The Flagpole

Rob Heath, Director of Estates, and his team welcome Emma Wells to the Estates Department to ensure all aspects of administration continue to run smoothly. 

A French graduate, Emma has worked within HR departments in legal, retail and educational head offices for ten years before settling in an educational environment. Emma has invigilated at Princethorpe since 2018 and has provided administrative support to various departments during Michaelmas Term 2021.

An Old Crescentian and a current Princethorpe parent, Emma is delighted to be working within the Foundation in this new role. In her spare time Emma loves playing badminton, reading and travelling.

The Administration Team welcomes Suz Jeffery, who is working alongside Claire Wildsmith, as our new HR Administrator.

Suz worked for nine years at a primary school before arriving at Princethorpe. Her role in the school office entailed everything from booking school trips to managing HR and Payroll.

In her spare time Suz enjoys spending time with her family, gardening and trying new recipes – both cooking and eating!

Over the next few months we will be working with our transport consultants, Vectare, to conduct a full review of the College bus services in readiness for the 2022-23 academic year.

The aim of the review is to optimise the services we provide for families and where possible improve routes and journey times.

Vectare will be analysing a variety of factors including demographic information, current usage and bus journey statistics and their representatives will travel on the services after Easter.

As part of the review we will be consulting with current bus users and non-bus users, as well as incoming families for September 2022. A link to the survey will be sent to parents next week and we would ask for all replies by Friday 18 March 2022.

Once the review is completed Vectare will present their findings to the College and work on revised routes and timetables to be completed and published by early June.

We would encourage all parents, whether bus users or non-bus users to participate in the survey.

Many thanks

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

We have received complaints and concerns from parents, neighbours and the general public about lengthy queues on the drive backing down onto the Leamington Road. This seems to be a particular problem in the afternoon and more specifically on a Friday.

To help improve the situation we would ask that parents do not arrive at the College to pick up their children before 3.30pm. The playground gates are kept closed until this time for the safety and safeguarding of children and queuing traffic on the drive impedes normal traffic on site including visitors with appointments at the school. In emergencies and exceptional circumstances, the gates may need to open early or remain closed beyond 3.30pm to enable us to respond effectively to the situation.

The queues on the road cause a significant problem for local traffic and on occasions vehicles have been known to overtake dangerously in both directions simultaneously.

The College has worked for many years with the local authority and parish council regarding safety on this stretch of road and paid for the addition of double white lines a few years ago.

We want to do our utmost to avoid any accidents or indeed a situation where we are faced with sanctions being imposed on traffic near the College or the police becoming involved.

As an alternative to collecting your child you may wish to consider using the school bus service after school, individual tickets as well as pass bookings can be made using the Bus Services website here. There is currently good availability on all buses for the evening journeys. You need to create an account on the website before making your booking.

We will be monitoring the situation closely and would appreciate your co-operation in this most important matter.

In emergencies and for exceptional circumstances, the gates may open early or remain closed beyond 3:30pm to enable us to respond effectively to the situation.

Rob Heath
Director of Estates

Parents wishing to access their on-line billing account should visit https://parent.princethorpe.co.uk/api/homepage/.

At the top of your screen you will see a menu that allows you to see your invoices and your statement.

To view your invoices please click “School Fee Invoices”. This will provide you with a list of all invoices raised for all your children within the Foundation. To open an individual invoice, select the pdf icon from the download column and click to open. A box will appear on your screen, please click the box to view your invoice.

To view your statement please hover your curser over “School Fee Invoices”. A drop-down box will appear “Statement of Account”. Please click on this. This screen will enable you to see the date, account code and current balance. A list of the transactions made during any given month will appear (any brought forward balance from previous terms will appear under this section). To change the month you wish to view please click on the “v” to the right hand side of the box containing month and year.

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

Please find below the Term Dates for 2021-22 and 2022-23

2021-22 (two page document)

2022-23 (two page document) 

Please note that half a term's notice is required if a pupil no longer needs to use the bus service provided by the school. 

This is particularly relevant for pupils in Year 11 and Upper Sixth who have exams in the Trinity term and for members of Upper Sixth who pass their driving test. For example, we need to be advised in writing before the start of the Trinity Term if the bus service is not required after half term in May. Parents wishing to give notice should write to Barbara Bromwich in the Bursary or email buses@princethorpe.co.uk.

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

Please see below our current vacancies: 

• Health and Safety Manager - Princethorpe Foundation
• Nursery Manager - Little Crackers

Full details and how to apply are available via the following link: Join Us

Should you know anyone who might be interested in these posts, please do share this information with them.