The Flagpole

I hope that you and your families are well. As we move into the final half term of the academic year, I want to thank you for the support that you have given us with the Home Learning programmes and also for the kind messages of thanks, appreciation and support you have been sending in to us – these are hugely uplifting and appreciated by us all.

End of Year Assessments and Feedback

We were really pleased with the way these went within the constraints of remote learning.

Years 7 to 10 all pupils will receive an assessment report, which are published via My School Portal today. This will be followed up with an on-line Academic Review Meeting between the pupil, parent and tutor.

• Year 7 and 8 Academic Review Meetings will take place week beginning 8 June
  
  
• Year 9 and 10 Academic Review Meetings will take place week beginning 15 June

For further details of the Academic Review meetings, please see this section of the Flagpole from Dr Liz Pyne, our Assistant Head (Teaching and Learning). 

Lower Sixth will receive a full report for each of their subjects which will be published on My School Portal on 19 June.

Please note that current Lower Sixth will have an additional set of assessments in week 3 of next term (when we hope they are back in school).

In addition, we have added an extra event: a Virtual UCAS Information and Live Q & A session for Lower Sixth parents from 6.00pm to 7.00pm on Wednesday 1 July. Further details will be sent directly to parents and pupil.

Year 10 and Lower Sixth Return to school on 15 June

After the frustrating news that the earliest return to school for Year 10 and Lower Sixth has been put back until 15 June, we have been working very hard with our timetable planning to deliver a really good programme for these pupils and are really looking forward to getting them back into school.  Further details of this will be emailed directly to parents on Friday 5 June.

Year 11 and Upper Sixth End of Year Celebrations

Whilst we will not be able to hold the Year 11 Prom or the Leavers Ball for Upper Sixth at this time, we are still aiming to organise these later in the year as and when we are allowed.

In the meantime, we will be holding “live” on-line thanksgiving services for these year groups to celebrate the end of an important stage in their education.

• Year 11 will be at 7.00pm on Friday 19 June
  
  
• Upper Sixth will be at 7.00pm on Tuesday 23 June

Both services will include readings, prayer and reflections as well as brief addresses from some staff.  Parents and students will be invited and there will be the facility for the pupils to contribute to the service. We will contact parent and pupils directly with further information in the next week or so.

Finally, in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, there has been a proliferation of social media coverage of issues relating to racism. Some of it is empowering, such as Barack Obama’s message on Wednesday, however, some of it is inflammatory, misleading or derogatory which may be very difficult for our children to negotiate. There is clearly a lot for us all to reflect upon and we are putting together resources to help our pupils make sense of the situation; if you do have concerns or would like any support with associated issues, please do contact us at school.

Very best wishes to you and your families.

Ed Hester
Headmaster

The College has announced the decision to move the Entrance Examinations Day for September 2021 entry from November 2020 to Saturday 23 January 2021 in the light of the COVID-19 situation.

The news was shared with prospective parents at a Live Q & A Session on Wednesday 3 June, following the College’s first ever Virtual Open Evening.

The event was very successful with over 400 families taking part. The Live Q&A was especially well received and there has been plenty of positive feedback on the whole event.

Comments, Ed Hester, Headmaster, “We hope the decision to push back the date for Entrance Exams will be welcomed by prospective parents and pupils alike. We are aware that many parents will be concerned about their child’s preparedness for the exams after this long period away from normal school life. By January we hope that families will have had the chance to visit the College in person and that candidates will have settled back into school life and be in a much better position to take the exams.”

The new deadline for registration for the exams is now Friday 4 December 2020.

Full details of the entrance exams, scholarships and bursaries are available in the Revised Admissions and Entrance Exams Booklet for 2021 Entry here.

For further information the College’s Admissions Team can be contacted by email at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or by telephone on 07930 601877.

Princethorpe Connect, the Foundation’s online alumni community, has just reached the major milestone of 500 online members and congratulations go to OP Melissa Scott who has won the latest prize draw.

Melissa, who left Princethorpe in 2016, joined PC Connect towards the end of May. We randomly selected her from the last 100 members to join and she was delighted to hear the good news. Since leaving Princethorpe Melissa has completed a Law degree at the University of Leicester in 2019 and is now in the process of doing her Legal Practice Course (LPC) combined with an MSc in Law and Business in Birmingham.

