils are accepted on the basis of academic aptitude. In 2002, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) designated the school as one of the first four Specialist Engineering Colleges of the UK. In 2006 it was judged to be a High Performing Specialist School (HPSS) and has rebid successfully for a second 4 year period of Engineering Specialism and, in April 2007, will take up a second specialism in Languages.
The school is currently housed in Stoke Military Hospital which was built in 1797. At the end of World War II the school returned from Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II evacuation to Penzance, Cornwall and took over the premises from the British Army.
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[edit] School history
The school was founded in Albert Road, Devonport, by Alonzo Rider in January 1896 to meet the needs of boys in Plymouth and district seeking a career in the Navy, as engineers and civil servants.
It was popular and successful, the boys gaining swift National recognition. In 1906 the Devonport Borough Council took over the school and over the next thirty years it continued to provide an individual and challenging curriculum for its boys who came from the city and in by train from the Tamar Valley and Cornwall. Old Boys went on to good careers both locally and nationally – and especially in the MoD. In 1939 the school was evacuated to Penzance because of World War Two and in 1945 returned to the present site, the former Stoke Military Hospital in Paradise Road - magnificent Georgian buildings that have proved to meet all the needs of a 21st Century school, with its specialist facilities in the five main blocks and in new purpose-built buildings.
[edit] DHSB Headteachers
- 1896-1906 AJ Rider FCS
- 1906-1932 AF Treseder MA
- 1933-1941 HAT Simmonds MA
- 1942-1948 WH Buckley BA BSc FREconS
- 1949-1953 SB Barker MA LLB
- 1953-1974 JL Cresswell MA DPhil
- 1975-1993 JGW Peck MA
- 1993-Pres NM Pettit BSc PhD
[edit] School houses
The school's pupils are split equally in to 4 houses. The four houses compete for the St. Levan's Shield. The four houses are named after famous Plymouthian Naval Captains. The colours specified are the colours of the house, members have the coloured stripes on their ties. They are:
- Drake, named after Sir Francis Drake; the red house.
- Gilbert, named after Sir Humphrey Gilbert; the yellow house.
- Grenville, named after Sir Richard Grenville; the blue house.
- Raleigh, named after Sir Walter Raleigh; the green house
The current holder of the St. Levan Shield, and winner of the 2006 house championship was Drake, reclaiming it from Grenville.
[edit] School Buildings
The school has many large buildings that each have a name. These names are of famous Plymouthians. They all follow alphabetical order. They are...
- Astor; the Art, Technology, Media Studies and ICT block.
- Astor Annexe; the building joined with Astor. This features an Art classroom on the bottom floor, and a large Technology room at the top.
- Brunel; the Mathematics, MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) and English block.
- Burrows' Drama Studio; named after late English and Drama teacher Clive Burrows (he was 'inspirational', according to the golden plaque inside). A drama studio
- Cookworthy; The Classics and Humanities block.
- Drake; the Sciences block.
- Edgcumbe; the building that holds offices, reception, changing rooms, the LRC (Learning Resource Center, the Library), the Fitness Suite (a Gym) and Edgcumbe Hall, another drama stage in the school.
- Foulston; this block has the Sixth Form Center (opened in november 2006), as well as a PE Studies hall. The block is connected with Astor.
- Gibbons; the Refectory (Cafeteria).
- Hansom; the very large sports hall that is connected with Edgcumbe.
- Ingle; the ATC (Air Training Corps) Hut.
- Jervis; the Music Suite with multiple classrooms
- Kingsley, the student support centre
[edit] Uzel House
The school also has a residential centre in the French town of Uzel in Brittany. This offers pupils the opportunity for work experience with local companies as well as the chance to improve their French and enjoy activities like horseriding and canoeing. The house was bought for the token amount of 1 Franc in 1991, from the Mayor of Uzel. During this year, it was refurbished from a derelict mansion, to its current state. Since its opening in 1992, annually over 250 boys visit the house. The Friday Choir has also brought pupils from two other Plymouth grammar schools, Plymouth High School for Girls and Devonport High School for Girls, to Uzel for an opportunity to sing to the locals. The man responsible for organising these and many other Friday Choir tours is the legendary Trefor K. Farrow. Trefor joined DHSB as music teacher in 1965 and has recently completed his fortieth and final year.
