The Flagpole

As we reach the end of an incredibly busy school year, I write to thank you all for your support for the College. The COVID rollercoaster is not yet over I suspect, but it is so good to reflect on a lockdown-free year. With two years without public exams the fact that both the Year 11 and Upper Sixth finished the year taking real GCSEs and A-levels was a huge boon. And after all the hard work with the exams finished it was so good to see the Year 11s and Upper Sixth return to the College with their parents for their Thanksgiving Services in the Chapel this week. We also hugely enjoyed the Upper Sixth Leavers’ Ball at Coombe Abbey on Wednesday and look forward to celebrating with the Year 11s at their Prom next week.

The Trinity Term is always hectic and the dreaded “phone call” from the inspectors on the first day back after Easter now seems a long time ago. We were, of course, delighted that they found the College to be excellent in all respects and they were so complimentary in their report both about the pupils and staff. As I said in the most recent school assembly, excellent does not mean perfect and we are well aware that there is always more we can do to improve the school. Getting feedback from all quarters is a key aspect when making improvements and I want to say a huge thank you to all members of the Student Council this year as they have played a really important role in this process under the leadership of outgoing Heads of School Caitlin Mason and Anthony Convey and our new Heads of School Pratheesh Prabakaran and Freya Mills. Well done to all. One of the new initiatives we have in store for the new academic year is a pupil-school charter…more to follow on this in September.

Parental feedback is of course key too and I'd like to remind you that our questionnaire regarding how we best communicate and feedback to you both online and in person in the “post-lockdown world” closes on Monday so if you haven’t yet had the chance to complete it, the link is here.

There is so much that goes on in school and I am sure you will all have your own personal highlights of the year. There are so many times when the pupils inspire us with their creativity, hard work and perseverance: the House Talent Show; Matilda: The Musical Jr; the Spring Music Concert; the LAMDA Showcase Evening, the Summer GCSE and A-level Art, Photography Design and Textiles Show; seeing the inspirational work produced for da Vinci projects and The Pinnacle; Planet Princethorpe initiatives and of course the wide variety of sporting achievements and fixtures throughout the year. It’s hard to single-out individuals but some of the stand-out performances include: the 1st XI Hockey Girls making it to the England Hockey Schools Championships semi-final, the U13 Netballers and U14 Footballers becoming ISA National Plate champions, our Equestrian Team qualifying for Hickstead Eventing and Showjumping, a full girls’ cricket programme this year, fantastic team performances by our cricket and cross country teams and of course six of our pupils selected for the English Schools National Athletics final next weekend – we wish them all good luck!

It has been super to see key elements of the Princethorpe calendar return this year. To have our first Sports Day in four years was tremendous and we congratulate More on their success on the track. Residential trips have also made a welcome come back this year, with both Year 7 and 8 visiting Whitemoor Lakes and the Lower Sixth heading to Dearne Valley for outward bound and team-building activities. This summer sees us venture into Europe for the first time since 2019 with the History and Music trips and next year sees the return of several eagerly awaited sporting trips - the Holland Hockey Tour, South Coast Sports Tour, the Ski Trip to Italy and the Senior Sports Tour to South Africa.

It is also tremendous that since September 274 of our pupils will have completed a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition, equating to ten expeditions and a total of 39 days of in school training and trips. We wish good luck to the 11th group, Bronze B, who are setting off this weekend for the final expedition of the year. It was also lovely to see the pictures in May of the 12 strong group of recent Old Princethorpians together at Buckingham Palace receiving their Gold Medals at the first Award Presentation for over two years. There is a large team of staff involved to thank, but special thanks must go to Will Bower for his leadership of this key pillar of our co-curricular programme.

