NEWSLETTER
Summer Half Term 2025
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HEADTEACHER'S WELCOME
Welcome to our May half term newsletter
This edition highlights many of the exciting events and activities that have taken place at Plymouth High over the past few weeks.
We are proud to announce that we have been awarded Thinking Accreditation. This achievement reflects our school's commitment to embracing the principles of Thinking, which help learners understand the thinking process and how best to approach tasks or problems.
Our racing car successes continue with Hummingbird winning the regional finals. Our second car, Xanthus competed strongly in its debut race at Goodwood. The electric car racing team will be bidding a fond farewell to the Year 13 and Year 11 team members who are moving on. They have made significant contributions and will be greatly missed.
Our students edit and publish their own magazine, Hear Me Out. The Summer Edition is now available on the website for everyone to enjoy. This is the first edition edited by Deputy Head Student, Tegan.
Congratulations to Mrs Clews for completing the Saltash Half Marathon in aid of a Mental Health Charity, and well done to the many students who have achieved success in their extracurricular clubs and activities. They truly embody our motto: "For life, not school, we learn."
I hope you enjoy the newsletter and wish you a restful bank holiday.
Very best wishes
Mr Underdown
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20 May 2025
A huge congratulations to Isabel, 9T, who competed in the Open Water Swim Event at Roadford Lake on Saturday 17th May — and took 1st place overall in the 500m swim! 🌊🎉
An incredible achievement and a fantastic representation of our school. Well done, Isabel! 👏💙
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16 May 2025
We are thrilled to share some fantastic news from Year 7! Phoebe S, 7A,has been selected for publication in the final anthology of the prestigious Rotary Young Writer 'Wonderful Water' Creative Writing Competition. This is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Phoebe's creativity a...
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16 May 2025
Huge shoutout to Margot – 7K who smashed her 5km PB at the Run Plymouth Event on Sunday 11th May, running alongside her Uncle Alexander! 🏃♀️ Your hard work and determination continue to inspire us all — we’re so proud of you, Margot!
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12 May 2025
We are incredibly proud of Carys H (Year 9) and Isla P (Year 10) who completed the challenging Ten Tors 35-mile expedition across Dartmoor as part of the Plymouth Explorer Scouts team.
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12 May 2025
A huge congratulations to Eva, 11L, who has made waves at the South East Regional Age Group Diving Competition in Southampton this weekend!
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12 May 2025
We love celebrating our students—and this weekend, Tilly, 7K, gave us every reason to cheer! 🌟
She was crowned Cornwall County Champion at Par Athletics Track, taking home the gold and smashing a personal best in the 70m hurdles. 🥇💨
Her determination, focus, and commitment truly...
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02 May 2025
We're incredibly proud of Isla, 10L, who has recently been awarded her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award 🎖️—an amazing achievement completed through Explorer Scouts.
Isla has shown dedication, resilience, and a fantastic commitment to personal development. A huge well done from al...
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29 Apr 2025
We’re celebrating the incredible achievements of Tilly, 7K, over the past two weeks on the athletics track!
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29 Apr 2025
We’re incredibly proud to celebrate Emily’s (8L) amazing achievement — she brought home a gold medal at the Octopush Junior Regional Competition this weekend! 🏅💪 Her hard work, dedication, and team spirit truly paid off.
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25 Apr 2025
We’re thrilled to celebrate yet another fantastic achievement from one of our very own students—Maya, 9A, has brought home a silver medal from the Southern Region Qualifier Competition in Milton Keynes, held during the first weekend of the Easter holidays.
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21 May 2025
The Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Careers Hub is hosting a free, informative online session designed especially for parents, carers, teachers, and young people on Tuesday 3rd June 2025, 6pm -7pm.
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UKBC Biology Challenge
We are proud to congratulate eight of our Year 9 and 10 students who recently took part in the prestigious UKBC Biology Challenge, run in partnership with the Royal Society of Biology and the University of Warwick.
Over 42,000 students across the UK took part, and a special mention goes to Ruby P in 9PIC, who scored an outstanding 87% overall. This secured her a Silver Award, placing her in the top 15% nationally - an impressive achievement!
This national competition encourages students to explore their curiosity for the natural world beyond the classroom, with two thought-provoking test papers covering everything from cells and ecosystems to current biological breakthroughs. Our students demonstrated not only their subject knowledge but also exceptional critical thinking and problem-solving under pressure.
Competitions like this reflect our school’s belief that we learn for life, not school. We are delighted to see our students embracing opportunities that develop both their intellect and their thinking dispositions.
