We start this week with some good news. Following the publication of the official school performance tables, I am delighted to report that Plymstock School has been confirmed as the top performing non-selective school in Plymouth at both GCSE and A Level. This reflects the collective hard work, commitment and perseverance of our students, staff and parents. Even our local MP, Sir Gary Streeter, sent his congratulations. Thank you to everyone for your continued support for Plymstock School – it is a real team effort.

I am very excited to announce that we will be taking a team of students from Plymstock School to southern Africa for three weeks in July 2020, on a once in a lifetime opportunity, in conjunction with World Challenge. This a real challenging experience that will truly test the ability of our students to work towards a common goal using resilience, cooperation, hard-work and self-belief. The expedition is the perfect environment to support our goal of actively promoting the traditional values of courtesy, respect and compassion, to support our students to become creative and independent thinkers. This will be our fourth expedition with World Challenge. Previously our students visited India, Uganda and Lesotho. The participants of the 2020 expedition will be travelling to the beautiful countries of Swaziland and Mozambique. Mr Wright, from our Geography department, will be leading the trip. If we have any students currently in Years 10, 11 and 12, who are still interested in taking part – it is not too late – just let Mr Wright know!

One of the best parts of my job each day is not the meetings, data analysis, financial planning or educational politics – it’s when I take the time to walk around the school, seeing our wonderful students and staff in action. Whilst I was out and about on one day, I took the time to appreciate the exceptional art work that our students produce, which is proudly displayed all over the school (and in one case, painted directly onto the wall of a corridor). We have such a talented group of young people here and I thought I would share just a few of the pieces I saw around the school.

Nearly 90 students, accompanied by eight members of staff, recently attended a performance of Matilda at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and were completely blown away!

Neve, one of our Year 7 students, wrote the following about the performance “When we arrived at the theatre, I didn’t know what to expect; but when the performance started I was amazed at how much effort had been put into the set and how spectacular the actors/actresses were. My favourite scene from the performance was when Ms Trunchbull forced the boy to eat the whole cake”

The students were an absolute credit to the school and a great evening was had by all. A big thank you to the staff who supported the trip and enabled it to happen.

This week we invited in Sergeant Jane Corkhill and Sergeant Gary Williamson from Devon & Cornwall Police’s ‘Roads Policing Unit’. These two officers delivered a powerful assembly to students in Years 7, 8 and 9 about the importance of road safety and the consequences of not paying attention when crossing the road! It certainly made our students think. We would like to thank both officers for taking time out of their day to talk to our students, and we look forward to working with them again with Years 10, 11 and Post-16.

We were delighted to see that our Post-16 Judo ace, Max, who was nominated for two categories at this year’s Devon and Cornwall Sports Awards, which was held at the Plymouth Pavilions on Monday evening. Although he didn’t win in the end, it was still a great evening. Max is currently the British Cadet Champion for under-90kg. This year he has won Gold at the British Championship and then claimed another at the Scottish and Welsh Open Championships. In June he was selected to represent Great Britain at the European Championships, in Sarajevo. He then won another two gold medals whilst representing the Western Area squad in Holland. It has been an amazing year for Max and we’d like to say a big well done.

Our year 7 Netball Team have just taken part in their first two games of the season – winning both in style! 13-0 against Sir John Hunt Community College and 6-2 against Plymouth High School for Girls. Their game play was excellent and so was their sports-womanship. Thank you goes to Mrs Boyle who coaches the team and also Mr Chivers who supported with transport.

Finally, it’s students of the week time. I am delighted to say that this week’s winners are:

• Tom, Molly and Erin who this month did a bag packing fundraiser at Morrison’s for the Epilepsy Society and raised a whopping £614. Well done – an amazing effort and very worthy cause.
• Aidan – who has just completed his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award through Cadets. Well done – a real sustained effort and commitment over the last year.
• Jack and Dominick – both of whom have been nominated by Mr Waterfield for their outstanding effort and work in English. Both students are going above and beyond, and are showing real creative flair!
• Jak – in recognition of his exceptional commitment to his learning. He is working so hard and has really impressed his Assistant Head of Year, Mrs Harvey.
• Kira and Hollie – for their amazing attitude and effort in Physics. Mr Wilson, couldn’t be full of more praise for these two students. Keep up the great work.