The Flagpole

Plans for the College’s Careers Fair on Saturday 17 March are taking shape with the announcement that James Hutcheson, Managing Director Finance & Administration of Aldi UK has kindly agreed to be the Keynote Speaker for the 2018 event.

Comments Head of Careers, Jacqui Quinney, "We are delighted to have James on board to open the event and set the tone for the day.  Having previously had responsibility for graduate recruitment at the UK’s fastest growing supermarket retailer, his presentation promises to be one not to miss.”

The bi-annual event is open to Year 10 to Sixth Form pupils and their parents. It provides a ‘one stop careers shop’ with a wide range of speakers and organisations on hand to offer advice and guidance.

The Careers Fair will run from 10.00am to 1.00pm and, as well as the keynote presentation, attendees will be able to attend up to three workshops depending on their personal interests and visit an exhibition zone, with stalls from many well-known companies, charities, institutions, universities and gap year organisations.

Mrs Quinney continues, “Registrations will open in February and there will be plenty to interest and inform our pupils and their parents."

A short biography on Mr Hutcheson is included here.

Back in November pupils from Princethorpe College took part in the 2017 United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT) Senior Challenge, a national competition for secondary schools that recognises the best young mathematicians in the country. The Challenge involves answering multiple choice questions and is sat under normal school exam conditions. The papers are then sent away to be marked by UKMT and the best pupils in the country are awarded Bronze, Silver or Gold Certificates.

The competition is primarily aimed at students in the Sixth Form but Princethorpe selected able mathematicians from both Year 11 and Lower Sixth to participate in this year’s Challenge. It is a demanding exercise designed to stretch and test pupils’ mathematical skills, so the College is delighted that this year 11 amazing Princethorpe mathematicians were awarded two Silver and nine Bronze certificates. 

Lower Sixth Former Megan Jones was best in school and year and was awarded a Silver Certificate. 

Year 11’s Caitlin McBride was best in year and was awarded a Silver Certificate.

Lower Sixth Formers Edward Bickerton, Imogen Blackhall, James Bunting, Beth Elliott, Amy Field, Henry Langford, Alex Meredith and Jasmine Rigg were all awarded Bronze Certificates and Year 11’s Isla Grant was also awarded a Bronze certificate.

Head of Mathematics, Karen Bannister, said “We are very proud that year on year and at every level Princethorpe’s pupils achieve success in this challenging national competition.  Congratulations to them all.”

The pupils will be presented with their certificates in the next whole school assembly, at the end of this month.

The College was delighted to welcome Old Princethorpian, Maya Vohrah, back to school on the first day of the Lent Term.  Maya spoke to pupils from across the College (with the exception of Year 11 who were sitting their mock examinations) in a series of Epiphany services in the Chapel.

Maya left Princethorpe in July 2014 and is now in her third year at university studying for a degree in Disaster Management.  She is currently undertaking a nine-month internship with Team Rubicon UK at Chilmark, Salisbury, an organisation that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams in the UK and around the world.  Back in September Maya was deployed to the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma.

In her five talks to pupils Maya spoke about her experiences and involvement in building a new school in the Caribbean. She spoke about using gifts and talents for the benefit of others and emphasised the importance of ‘soft skills’ such as adaptability, co-operation, teamwork, problem solving and pointed out the myriad of opportunities that are available at Princethorpe for pupils to develop these.

The Epiphany services offered College pupils the opportunity to reflect on the coming term and to appreciate that an epiphany may be a discovery about themselves such as a gift or a talent.  Whilst leading the services Father Alan Whelan MSC encouraged pupils to “discover the extraordinary in the ordinary” and to look at developing their own talents.

Our thanks go to Maya for taking the time to come into school and for undertaking such a marathon morning of motivational mentoring.