Well done to all involved!
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02 May 2025
On Monday 28th April, a team of 6 year 8 students were invited to compete against teams from other local secondaries in the IET Faraday Challenge held at DHSG. The challenge comprised of trying to solve a real world STEM problem, this year’s theme focussing on using batteries in an innovative...
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21 May 2025
We are delighted to present the Summer 2025 edition of the student magazine, 'Hear me Out'. The first of our new editor, Deputy Head Student, Tegan!
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16 May 2025
Over the bank holiday weekend, Mrs Clews took on the Saltash half-marathon in memory of Miss Luscombe, raising money for a charity close to her heart called Open Up which is an NHS charity that helps those suffering with a variety of mental health issues in Devon.
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16 May 2025
Our Formula 24 racing team had a strong start to the 2025 season at RMB Chivenor this past Sunday, entering two cars – Hummingbird and Xantus – into their first competitive event of the year.
We are delighted to report that Hummingbird finished first in the race, securing a commanding...
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12 May 2025
We are thrilled to announce that Plymouth High School for Girls has been formally accredited as a Thinking School by the University of Exeter, recognising our deep and sustained commitment to cognitive education and whole-school thinking.
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09 May 2025
Our Pre-Loved Uniform Shop, run by our fantastic PTFA, continues to be a valuable resource for many families within the school community. To keep it going strong, we are currently in need of blazers and skirts — if you have any that your child has outgrown, we would be incredibly grateful for...
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09 May 2025
This week marked a special moment for our Year 11 and Year 13 students this week as they came together to enjoy their much-anticipated Celebration Days. With the sun shining and spirits high, students had a fantastic time relaxing and having fun before the focus shifts to their upcoming public exami...
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02 May 2025
Lunchtime in the gym turned into a battle of brains this week as students from all year groups came together for our very own version of The 1% Club!
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02 May 2025
Last weekend Mr Thackray, Miss Cook, Ms Noble and the sixth form team took the new race car, Xantus, to its very first F24+ debut race at the infamous racetrack at Goodwood.
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29 Apr 2025
PHSG will be hosting an Open Evening on Thursday 26th June from 4.30pm - 6.30pm. Booking is not required
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Can you help?
We’re excited to begin a new project to enhance our school environment—and we need your help!
We are creating flower beds using recycled tyres to bring more colour and life to our school grounds. To make this happen, we are kindly asking for donations of the following items:
- Pond liners (to line the tyres)
- Soil or compost
- Flowers or flowering plants
These contributions will help us transform old tyres into beautiful planters, giving students a more vibrant and inspiring place to learn and relax in.
?? Why it matters:
Improving our school environment isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about creating a space where children feel proud, calm, and connected to nature. Studies show that greener school grounds can boost mood, encourage outdoor learning, and foster a sense of responsibility and teamwork amongst students.
If you’re able to donate any of the items listed above, please bring them to the school and ask t contact our site team. Every little bit helps!
Thank you for supporting our school and helping us grow—literally and figuratively!
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Parent Survey
Thank you to those parents that completed last week's survey on school life.
Your thoughts and feedback are invaluable to us, and we would greatly appreciate your participation.
Each survey will be brief and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Your responses will help us identify areas for improvement and celebrate our successes.
Simply click on the link below and complete the survey at your convenience.
Week 4: Thinking Tools
Link https://forms.office.com/e/1sRnXSyvJC
Previous surveys if you have missed them:
Week 1: School Life
Link https://forms.office.com/e/GSk88szGAu
Week 2: Attendance
Link https://forms.office.com/e/DS8GmfyKHr
Week 3: Extra curricular Clubs
Link https://forms.office.com/e/4HE6RXDFye
Thank you in advance for your time and valuable feedback.
Together, we can make our school an even better place for our students.
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Student & Class of the Week
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20 May 2025
Student of the week: Phoebe, 7A. ''Phoebe's poem for the 'Wonderful Water' Rotary Young Writer competition has been selected to be published in the final anthology, which is a tremendous achievement. Students worked on their pieces in the autumn term in English lessons before sub...
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09 May 2025
Student of the week: Lilly. 7L. 'Lilly achieved the top score in our class of 95% in her decision making exercise in geography. Lilly was able to use her own knowledge and the maps provided to make overall, evidenced based suggestions in a coherent manner. Fantastic geography.' Nominate...