The multitude of House events at all levels are also inspiring, giving each pupil the opportunity to contribute and represent their houses. The pinnacle of these events is of course the tremendous House Activity Day where every single member of the College is involved. With this year’s theme being ‘Gap Year’, staff and pupils had some amazing tasks to tackle including the ‘Airport Run’, ‘Camp America’, ‘Mardi Gras’ and the ‘Samba Stop Over’, all in all a wonderful day. Huge thanks to all the House Activity Co-ordinators and prefects and particularly to Jess Newborough for her leadership of the House programme this year.

Some of the most memorable and special moments are when the whole school community comes together. This is often by giving both time and energy to some wonderful charitable causes and living out the ethos of the school by showing kindness, compassion and love for others. This has been another bumper year for projects and activities run with the sole aim of helping other people, not just by raising money but also by giving of time.

We have had cake sales, ice-lolly sales, pancake races, 40 mile and the upcoming 24-mile walks, non-uniform days, pink days, blue days, Valentine’s flowers, visits to the Leamington night shelter, lunches and social events. The situation in Ukraine has of course been at the forefront of our minds and much-needed support has been given to aid the humanitarian effort there, but a wide-range of other charities have also benefited both at home and abroad; Mary’s Meals, CAFOD, Breast Cancer Now, Friends of the Holy Land, Graham Fulford Trust, Father Hudson’s Society, British Heart Foundation, MIND, Aid to the Church in Need and SHELTER, our House Charity.

The money is still coming in, but the total raised by the Princethorpe Community so far this year is just over £18,000 which is a tremendous achievement. Many thanks to all staff and pupils who have been involved in these events, but a special mention must go to Mary Benham, our Chaplain, who also co-ordinates our charity events and Rod Isaacs who leads our Youth SVP and Sixth Form community outreach programme.

Of course, our wonderful PTA also raise funds which are ploughed back into the school to benefit pupils and we thank the Committee and all their helpers for the work they do, in particular with the organisation of the fantastic Christmas Fair and Summer Fête, popular events enjoyed by so many in our wider community.

Summer and beyond

As we move into the summer holidays our staff again will be working exceptionally hard to prepare for the new academic year. The teaching staff have a number of training days both post and pre-term and all staff will be undertaking a First Aid Course run by the Red Cross next Thursday. There is a small army of estates and grounds staff who work all through the summer to complete the annual programme of maintenance, redecoration and refurbishment of our wonderful buildings and campus – not least a complete refurbishment of the toilets by the student hub.

Of course, the major building project this summer is the new Science Centre, which is on track to open in Autumn 2023. As you will be aware our fundraising activity this year, was a key component in the financing of the new Science Centre. This is one of a number of projects which would not have been achieved without the generosity of our community who gave to this and other development projects. Your gifts really make a difference. These new facilities will help create an exceptional learning environment and will create an outstanding legacy at The Foundation.

As a charity, our commitment to providing financially assisted places remains the key theme for our fundraising activity. Our bursary programme has increased this year, allowing us to support over 50 pupils with a bursary place. Our financially assisted places and partnerships activities are key to how we deliver public benefit as a charity.

The whole of the Foundation has been inspired by the generosity of our parents and alumni supporters this year. Without donations, Princethorpe would not be able to progress our plans as quickly in support of bursaries, pupil experience or creation of inspirational spaces that enable our pupils to collaborate, question and explore. We value the relationships we have with each of our supporters. Fundraising is vital for sustaining and generating income for projects and we have exciting plans that can only move forward with significant support from within our community.

On behalf of myself and the Trustees, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank all the donors who generously gave to our fundraising activities this year. We have made real progress and the impact of our fundraising is making a real difference. This simply would not be possible without the gifts of all the donors. Thank you for your support.

A-level and GCSE Results Days

We send our very best wishes to all students who undertook A-level and GCSEs this year. For further information about the Results Days please see Mrs Dodds’ article in the Academic section.

