News

Harriet To Ride For England Pony Club Team At Mounted Games Home International Championships

Princethorpe Year 9 pupil, Harriet Boyd, has been selected to ride for the England Pony Club team in the Home International Mounted Games Championships at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in early July.

Harriet will ride her pony, Mayzee, and is really looking forward to the event. Mounted Games is fast and furious and a hugely competitive sport. The ponies are ridden at speed, up and down the course, and riders have to be athletic, have lightning quick reactions and incredible hand to eye co-ordination.

Harriet was selected as a reserve for the England team in April but has just been called up to represent her country. She is absolutely thrilled to pieces to have been selected for the team.

It is a huge honour for Harriet – good luck from everyone here at Princethorpe, we will all be cheering you on!

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Duke Of Edinburgh's Qualifying Expeditions Well Underway

Congratulations to all the Year 11 and Upper Sixth Princethorpe pupils who have completed their Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver and Gold Qualifying Expeditions in the last few weeks. An amazing achievement by them all.

Unaccompanied and self-sufficient they have trekked and camped across the Lake District (23 pupils for Gold) and the Peak District (54 pupils for Silver) working together in teams to achieve their expedition objectives.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is recognised as the world’s leading youth achievement award. It provides young people with the opportunity to get involved, explore new interests, discover talents and make new friends.

Will Bower, Head of Outdoor Education, commented, “I am proud that so many Princethorpe pupils continue to embrace the challenge of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. They take the opportunity to develop skills and try new experiences, pushing themselves both mentally and physically to be the best they can be and all with such commitment and enthusiasm. Despite the disruption that Year 11 and the Upper Sixth have faced, we have had record numbers completing their awards. It says so much about the resilience and tenacity of these young people.”

Year 10 participants in the Silver Award are off to the Peak District this weekend for their Qualifying Expeditions, while the Year 9 Bronze groups will be walking through the countryside just north of Banbury in late June and early July. The Lower Sixth Gold students have their practice expeditions imminently in the Lake District as well.

Make sure you follow @PC_Outdoors on Twitter and the College Facebook to see regular updates on the walkers' progress.

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Pupils Excited By Partial Solar Eclipse

Despite intermittent cloud, excited pupils and staff gathered at break on Thursday 10 June, to watch the partial eclipse of the sun.

Physics teacher, Sophie Rose was on hand with filters to ensure everyone could view the eclipse safely. The eclipse began just after 10.00am and by 11.00am had reached its maximum, with nearly 25% of the sun covered, and the small crescent shape was clearly visible to see.

The annular solar eclipse was visible across much of Europe, Asia and North America. Eclipses should never be viewed directly.

Lower Sixth Prefect, Mary Lomas, who took the image of the eclipse in the gallery said, "It was great to see!". Mrs Rose added, "It is so wonderful when nature gives us these rare opportunities to witness first hand the interplay of the Sun, planets and Moons in the Solar system. Viewing an eclipse is always such an exciting thing, it was great to see our pupils having this experience for the first time here at school."

It was an amazing solar spectacle that will be sure to have ignited pupils’ interest in Science.

 

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Flagship Summer Open Evening Showcases College To Prospective Parents

On Wednesday 9 June Princethorpe welcomed prospective parents and pupils into school for the College’s Summer Open Evening. Bathed in sunshine the school and grounds looked at their best and it was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the school.

In two carefully planned and managed events, the pupils and their parents were welcomed by the Headmaster, Ed Hester, in the Sports Hall before undertaking a self-guided tour around key locations. Staff were of course on hand to point the visitors in the right direction, but everyone was provided with a printed tour guide to help them find their way around the route.

Starting in the Sixth Form, the tour took them to the Chapel and then the Quad, where the orchestra and choir were performing. Then it was on to the Refectory and Clarkson Theatre before exiting the Roundhouse and coming back in to the building through Science. Our visitors then visited Design Technology and Art admiring all the stunning work on display. Then it was on to The Limes to collect takeaway refreshments before exiting up at the top of the building to go on to see the outdoor learning facilities in Switzerland and the College’s many sports facilities. Many families chose to enjoy their picnic on the North Lawn and the Headmaster and members of the Senior Leadership Team were on hand to answer any questions before the visitors departed and staff prepared for the next arrivals.

Ed Hester, Headmaster, welcomed parents with an inspiring address, talking about the school, its plans for the future and the ‘Spirit of Family’ ethos that allows Princethorpe to help every child to succeed.

Some 126 families attended the evening, many completely new to the school.  For all it was a great chance to soak up the special Princethorpe atmosphere and to get a flavour of day-to-day life.  

Feedbank from the families has been very positive, including:

"I just wanted to pass on my thanks to you and your colleagues for a great open evening at the College this evening."

"We enjoyed seeing the facilities and meeting staff and pupils. The event was really well organised and we appreciate the time everyone took to make sure we got the most out of our visit."