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02 May 2025
Student of the week: Oyinkansola, 7T. ''For spotting other students' litter and going out of her way to pick it up after break time and put it in the bin. She takes pride in our school and keeps it tidy without being prompted.'' Nominated by Miss Joynes. Awarded 10 House Poi...
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29 Apr 2025
Student of the week: Neva, 9A. ''Neva has shown inspirational determination to succeed and to fully push herself over Easter. Despite being a late starter and not having previously studied any of the literature texts for the End of Year Exam, she has made extensive revision notes over Easter...
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Reminder: Low ParentPay Balances
We are seeing a growing number of students requiring lunch slips due to insufficient funds in their ParentPay accounts.
To help avoid this, parents can set up a free email alert to notify them when their account balance is low. Please see the below guidance on how to set this up.
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PARKING
Please can we ask Parents for consideration when parking near the school, there have been some instances where it has been difficult for our students to walk safely due to the volume of cars.
There have been occasions where students have been late leaving for a sports fixture because parents had parked blocking the minibuses. Students can exit the site via Alton Road, and parents may consider this a convenient pickup point or one of the other streets surrounding the school.
Be reminded that there is NO PARKING allowed on the double yellow lines outside the school main gates.
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STUDENT ABSENCE
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HOME SCHOOL COMMUNICATION
Students may contact staff if they have queries, firstly by visiting them in their department area, and only contacting them using school email system if they really can’t see them in person.
Parents may wish to contact staff. The following outlines what the Headteacher regards as important considerations regarding home/school communication, particularly by email:
¨ All communication must respect the dignity of the recipient.
¨ Within 48 hours: receipt of an email will be acknowledged by school either by the person contacted, or the most appropriate person able to deal with the issue (term time only, not after 5pm nor over a weekend).
¨ Within 5 working days: school will provide a response to the email by telephone or in writing, or e-mail. This may include informing the sender that more time is required to provide a full response. If this is the case, staff should indicate a time frame for a response.
¨ Staff will not be expected to monitor or respond to emails outside their normal working hours (nor at weekends and published school holidays).
Whilst this is extremely rare, if a member of staff receives an e-mail or call which is of an aggressive tone, sets unreasonable demands or could otherwise be interpreted as harassing, they will refer this to a senior line manager in the school, who will decide if consideration needs to be given to dealing with further communication under our Complaints Policy.
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PARKING
Out of respect for our neighbours and for health and safety reasons there is NO PARKING on the school site or for collecting/dropping off students on the double yellow lines outside our school gates.
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STUDENTS LEAVING SCHOOL DURING THE SCHOOL DAY
For safety reasons if your daughter has to leave school during the school day, and you are unable to collect her, she must have a note in her planner with clear instructions that you give permission for her to leave unaccompanied. Without your express instructions to this effect we will not allow any students to leave school unless they are collected by an adult from reception.
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NUT ALLERGY
Please be aware that we have students who are severely allergic to nuts and we would, therefore, appreciate where possible that you try to avoid putting nuts into packed lunches.
Although we are not going completely nut free, we have stopped selling packets of nuts as snacks in the canteen to try to reduce the risk to them and appreciate your support.
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SOCIAL MEDIA & ONLINE SAFETY
Our Children are spending more and more time on their mobile phones. Making them aware of the dangers of social media, and protecting them from these dangers can be very challenging. These are some of the better known sites that pose risks to children—are they on your child’s phone home screen?
To help safeguard your child please regularly take the time to talk to them about the way they use their social media apps:
Do they always know who they are engaging with?
Do they share their passwords?
Do they feel comfortable with what they are seeing and doing?
Do they feel pressure from “friends” to do/say things they don’t want to?
For more information please regarding online safety, please visit our website: www.phsg.org/
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Calendar Term Dates 2024-2025
Term
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Starts
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Ends
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One
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4th September (Year 7 & 12 only)
5th September (All Year Groups)
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17th October
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| Autumn Half Term |
21st October |
1st November |
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Two
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5th November
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20th December
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| Christmas Holidays |
23rd December |
3rd January |
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Three
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6th January
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14th February
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| Spring Half term |
17th February |
21st February |
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Four
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24th February
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4th April
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| Easter Holidays |
7th April |
21st April |
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Five
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22nd April
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23rd May
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| Summer Half term |
26th May |
30th May |
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Six
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2nd June
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23rd July
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| Summer Holidays |
24th July |
2nd September |
Curriculum Enrichment Week
7th July - 11th July
Non Pupil Days
3rd September
18th October
4th November
5th May 2025 (Bank Holiday).
24th July 2025
25th July 2025
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