After a busy week, starting with the delivery of an assembly to Year 7 on environmental pollution, ten members of the school’s Eco Club took part in The Wembury Beach Conference, as part of the Marine Champions Project.

These dedicated students met with representatives from The Shark Trust, National Marine Aquarium and Devon Wildlife Trust, to further investigate the impact human activities have on our oceans. The Marine Champions Project brings ten schools from Devon together to investigate environmental pollution and help them develop strategies to make a difference to the environment we live in.

So far the group have collected many bin bags of rubbish from around the school site on a weekly litter pick, encouraged further recycling, raised awareness in school during the climate change strikes and been part of the school’s drive to become part of the Eco Schools Network.

The students are a real credit to their generation and it is great to see an active group so keen to address the issues many are unaware of. Later in the year they will be presenting all of their initiatives at The National Marine Aquarium.

With continued support, I’m sure they will go on to help make Plymstock an even stronger school. Well done, Max, Ollie, Ryan, Rowena, Lucie, Jess, Charlie, Sam, Amelie and Leo.

This week we ran a special event for a group of students in Year 8 called ‘Creative Futures’. It is designed to give a real world context to the work we do in the Art Department. This year we ran a workshop looking at design for gaming and film/animation. The theme was ‘Monsters’. The students started sketching ideas in clay, making three quick sculptures. Then they chose one of these to develop into a full character using drawing. Finally they traced and scanned this drawing and imported it to Photoshop, to make our third and final artwork. Three creative processes, 22 students and a host of fabulous monsters! A great day. A massive thank you to Mr Hurd-Thomas for organising this opportunity.

I am sure that many of you will have seen the shocking behaviour that took place when the England Football Team played Montenegro earlier in the week. Several of the England team were subject to some abhorrent racial abuse. Unfortunately, this type of behaviour is on the rise across Europe (if not globally) and recent events have started a triggered a national debate on the issue. As a school, our job, along with parents, is to help our young people develop into well-rounded and tolerant 21st Century Citizens. Over the last few weeks, we have been running Year 9 workshops as part of our EPIC curriculum, in conjunction with Amber Initiatives (a local organisation that aims to promote social integration and community cohesion), to discuss racism, tolerance and discrimination in society. A big thank you goes to Graeme Kirkup (who works for the Police Diversity Team) for organising the opportunity. In addition, during tutor time this week, we have been raising student awareness about the impact of racism in the UK and introducing our school Anti-Racism Policy (covering our collective rights and responsibilities). After Easter, we will also be bringing in guest speakers to deliver assemblies about this important national issue.

Congratulations go to two of our Year 11 students Charlie B and Jacob B came 2nd (46:24) and 3rd (46:25) respectively, for the Under 20s in the Tamar Bridge 10K last weekend. What an amazing achievement. I’m tired just thinking about it! A huge well done to both of them.

A big well done also goes to Jasper in Year 10. He recently competed in the third round of the 100% Downhill Cycling Race at Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. A crash in his first run saw him placed 34/57 in the 15-16 year old (Youth) category, with a time of 1m 31s. Determined to do better on his second and final run, Jasper posted a time of 1m 13s, taking him to a final position of 5/57. Overall, against all competitors (including elite, senior men and women), Jasper placed 34/264 competitors. Jasper’s next race will be Round 1 of the HSBC National Championships at Rheola, South Wales on Sunday 14 April. Good luck Jasper!

Our Year 11 Rugby Team recently played their final match against Devonport High for Boys in front of many adoring fans. Although we didn’t win the game, the boys demonstrated an exceptional level of commitment for each other and Mr Bellamy said he was proud to be part of it (even if they did blame his refereeing at some points!). The team, over their five years have been a very successful side and one of the best teams we have had at Plymstock School. We wish them all well in their coming Colts and Adult playing years.

We now reach our student of the week section. Our winners include:

• Sam S for his excellent attitude in lessons and for being a really good friend to others both in and out of school.
• Bogdan L in recognition of his achievement in Judo, where he has just won a Silver medal in the British Schools National Judo Championships, representing Plymstock School. Well done Bogdan – we are very proud of you.
• Prentice M, Hermione B, Sophie J and Alicia J who make up a team of exceptional Mathematicians. The team have been attending ‘Masterclasses’ at Plymouth University, which are designed to cover topics in a way that they would not normally experience in the classroom. They have all really enjoyed the highly challenging classes. All students have given up five Saturday mornings to take part, which shows real commitment. They have represented the school brilliantly.
• Sammi J and Cameron H for their community services to ‘pet detection’. These students found two Shih Tzus that had escaped from their owner. They took them to one of their homes, gave them water and a little comfy dog bed. They then tracked down the owner and reunited them with their dogs. Ace Ventura would be proud!