Staff Changes

A school, of course, is only as good as its staff and we are tremendously fortunate to have such a large number of hard-working, caring and dedicated professionals; I would like to thank them again for all that they do for the pupils in so many ways. As always, we have a number of staff changes which I will summarise below:

We wish Lou Harrison well in her new role as Assistant Director of Sport and Head of Girls’ PE and Games at King Henry VIII Senior School, after 15 years at Princethorpe as a Teacher of PE and Girls’ Games and latterly Head of Academic PE. Lewis Clarke will also be leaving the PE Games Department after a year at the school. We are delighted to welcome Joe Jackson from our sporting rivals at Bablake and King Henry VIII as the new Head of Boys’ Games and he will be joined by Harry Walters already a Trainee Teacher at Princethorpe. Congratulations to Hannah Carminati and Ellie Callan who will jointly take on the Head of Academic PE role and we are delighted to welcome back Megan McDonagh (OP) to the Games Department from Hornsby House School.

We say goodbye to Christina Baxter from the Mathematics Department, who will be joining the Warwickshire Schools Foundation and are delighted that Alef Rosenbaum and Isobel Turner-Pryce are staying at the school and will be joined by Gabor Toth from the Parker E-ACT Academy in September.

In the English Department, we send Becky Forde our best wishes as she takes on the Head of English role at The Kingsley School. Fortunately, this allows us to retain Ellie Cullen and we welcome Madeleine Hughes who will cover the remainder of Jess Proudlock’s maternity.

During this forthcoming academic year Mike Taylor will be sharing the Head of Geography role with Helen Baker and we welcome Edward Musson to the Computer Science Department, who joins us from Trinity Catholic School.

We wish Kat Brittain, Learning Support Assistant (LSA), well as she leaves to start up her own business and the Learning Support team will welcome two wonderful new LSAs, Josie Wheel from Ousedale School, Newport Pagnell and Milly Hemmings from Sherbourne Fields Special Needs School.

As you may know, in conjunction with Warwick University and the Lion Alliance we run a trainee teacher programme at Princethorpe as part of their PGCE. This year our trainees have included Catherine Morrish, Bethany Rees and OP Rob Rollason; we wish them well with their future careers beyond Princethorpe and will welcome new trainees in September.

We bid farewell to our outgoing Teaching Assistants (TAs) Elyse Hyland, Imo Butler, James Walker and Tom and Will Crowfoot - all recent OPs - who have each done sterling work in so many areas of the school and look forward to our new incoming TAs for the next academic year. We also say goodbye and good luck to Alan (Sticky) Wickett, our drum teacher here for the past 17 years.

Becky Underhill, our Assistant Director of Studies is leaving after nearly seven years at the school in various roles supporting the academic team; she has been replaced by Chella Franklin as Academic Systems Co-ordinator who has a vast experience from Lawrence Sheriff School. Helen Morgan is also leaving us after 13 years, most recently as Assistant Registrar and will be replaced by Catherine Rogers who is promoted from Admissions Administrator. Caroline Houghton, Pastoral Secretary also departs with recruitment for her replacement well underway.

We thank all our leavers for all they have done at Princethorpe and wish them all well in their future careers and projects. We will celebrate our longstanding members of staff as well as those leaving the College this year at the end of term. Long service awards will made to Adrian Moore, who has been a piano and organ peripatetic music teacher for 30 years at the school along with Paul Hubball, Head of Art and Photography and Carmel Hopkins, Office and HR Systems Manager for 20 years of service each.

Thank you and best wishes to them all.

As I am sure you are aware, Grove du Toit starts as Head of Princethorpe in January 2023 as I concentrate on my Head of the Foundation role; to avoid any confusion with the other Heads, I will be called Foundation Principal. Grove will be visiting the school on a number of occasions next term, and we will make sure parents have the opportunity to meet him as soon as possible.

As we move into the summer, we have much to look forward to, as Nelson Mandela said:

“Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward.”

I hope you and your families get a good dose of the sun and have a safe, happy and relaxing summer.

With best wishes

Ed Hester
Headmaster