The Flagpole

Evie joins Princethorpe College as a Teaching Assistant after completing her final school year at our linked MSC school, Downlands College in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia where she was a School Captain. Evie comes from a country town called Oakey on the Darling Downs, where she lives with her family on a 1,200 acre farm with cattle and three sisters.

Evie is very excited about immersing herself in British culture this year; and cannot wait to visit the hometowns of Shakespeare and Rugby football and has already had Marmite on toast for breakfast. Evie is looking forward to meeting as many people as possible on her year here before she returns to Australia in December to start a double degree in Law and Creative Industries

Bella is also at Princethorpe College for a year as a Teaching Assistant, having studied at Downlands College too. Evie is from an area called Cotswold Hills in Queensland and coming from a very hot Australian summer with temperatures above 35 degrees, is really feeling the cold, but nothing that layering cannot overcome.

Bella hopes to study International Relations and Law at university after her year here and wants to pursue a career in diplomacy with an emphasis on humanitarian aid. She has volunteered and fundraised as part of the Jules Social Justice Group within the Downlands College community and has assisted a tutorial program at the Toowoomba Refugee and Migrant Centre to support disadvantaged children with their homework.

We welcome back Nick, who was a student here from Year 7 through to the Upper Sixth, while he is having a gap year. He is aiming to fit in as much travel as he can around working as a Teaching Assistant before he leaves to study English at St Anne’s College, Oxford in the next academic year.

John joins the Foundation IT team as their Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer. He has a wealth of experience as he has worked in IT within schools for the last 17 years, most recently as the Network Manager at The Avon Valley School and Performing Arts College in Rugby. 

John is an OP and was a pupil at Princethorpe when the Foundation celebrated its silver jubilee and was taught Maths by Mr Darkes. John’s sister, Halina was also a weekly boarding student here and coincidently John’s office is Halina’s old dormitory rooms. Now a technical hub of the school, photos have been shared with her to show how Princethorpe College has evolved.

Required to start as soon as possible, we require an After School Assistant to work as part of a team to provide after school care for children on three evenings per week, term time only from 3.45pm until 6.00pm each day. The exact days will be open to some negotiation with the applicant. They will support the smooth running of After Care and undertake duties in supervising homework as required.

Salary: £7.47 to £8.56 per hour (B7-B18 on the Princethorpe Foundation Pay Scale) by negotiation, depending on qualifications and relevant experience.

This is an excellent opportunity to join the fast growing Foundation that values its staff and offers a rewarding benefits package including discounted places for staff, a pension scheme, child care vouchers and a cycle to work scheme.

Application: To apply for this vacancy applicants must submit a Foundation application form, together with a CV and covering letter detailing your personal qualities, experience and how you meet the person specification for the role. Applicants must ensure the application form is fully completed, including a detailed career history with specific dates.

Closing date: Monday 22 January 2018, at 9.00am, although candidates are advised to apply immediately as interviews may be held prior to the closing date and the closing date brought forward.

Further details and an application form are available from the College website www.princethorpe.co.uk/employment-opportunities

As it is the time of year when there is the threat of snow, it might be helpful for everyone to be familiar with the arrangements should there be significant snowfall. Where possible and if it’s safe to do so, we always remain open, even if we have to end the school day earlier than usual.

Should there be bad weather overnight, we talk to the bus companies a little before 06:00 and they brief us about their ability to operate our services. The Headmaster then makes a decision about whether the school will open.

Information will be available via the channels detailed below:

• The home page of the website www.princethorpe.co.uk will normally be updated shortly after 06.00.
• We will also post on the College Twitter page @PrincethorpeCol shortly after 06.00
• If there is likely to be disruption we will send text messages to parents’ mobiles and the mobiles of pupils who use the buses, usually by 06.30. Please note that we are not able to receive text replies on this service. 

If you want to look online at reliable weather forecasting, then www.weather.co.uk and www.metcheck.com are both sites which we use. In the case of flooding, then www.environment-agency.gov.uk is also useful. If you look under Flood and then use the river search word Leam, that will give you a good idea of the conditions around Princethorpe and the surrounding villages.

Usually, website updates are made in the course of the day, but if the school is likely to remain closed for a further day the same process will take place on the second and subsequent days. Should we have to close in the course of the day we will send text messages to let you know arrangements.

Where possible, we will make sure that our main number 01926 634200 is staffed or carries a recorded message.

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

Please click on the links below to access the Term Dates:

2017-18 (Two-page document)

2018-19