This week, it’s all about our students. There’s been so much going on in school and our students are working hard and having fun. We hope you enjoy the stories and celebrations below of their hard work, resilience, and empathy both in and out of school. Simply World Class.
Year 7
It’s been a fast but fabulous first three weeks of Secondary school and all the Year 7s are already feeling tired!
- According to our Year 7s these have been the best bits so far:
- moving to different lessons,
- having and meeting different teachers,
- seeing siblings and cousins in older years,
- making new friends,
- having your Head of Year as your teacher,
- wearing the PE kit and PE,
- space,
- feeling more grown up,
- learning how to navigate around the school,
- Science and the experiments,
- Art and the creativity,
- lunchtimes,
- going to the same school as parents and grandparents,
- the days go quicker
and…
“being proud of wearing the Plymstock uniform”
Year 7s you have made an amazing start, keep being awesome.
Mrs Kirk
Year 7 are really settling into their Tutor Groups
Mrs Dover has been keeping her group busy designing ‘Identity Shields’ – Here are some great efforts from Tegan, Evie, Millie and Dylan.
‘Civic Mural’ community art project
Fin is pictured below with our other Year 10 Students of the Week. He received his nomination from Mr Dott for his involvement in the ‘Civic Mural’ community art project at the end of August. Fin gave up his time and braved some heavy downpours to work with the group in decorating the hoardings which currently surround Plymouth’s Civic Centre building – I have attached an image of Fin at work. Pictured below.
Amazing work and resilience Fin, very impressive and a great piece of community work from another one of our students.
You can read the full story
FIVE STAR PLYMSTOCK WIN U15 BOYS CUP
Plymstock United Colts fired five goals to beat Heavitree Youth in a seven goal thriller at Coach Road
This week we have a story of an amazing sporting achievement by 3 of our Year 11 boys.
Charlie, Joe and Harry all played in the under 15 s ( delayed from last season) Devon County Cup Final on Sunday 13th September
The team won and you can read the full match report
Charlie scored an absolute beauty of a goal and Harry and Joe were part of an amazing defence that earned Joe the well-deserved player of the match.
The boys had support from their fellow Plymstock school year mates who helped cheer them along on the live stream of the match on the day.
We’re all really proud of the boys and Mrs Harris has nominated all 3 as her students of the week. With their team they put in an incredible amount of hard work last season and are to be commended on their resilience; the delay was worth the wait!
Young Writers
Evie (Year 9), in Miss Robinson’s English group last year, has been successful in getting her work published in a Young Writer’s competition. Evie wrote a story entitled ‘Missing’. Evie has been nominated as one of this week’s Year 9 Students of the Week.
We have some truly talented writers and we look forward to seeing Evie’s piece published in the book. In the meantime, please see Evie with her awards below. Her tutor and teachers are really impressed with her achievement.
Also pictured below is Erin’s poem ‘Siblings’ from last weeks blog article. Erin is year 8.
We are absolutely delighted that both girls are now published poets!
Out and around the school
Library update
Plymstock School’s distance library is now up and running (hooray). Book boxes have been delivered to tutor groups and English rooms, and the library team are accepting book requests via SMHW and email rhogben@plymstockschool.org.uk or library@plymstockschool.org.uk
Miss Hogben and her team have thoroughly enjoyed reading through the Year 7 questionnaires and choosing books for each student individually
And the response from the students has been great…Miss Hogben received this lovely email from Martha in Year 7, who was part of Ms Robinson’s English group that received their books on Wednesday.
Thank you for taking the time to pick me a great book from your library I appreciate it very much. Thanks again; you picked me “The Children of Castle Rock “. Can’t wait to start reading it !
The librarians are really pleased to be connecting with the students again (even if it is only from a distance!).
Mrs Elliott would like to thank her Year 11 book group, Hannah, Teodora, Lexie and Amber for their incredible commitment to the group during lockdown. Mrs Elliott and her group continued to meet once a week (at the same time) over Google classrooms to read and discuss their books. Mrs Elliott even sent out new sets of books to the students via Amazon so that they had the books they needed. Now that the library is temporarily part of the Year 11 Hub, Mrs Elliott was able to re-connect with her book group for the first time this week (during lunch time).
Mrs Elliott said ‘I am so impressed and proud of the girls, they are so expressive, articulate and have a real passion for books. It’s such a pleasure to spend time with them.’
It was lovely to see the students again and they were so happy to be back in the library!
Miss Hogben would like all students to know that the library webpage is continuing to be updated and any contributions are most welcome…
Students of the week – Lots of nominations this week and more to follow next!
All our winners have demonstrated Endeavour, Resilience and Empathy; Plymstock School students striving to “Be the best you can be”
Our other winners include:
In Year 7
Sienna for the art work pictured at the start of the blog that she did during the summer break.
