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Founded in 1896, Devonport High School for Boys has just entered its new academic year. Originally based on Albert Road, and founded by Alonzo Rider, the school changed sites after world war two, into the present site, whose 200 year old buildings still stand strong. This was previously the site of an old hospital, and the current science block is still home to pillars, from which ‘patients’ were chained if considered a threat to others. The school’s first students would move on into careers in the Ministry of Defence as engineers or civil servants, though this has changed drastically in the last hundred years.
During the second world war the students were evacuated to Penzance to continue their education, but immediately in 1945, they were returned to the new site. It’s partner school is Devonport High School for Girls, based 2 miles away. Even with the close connections to this school, some students study part time at DHSB sixth form, coming from many different schools across the city of Plymouth and from south Cornwall and Devon.
Based in Devonport, near the Plymouth dockyard, the school stands out for its old architecture and design. The most prominent feature of the Plymouth-based school is the long colonnade linking eight of the current fourteen buildings. These buildings are named after famous people from Plymouth; Astor, Brunel, Burrows, Cookworthy, Drake, Edgcumbe, Foulston, Gibbons, Hansom, Ingle, Jarvis and Kingsley.
Probably the strangest and yet most exciting aspect of the school is that it owns another building situated in Uzel, France. It was used as the home for first and second years during their annual trip to France, until very recently, when concerns about its future arose due to the recession. Each year between 1992 and 2009, two hundred and fifty students would reside at the house, usually for a week to embark upon activities and projects, whilst getting involved with the local culture.
Including the current headmaster Mr Earley, the school has had only nine headmasters. The longest serving of these was Mr Treseder, who stayed at the school for 26 years after joining in 1906. Their main aim was to find the most academic children throughout Plymouth and south Devon and Cornwall, and open and expand their promising minds. Often, anywhere up to ten students finish school and go on to extremely high rated academic futures. Some go on to study at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and some go on to pursue medical careers, yet a wide range of future careers are covered by the leavers’ hopes. A fair amount of students end up graduating at the nearby Plymouth University or Plymouth College of Art.
Upon leaving, all of these young adults of Plymouth are signed up into ‘Old DHSians’, an organisation set up to keep the ‘Old Boys’ in contact with each other and the school. A form of this organisation originally started in 1904 with a yearly magazine keeping all those involved in the loop. The name changed from Old Boys when in the past decade, girls were allowed to apply to the school for Sixth Form only. This opens up opportunities for girls from Plymouth and the surrounding area to move from their current schools, to study subjects often not available in their respective previous secondary schools. The Plymouth school educates over 1,000 students at any one time, and offers jobs in Plymouth to around 100 staff.
The school has been awarded ‘type 2’ academy status in the past year, and still holds its previous language, applied learning and engineering specialisms. Over the past few years renovations have been applied throughout the school, and the majority of the classrooms and corridors were repainted and decorated. The biggest refurbishment however, was that of the Edgcumbe Hall. It became Edgcumbe Theatre in 2007, housing a large stage area and professional lighting and studio equipment for good quality performances and musicals. The older students of the past few years have used this new facility and re-created famous dramatic and musical performances from the West End and Broadway. At the same time, the school’s library was created neighbouring the theatre. The newest development was the building of a cookery block, under pressure from a new government scheme, which implores that every school must now teach cookery
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