Aimed at past pupils, past parents and former staff, Princethorpe Connect allows the alumni to find and network with old friends and former colleagues from across the Foundation schools and keep up with news and events.

This year’s Upper Sixth have all been offered the opportunity to register on PC Connect and next week their accounts will go live allowing them to stay in touch with the community as they move on in their lives.

The College is keen to re-engage with all former pupils, parents and staff so please do encourage those you know to register. They can do this easily themselves by going online to https://connect.princethorpe.co.uk/ and you never know they may be the next lucky winners of our new members prize draw.

Are you missing out on Princethorpe? The serenity of the Chapel, the iconic Tower and Quad, the vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows, the echoing tiled corridors, the peace of the Library, the bustle of the Refectory, the hubbub in the Sixth Form Centre, the light airy spaces of the Limes, the acres of sports pitches, the rolling green campus and even those always industrious classrooms?

If so, you might just enjoy our new Virtual Tour. Put together for this week’s very first online Open Evening, it takes you on a trip around the College.

Get a bit of Princethorpe back in your life - we hope to be back there before long!

Virtual Tour

The Princethorpe At Home Recital was the College's second virtual concert and proved to be a real treat.

Princethorpe’s Director of Music, Gil Cowlishaw, had masterminded the whole event which included 27 performances submitted by pupils from Year 7 up to Lower Sixth, at Grades 1 to 8, some serious, some light-hearted, some downright silly (and wonderful!) and one pupil even using technology to perform a quintet with herself! The performers included pupils, staff, peripatetic teachers and a special performance by the Headmaster, Ed Hester, as well.

The lockdown recital streamed on the Friday before half term and included two group performances. The first a 12-piece a capella rendition of a mashup of Beyoncé’s Halo and Katrina and the Waves’ Walking on Sunshine and, in support of and as a tribute to Captain Tom and his NHS fundraising walk and all frontline medical staff working in the current crisis, a stirring 40-piece rendition of the moving anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Gil Cowlishaw explains, “Traditionally at this time of year, we have a music recital evening for pupils to share solo and small group items with their parents. The event is always popular so I knew we would have plenty of pupils wanting to perform. I put out a call to see who would be interested in another group performance and had a great response. It was a lot of work putting it together but the finished performance was both inspiring and uplifting!”

If you missed it then the finale of You'll Never Walk Alone can be watched here: https://vimeo.com/421441005

A huge thanks to Gil and his wonderful Princethorpe vocalists and musicians.

At the end of Assessment Week, on Friday 22 May, just before Half Term, the College organised a virtual ‘Friday Fun House’ activities afternoon.

Working together in their Forms, pupils completed a series of seven interactive challenges. Put together and co-ordinated by Assistant Head Co-curricular, Neil McCollin, alongside the House Activities team, the Friday Fun House afternoon of fun included all the traditional Trinity Term House activities, put together with a few extra special new ones.

There was a Question of Sport Quiz with five rounds, that included the famous picture board, a series of quick fire multiple choice questions, Princethorpe’s sporting names and logos challenges and even a guess the mystery sports coach round. Then there was the Spelling Bee, where pupils took part in online tests and the best score for each year group in each form earned points for the Tutor team. There was a very popular Mario Kart race, a Mastermind Quiz round with the specialist subject, the Princthorpe Ethos, a Crystal Maze Treasure Hunt and of course Princethorpe’s very own University Challenge. Finally, there was the weekly Tuesday Challenge were pupils were asked to recreate a famous sporting moment and upload a photo or clip to their House Team.

All of the quizzes were run live in Tutor Team meetings and gave pupils the opportunity to catch up with their Tutor Group as they unwound from the serious studies of assessment week.

The afternoon proved to be fantastic fun for all. Neil McCollin said, “We had a really great afternoon, thank you to all the pupils and staff for joining in so enthusiastically. There was plenty of friendly competition and I really enjoyed joining the forms and seeing it all in action.”

After totalling up all the points the results were very close, with just one point between the top two teams. The results were: 1st Austin, 2nd Fisher, 3rd More and 4th Benet.

After all the scores for all the House activities last term, the Friday Quizzes, the Weekly House Challenges and the Friday Fun Activities afternoon, were collated the housepoint totals now stand at:

1st More 1259
2nd Austin 1169
3rd Benet 990
4th Fisher 813

Well done to all, and thank you to all the pupils and staff for your enthusiastic participation, and a huge thank you to all who work so hard on putting all of the events together.