Oscar for the lovely postcard at the start of the blog (fields landscape) sent in during the Summer Holiday.
Alice for the amazing postcard at the start of the blog(Cornwall Eden Project) that was sent into school during the summer.
Martha has made a really good start to Year 7 English, enthusiastic, polite and motivated
Joshua – There is no area of the curriculum where Joshua does not try his best . An amazing start to Plymstock School.
Alice, Keira, Joshua and Poppy for total French enthusiasm and a great performance in our Modern Foreign Languages video, that we will share next week.
In Year 8
Ella, Josh and Charlie for creating fantastic name plates
Kendra for her positive and thoughtful contributions to English lessons
Soul for being very supportive to a friend earlier this week
Demi for excellent answers and focus in lesson this week
In Year 9
Helena has been nominated by Mr Hurd-Thomas for one of the best pieces of drawing he has ever seen by a Y9 student.
Kelsie for super work on the keyboard, really working hard on her timing and technique on the James Bond themes.
In Year 10
Finnley for great work and effort in Geography
Caolan for great work in Business Studies
Niks for an excellent and enthusiastic start to GCSE German
Kyle for not only excelling in the learning that is taking place but in supporting those next to him to make progress
In Year 11
Charlie has been nominated by Mr O’Neal for working really hard over lockdown to keep up with all the work set and has come back to school and maintained a great attitude to learning. “She works really hard in class, avoids being distracted by others and is always keen to do well (even though I know she doesn’t really like physics!). In the last two lessons I have had with her she has completed all the work set and asked for more to do.” In addition, Charlie has also been nominated for her consistent effort and willigness to push herself in English.
Marley for starting the year with exceptional commitment and purpose
Jamelia for consistent effort and willigness to push herself in English
Charleigh for a very positive start to Yr 11 French
Aaron for an incredibly strong and renewed work ethic on entry to Year 11
In Year 12
Art: Zoe for hard work and great engagement with her project theme.
Psychology: Joy and Keegan , both of them have shown a really strong work ethic , enthusiasm and willingness to contribute to class.
German: Abi for a great start in a level German.
NJB Tutor Nomination: Anna for her ‘Fun Friday’ tutor activity, introducing us to her music choices.
Computer Science: Tegan for jumping headfirst into programming challenges that are far more demanding than any she has previously faced.
Isaac for exceptional commitment to his Coursework during the Lock down and Summer periods. Isaac has also been nominated by his tutor and the sixth form team for coping so well coming back to school and his continued hard work across the board.
Drama & Theatre Studies: Destine for generally being “on it” and bringing a positive attitude and energy to every lesson.
English Literature: Alice, who has come back with a really positive attitude despite the fact she’s finding things tough.
Business: Abbie for being so on ball with the coursework and passing the first section first time with flying colours!
RS: Consortium students: Fliss and Erin for an excellent work ethic.
Criminology: Harry, Nathan, Beth & Lauren for excellent effort and research skills shown in their year 11 bridging work.
History: Shan, Dan Palmer, Jack who have all done well on their coursework this week in y13.
Thomas for excellent work ethic across all his subjects. He is in addition currently completing additional studies in preparation for his applications to universities in France.
Picture to follow next week.
And finally…
Forthcoming Virtual Events
Plymstock School Open Events for current Year 6 parents (2021 entry)
At Plymstock, we understand that deciding on a secondary school can be a complex process.
Due to the current restrictions imposed due to COVID-19, regretfully we are unable to host our on-site open events for prospective Year 7 students and their families.
However, we are delighted to inform you that we have created a virtual Open Evening page to help students, parents and carers with their decision.
Here you will find a presentation from the Senior Leadership Team and links to videos which give families the opportunity to view the school facilities, see and hear our staff and students and experience activities in our departments.
There are currently 3 videos showing tours of the site:
You might also like to explore our Gallery of events from 2019-20
This page will be updated each week from 22 September with new videos -please keep checking and re-visiting.
If you have a question which is not answered here then please contact us and we will do our best to provide the answer. Support@plymstockschool.org.uk
We hope you enjoy our virtual Open Evening videos.
Careers@PlymstockSchool – September 2020 Update
Our careers education programme remains a vital and integral part of our school curriculum and is fundamental to our development of what we describe as the ‘whole person’.
We thought it would be useful to give you an overview of our Careers Provision at Plymstock School and how we will be adapting to the ongoing situation.
Key Staff:
Tiff Linzell – Careers Adviser, Lorna Dover – Careers Leader and SLT Link – Wil Sprenkel
The ‘Plan’: (Review at Christmas) is pictured below
Careers@PlymstockSchool
Careers Insight – Bouncing back
The way we live has undergone huge changes, creating different routines and new ways of connecting with people. However, it is important to take time to reflect on what skills and qualities we have all developed through these unique circumstances. Over the next few weeks, we will investigate this further.
