The Flagpole

A reminder that those wishing to book a new single or return bus pass or ad hoc journeys should do so from our bus website here. To do so you will need to first set up an account. The site shows clear information on all bus routes, stops and fare information.

Bus passes are booked on an annual basis and are invoiced termly, starting with the Michaelmas Term fees. Payment must be made by the start of each term in order to guarantee the place.

Ad Hoc Journey Bookings
All ad hoc users must pre-book a seat to travel. A £10 penalty fare will be charged per journey for those who fail to do so. You are able to make multiple ad hoc journey bookings at the same time. All ad hoc journeys must now be paid for at the time of booking using a debit or credit card.

Bus Passes
All new bus pass users will be issued with a Swipe Card during the first week of term. For ease of use we will also be issuing all new and existing bus pass users with a digital wallet pass, similar to those used for plane and train travel, which they will be able to load onto their mobile phone. More information about this will be sent before the start of term.

Safety
The safety of pupils using the bus service is of paramount importance. We ask parents to talk to their children about how to keep safe going to and from the bus stop and ensure they know what to do if the bus doesn’t arrive. There is a briefing for pupils who use the bus service at the start of each academic year. The College’s risk assessment of the bus service is attached here and a copy is also on the Parent Portal.

Buses Customer Service
Vectare, our transport consultant, will now be handling the customer service for the buses on the College’s behalf, the Vectare team are very familiar with our bus routes and do this already for a number of schools with great success. They will provide parents with support between 6.00am and 10.00pm, 7 days a week. For any live operational matters (i.e. stood at a bus stop), please call Vectare on 0115 777 3185. For any matter that is not live, and operational, please use the contact form on the website, or contact them via email at princethorpe@vectare.co.uk.

Should you have any queries relating to any of the above information please do not hesitate to contact the team at Vectare and they will be more than happy to assist.

Users of the PC1 Service were emailed this week with an update which comes into play from Monday 5 September. The changes apply to the morning service only.

Five stops at the start of the service will now be operated by a Princethorpe College minibus and driver with the following later timings.

07:40 Barby - Arnold Arms, corner of Kilsby Lane
07:42 Barby Primary School
07:50 Ashby St Ledgers - St Leodegarius Church
08:02 Braunston - Fish and Chip Shop
08:03 Braunston Church
08.21 Princethorpe College

This morning service will be called PC1A – Barby and will have a very limited number of seats. All those currently booked with a pass on these stops will have a seat in the morning.

This change will enable us to make more seats available on the main PC1 service and also make it possible to start the PC1 service in the morning at West Haddon – Crown Lane, followed by a stop at the Post Office in Crick. The West Haddon stop falls within fare zone C, but we will honour the B zone fare for those moving to this stop who have already booked a single or return pass for this year.

The Kilsby – Junction of Main Road/Ashby Road stop will no longer be available in the morning. All pass users for this stop live in the Crick/West Haddon area so will be better served by the new morning stops.

The timings will be as follows:

07:23 West Haddon

07:29 Crick – Post Office

07:35 Kilsby – A428 Halfway House Stop

The service will now be called PC1 – Rugby East. And the route will then follow the remaining stops and published timetable.

The afternoon service for the PC1 - Rugby East will remain unchanged to that initially published.

We hope this will come as good news to the large number of users from the Crick/West Haddon area who will now have a more convenient morning stop and those from Barby, Ashby St Ledgers and Braunston who will now have a much shorter morning journey time.

If you would like to adjust the booked space for your child, please follow the below process:

1. Visit princethorpe.vectare.co.uk
2. Login using the same details you used to make your booking
3. Select 'My Account'
4. Select 'Orders'
5. Select the relevant booking
6. Select your child
7. Select the 'change stop' button next to the relevant journey
8. Select the journey that you would like. 

Alternatively, the video here shows how this can be done:

To see the full route/s, please visit princethorpe.vectare.co.uk. If you have any queries about the changes please contact princethorpe@vectare.co.uk.