[edit] Other Annual Trips
The school has a wide variety of other annual trip ranging from Snowdonia, Wales, United Kingdom, to Xian, China. Here are a list of some other places featured on Devonport High School for Boys' roster
- Mexico
- China
- Russia (Friday Choir)
- Spain (Friday Choir)
- Holland (Swing Band)
- Italy (Religious Studies Trip/Friday Choir)
- Kenya (Geography trip)
- Austria
- Peru
- Greece (Classics trip)
[edit] Student achievements
Pupils' technical achievements include building the fastest CO2-powered model formula one car in the South West England heats of "F1 team in schools" 2004-2005. Cars in this competition are designed with Computer Aided Design software and built from balsa wood using Computer Aided Manufacture. DHSB's "Team Odyssey" entered the lower 11-14 age group, and their vehicle traveled 20 metres in 1.187 seconds, averaging over 60 kilometres per hour. Despite being the fastest in both age groups they did not qualify for the national finals, losing marks in the presentation section. This competition was re-entered in 2005-2006, with Black Future and Next Generation. At the regional finals in Yeovil, Black Future got a time of 1.107 seconds with Next Generation being slightly slower. Both teams went through to the national finals held in the NEC, Birmingham, where Black Future won the trophy for the fastest car nationally and Next Generation again being slightly slower, but with the second fastest car in United Kingdom. This year they again entered two teams: Fusion and Pulse. Fusion had the second fastest car in the south-west, but unfortunately did not qualify for the national finals. Pulse however, entered into a more complex class and beat the world record with a time of 1.069 seconds, scooping four prizes and a cheque for £500, and will be competing in the national finals in January.
At the January 2007 national finals in Birmingham, the Pulse car beat the world record a further two times, setting the current world and UK National record at 1.056 seconds. In a further test for the car they arranged to race the Honda car, which had beaten all the other cars at Indianapolis last year and since then had undergone improvements. Using non-competition canisters Pulse achieved a time of 1.020 seconds, one millisecond faster than the Honda car. Overall, Pulse won the fastest R-type car, the Innovative Thinking award, the best 14-16 presentation and the 14-16 age group. As a result of their achievements they are now going to represent England at the International Finals in 2008, to be held in either Malaysia or the USA. Updates to the team's progress can be found on the Pulse team website.
The school is a designated Arkwright Scholarship School, as of 2005 there had been 3 Arkwright Scholars.
[edit] Academic standards
The school's academic performance can be assessed on the UK government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) website.[1] The tables show performance far above the local authority average in both GCSE and A-level results as would be expected of a selective grammar school. The school also shows performance in the Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 value added score above the local authority average.
[edit] The Future
Devonport High School for Boys has been rapidly expanding over the past few years. This expansion includes the refurbishment of the 6th Form centre. Over the next year, the renovation of Edgcumbe Hall will see it tranformed into a versatile, modern theatre which will fill the needs of the school's frequent drama productions. The official theatre website can be seen here
[edit] Notable Alumni and Old Boys Association
- Notable alumni include Sir Austin Pearce CBE (1921–2004), former chairman of British Aerospace and chairman of the trustees of the Science Museum, who captained DHSB's athletics and rugby teams during his time there.
DHSB has a large group of Alumni called the "Old Boys Association", it was relaunched in 1996, on the schools centenary. There are over 600 members on just the website itself. The DHSOBA is quite active and has a website (see external links)
There was mild controversy in the school and the DHSOBA when the information that an Old Boy from the school had been detained in the now infamous "fake rock" case emerged. According to the BBC, Russia's intelligence agency, the FSB, accused British agents of storing and exchanging classified information using a fake rock on a Russian street. [1]
