St. Levan Shield
House Update ... Priestley have won the 2023/24 St. Levan Shield! Congratulations to George, Tom and all of Priestley House.
The St. Levan Shield is the culmination of all of the individual house competitions across the year. The Merit Shield is awarded to the house gaining the most commendations. The House Community Cup is awarded is awarded to the house gaining the most points for duties and the House noticeboards. The House Competitions Cup is awarded to the house with the best overall sporting success and the Sports Day Cup is awarded to the winning house at Sports day. The current holders of the St. Levan Shield are Priestley.
Until the closure of Tamar High School at the end of the 1980s there were three 'forms' of pupils who were separate during their first three years, then began to mix as they opted into different subjects (North, South and West or N, S and W). The closure of Tamar prompted the expansion of DHSB and generated a new form of mixed pupils from both schools: East. From 2009 there are six forms, again from an even even split from the previous four (C, E, N, P, S, W) still based on compass points.
Actual 'houses' being more sport-oriented or social, took longer to coalesce. Before the 2009 changes these were Drake, Raleigh, Gilbert and Grenville. After 2009 there were six: Campbell, Edison, Newton, Priestley, Smeaton and Winstanley. From September 2024, there will be seven houses. With the introduction of a new house, the decision was made to rename our seven houses. A process beginning with figurehead nominations and ending with a whole school vote saw our new figureheads chosen - Attenborough, Fleming, Johnson, Leslie, Scott, Turing and Windsor.
The houses continue to compete each year for the St Levan Shield, i.e. relating to west Cornwall, and also St Levan Road, which is the boundary between Stoke and the new working suburb of Devonport.