"Just wanted to say thank you for this evening, I thought the way you had set up the open evening was very well thought through and incredibly well organised."

A huge thank you to all the staff, prefects and pupils who helped on the evening and to those involved in the preparations. The school looked amazing and the feedback from our visitors as they left was very positive.

For more information on entry to Princethorpe in September 2022, visit our website here or email our friendly Admissions Team at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk.

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Two Fantastic Afternoons Of Friendly But Fiercely Competitive Sport

This year Sports Day was due to take place in year groups in the week before half term, and there had been much excitement during Games lessons as pupils organised their teams. Sadly, torrential rain put paid to the Year 10 and Year 9 events but the sun finally came out and the Year 8 and Year 7 events duly went ahead.

Field and track events took place simultaneously so the playing fields were action-packed from the moment the starting gun fired. College staff were kept busy measuring, timing and recording all the running, jumping and throwing taking place. After a week of internal examinations pupils were more than ready for the chance to let off a bit of athletic steam.

On the Field pupils took part in the Long Jump, High Jump, Javelin, Discus and Shot Put while for the Track they had the challenge of the 1500m (Year 8), 800m, 300m (Year 8), the 200m, 100m and of course the very competitive Relay.

There was plenty of great competition, with excellent effort from everyone involved. Yes, there were the winners, who are to be commended for their exhilarating performances, but there were also the moments of camaraderie where pupils pulled together and willed along those who were finding the going tough.

Lee Cassell, Foundation Director of Sport, has collated the results which have been shared with pupils in Tutor Time. The College Sports Day Athletics records are attached below. A special shout out for Year 8 André who simply sailed over the bar in the High Jump to set a new Junior Boys school record that beat the standing Senior Boys record as well!

Mr Cassell, said, “We had two fantastic afternoons of friendly, but fiercely competitive sport. The atmosphere was incredible, and pupils were very supportive of each other, appreciating every individual effort and there was very little in it at the end.”

After all the scores were checked and verified the final House results were: Year 7 - 1st More (261 points), 2nd Austin (257 points), 3rd Fisher (245 points) and 4th Benet (234 points) and Year 8 - 1st Austin (336 points), 2nd Fisher (314 points), 3rd Benet (293 points) and 4th More (289 points).

Huge thanks to all involved in organising and supporting the events.

Photos from the events can be seen in the gallery.

Year 7&8 Boys Sports Day Records 2021

Year 7&8 Girls Sports Day Records 2021

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College Hosts Equestrian Inter-Schools National Two-Day Event

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 May, Princethorpe College played host to the 2021 National Schools and Riding Clubs Two-Day Event.

Run in conjunction with Stoneleigh Riding Club, some 260 competitors took part in the two-day competition, the only ‘long format’ event open to schools and riding clubs in the UK. It included dressage and show-jumping on the Saturday and roads and tracks, steeplechase and cross-country on the Sunday.

This was the seventh year the College has hosted the event on the Princethorpe estate and the course looked magnificent against the backdrop of the Princethorpe Tower. Returning once again and causing much excitement was the challenging permanent cross-country water jump generously built by one of the event’s main sponsors, The Wigley Group. As well as being a fantastic enhancement to the course, the deep pools within the water jump are also used by pupils year-round supporting environmental and wildlife curriculum studies.

The competition takes a huge amount of organisation, so our thanks go to the school staff and Stoneleigh Riding Club who, together with an army of volunteers, ensured the event was such a success.

Representing the College in the 80cm class were Sophie Glover on Laddie who was awarded the ISA Gold medal, Claudia Newman on Beechmount Shadow who took ISA Silver medal, Grace Paybody on Extravagant Edition and Crackley Hall’s Jaz Staveley on Rowhill Quaizzical. Also competing hors concours was Rosie Moreton on Long Story Short. In the 90cm class riding as individuals were Lottie Paybody on Laragh Cracker, Lottie took the ISA Silver medal and was Best Warwickshire School competitor and Harriet Boyd on Clonea Daisie. Riding in the 100cm class was Lucy Watts on Cornascriebe Mermaid who also took the ISA Gold medal. Congratulations to the all the riders.

Assistant Head, Alex Darkes, Princethorpe’s equestrian event organiser, said, “The College was delighted to welcome school and riding club competitors to the Princethorpe estate for this year’s two-day event. It was great to see such a strong presence of school participants, many of whom had travelled long distances to take part in the competition. Our congratulations go to Bloxham School who took The Wigley Cup. The water jump was an exciting attraction in the cross-country course and we enjoyed seeing competitors tackle it enthusiastically. Our thanks go to members of Stoneleigh Riding Club, the events key sponsors The Wigley Group and Howkins & Harrison, and our Grounds and Estates Teams and all the volunteers, without whom we would have been unable to stage such a busy event.”

There will be more equestrian action taking place at Princethorpe shortly - the Inter-Schools’ Dressage Competition is scheduled for Saturday 3 July and spectators are most welcome.

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