NEWSLETTER
Autumn Half Term 2025
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HEADTEACHER'S WELCOME
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
Welcome to our October half term newsletter, I do hope you enjoy it. Read on to find out about all the extracurricular activities our students have been involved in. As always, our young people have amazed us with their range of interests and ability to excel, we are so proud of them.
Our Hummingbird team performed magnificently at Goodwood recently and even though we sent a smaller team then usual, our car set a new record for distance covered, and we finished 10th in the International final – all with a car maintained and developed at school. A huge thank you must go out to our fabulous sponsors, Becton Dickinson, for their invaluable guidance and support.
We were delighted to see the Children’s book award come to PHSG, especially as reading is a priority for us and essential to equipping our students with the skills and knowledge to be their best selves – For life not school we learn!!
We have our sixth form open evening coming up and encourage all year 11students and their parents to attend. We warmly welcome prospective students from other schools, so if you know of people in year 11 from outside PHSG, perhaps let them know about our event?
Don’t forget that our super PTFA are running a Halloween Roller disco, so if you would like to buy tickets for your child(ren), don’t delay.
I wish you all a happy and healthy break and we all look forward to seeing our students again on Tuesday 4th November for a normal school day.
Very best wishes,
Simon Underdown
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30 Sep 2025
This summer, Summer R (7T) was nominated by her primary school teacher and grassroots coach to attend a talent ID session for the Cornwall Under-12 Girls Football Squad. After three intensive trials across August and September, we’re thrilled to share that Summer has been selected to represent...
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22 Sep 2025
We have some exciting news to share! Favour, 11K, has successfully trialled for the Bath U17 National Performance League (NPL) squad and has been offered a place!
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16 Sep 2025
Immy was awarded the Will Warren Award, which recognises a young person who goes above and beyond in supporting their club and community.
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09 Sep 2025
Over the summer, Lily, 11T, achieved a remarkable milestone—her first solo flight in a glider!
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08 Oct 2025
As part of our Design and Technology module, Year 9 students had the exciting opportunity to hear from a professional interior designer who visited the school to share insights into her creative career. From concept boards to client briefs, she walked students through the dynamic world of interior d...
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30 Sep 2025
Today, Plymouth High School was honoured to welcome Libby Allman, representative of the prestigious Children’s Book Award 2025, as she spoke to 7L about the power of reading and the importance of young voices in literature. English teacher, Miss Readey, has selected 7L to be this year's ju...
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09 Oct 2025
Here is a round up of the exciting events that have taken place in the school library this term.
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15 Oct 2025
On Sunday the Plymouth High School for Girls F24 electric racing car team travelled to Goodwood for the International Finals. We are delighted to announce that the team achieved a new record, with Hummingbird covering a distance over 40 mile and achieved a top 10 position, nationally. A hu...
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10 Oct 2025
We would like welcome all prospective students to our Sixth Form open evening on Thursday 13th November, from 4.15pm to 6.30pm. Booking is not required.
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07 Oct 2025
From September 2026, our 11+ assessment will be provided by Quest Assessments.
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10 Sep 2025
We’re thrilled to welcome two fantastic new members to the PHSG team, Mrs Pippa Moody and Miss Jen Adams! They’ve already brought smiles, warmth, and a whole lot of enthusiasm to our school, and we can’t wait for you to get to know them better.
Mrs Pippa Moody – Attendance...
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08 Sep 2025
Over the weekend, Jo Clews (PHSG PE Teacher) and her husband, along with five of their wonderful friends, took on an extraordinary challenge: a 24-hour relay swim in a lake in Worcester, all in support of the charity Level Water.
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21 Aug 2025
Students and staff at Plymouth High School For Girls are celebrating today as they receive their GCSE grades. This year’s outcomes build on the school’s track record of success in recent years and reflect the hard work that students have put into their studies.
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14 Aug 2025
Today, students and staff at Plymouth High School for Girls are celebrating after receiving their A-Level grades.
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Curriculum Enrichment Week 2026 (Year 7 - 9)
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We are pleased to announce the launch of the Curriculum Enrichment Week (CEW) 2026, to take place next summer.
The CEW booklet and booking form will be emailed to parents and students on Thursday 16th October. It will also go on the school website.
Students will not get a hard copy of the booklet.
The booklet contains all you need to know about the process leading up to CEW, including booking an activity, paying deposits, further payments and other information. During half term, please read the booklet very carefully with your child and then complete and sign the booking form.
Please ensure your child does want to do the activities they choose, as once they are allocated it will be very difficult to change to something else.
You will also find very important deadline dates for when the booking form has to be returned, this will be a different date for each year group, and also the dates for deposits to be paid through the Arbor app to secure the activities.
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05 Sep 2025
Our super PTFA are in the process of organising a roller disco for the 25th October. Please see the poster for details. Parents/Carers can sign their child up using this link.
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School lottery
Our wonderful and hardworking PTFA have decided that they would like to trial the use of the School Lottery to raise funds for school. Whilst the PTFA does not intend to specifically promote gambling, they have found that many schools have successfully used the School Lottery to raise funds for school for those little extra things. Parents can find out more about the School Lottery here. Of course, there would be no expectation that parents buy lottery tickets, and the option to contribute to school via the usual methods to PTFA remains open. Should parents decide to take part in the school lottery, some of the cost of each ‘ticket’ does go to the School Lottery to cover things like administration costs. However, there are prizes, just like in any lottery, and a share of the ticket money comes directly to school. Should you wish to get involved, please click here.
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Student & Class of the Week
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10 Oct 2025
Student of the week: Tilly, Year 11. ''For showing kindness and initiative whilst supporting younger students on the public bus'' Nominated by Mr Law. Awarded 10 House Points.
Class of the week: 9T Science. ''For a massive improvement in your numeracy ninja scores! a...
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30 Sep 2025
Student of the week: Ruby D, 11L. ''Ruby has been really helpful in the library. She has gone above and beyond without being asked. She has stepped in when she could see it was busy in the library- helping to shelve books and helping year 7s to write book reviews. Amazing work, thank yo...
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22 Sep 2025
Student of the week: Annabelle O, Year 7, ''For taking the lead in supporting other colleagues in the group during our IT lesson on the 15th of September. Well done, Annabel! I am really proud of you.'' Nominated by Ms Tica. Awarded 10 Mouse Points.
Class of the week: 13A Core Mat...
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16 Sep 2025
Student of the week: Nancy, 7T. ''Brilliant transition work - huge effort, including an excellent PowerPoint.'' Nominated by Mrs Carter.
Class of the week: Suzy, Willow and Sofia, 8L. ''For spotting when a new Y7 was in distress, comforting her and finding support for...
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DHSB Buses
As we approach the end of the half term, I’d like to remind you of an important scheduling detail regarding term dates and the associated contract bus service provision.
Please be aware that following the October half term, there will be a week during which PHSG (Plymouth High School for Girls) will be in session while DHSB (Devonport High School for Boys) will not. As the service is administered by DHSB, it will only operate according to DHSB’s term dates.
This means that during the week when PHSG is open but DHSB remains closed, the service will not run. We kindly ask PHSG families to make alternative arrangements during this period.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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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 2025-2026
Term
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Starts
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Ends
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One
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3rd September (Year 7 & 12 only)
4th September (All Year Groups)
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16th October
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| Autumn Half Term |
20th October |
31st October |
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Two
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4th November
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19th December
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| Christmas Holidays |
22nd December |
2nd January |
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Three
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5th January
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13th February
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| Spring Half term |
16th February |
20th February |
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Four
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23rd February
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2nd April
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| Easter Holidays |
3rd April |
17th April |
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Five
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20th April
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22nd May
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| Summer Half term |
25th May |
29th May |
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Six
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1st June
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17th July
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| Summer Holidays |
20th July |
2nd September (Year 7 & 12 only)
3rd September (All Year Groups)
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Curriculum Enrichment Week
6th July - 10th July
Non Pupil Days
1st September
2nd September
17th October
3rd November
4th May 2026 (Bank Holiday).
20th July 2026
21st July 2026
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