The College takes the safety of pupils, staff and visitors very seriously and we have taken various measures to minimise the risk of an accident involving a vehicle. Please take care when driving on campus particularly at busy times such as the start and end of the business day.

The College has updated its risk assessment on the management of traffic on site to ensure the safety of pedestrians and vehicles, these can be made available on request. Parents are also asked to discuss with their children how to keep safe. Our aim is to make it as safe and easy as possible for everyone. 

Steps drivers can take to improve safety:

• Adhere strictly to the speed limits and instructions given by College staff
• Never hold or use a mobile phone whilst driving
• Park in designated areas and never on double yellow lines
• Stop for pedestrians wishing to cross at designated crossing points
• Ensure that pupils only exit or enter cars when safely parked in designated areas
• Music should be kept to a minimum level
• Be patient, kind and courteous 

Everyday traffic

• All pupils arriving and leaving school at the normal time must be dropped off and picked up in the playground area adjacent to the pupils’ entrance and tennis courts; this is the only designated area for parents at the beginning and end of the school day. 
• The playground is closed to traffic from 9.00am to 3.30pm. Parents arriving within this period are asked to park in the ‘Short Stay’ parking (yellow hatched area between Reception and the Roundhouse) and go to Reception or the Student Hub.
• If you are collecting your child at the end of the day, please avoid arriving before 3.00pm. If you are queuing, please keep yellow hatched areas by the main gates clear to enable our estates team or emergency vehicles access.
• Please do not drop off pupils at the end of the drive as it is unsafe for pedestrians.
• For the safety of all pupils, parents are asked not to drive through the North Car Park and drop off or pick up from the Sixth Form Centre and not to park on the grassed areas.
• Sixth form parking is available only to those issued with permits. A designated Sixth Form car park has been provided next to the sports field. Permit holders must park in their designated space as issued by Mr Collie.
• For improved security, our automatic main gates close between 9.00am to 3.20pm. Should you require access during this time, please press the bell button on the keypad.
• Parking on site is very restricted especially whilst we have construction taking place on site. If you are wishing to attend the College to watch sport, please use visitor or short stay parking however, we cannot guarantee this will always be available.

Start of the academic year

The start of term is exceptionally busy and we recommend that new pupils use the bus service from the first day of term. However, we accept that some may want to be picked up while they settle into College life. To help ease the queues, we may use The Close (grass area next to the playground) at the end of the day. Trained staff will manage parking on this area and all drivers are asked to cooperate and to follow instructions. Please note, this will only operate during the first week of the academic year (5th to 9th September).

Polite reminders

• We encourage drivers to turn off their engines whilst waiting to reduce pollution
• The whole site is non-smoking/vaping

Rob Heath
Director of Estates

We have moved to a different payment platform, Global Payments, which we hope will improve the service for parents.

Parents can pay by debit and credit card and additionally by Google pay and we are hoping that Apple Pay will be available in due course.  Some further information on what the screen now looks like can be found here.

Cashless Catering Team

As we start the new term we would like to remind parents of some useful contact details.

To report a pupil absence please email attendance@princethorpe.co.uk or telephone the Attendance Line on 01926 634260.

For other enquiries please use the email addresses below:

Bus related queries - buses@princethorpe.co.uk

School Shop - uniform@princethorpe.co.uk

Medical Centre - pcmatrons@princethorpe.co.uk

School fees -  accounts@princethorpe.co.uk

General enquiries - post@princethorpe.co.uk

Lost property - lostproperty@princethorpe.co.uk

Wisepay catering - cashless@princethorpe.co.uk

Email addresses for members of teaching staff can be found on My School Portal.

Cyber-crime – please be extra vigilant

Parents are asked to be vigilant when reading emails relating to the payment of school fees and any other items to the Foundation. You can protect yourselves by only making payments to us in line with our normal, published methods. Any email offering a large discount on fees for the coming academic year if paid immediately is fraudulent.

There has been no change to the bank details of Princethorpe College, Crackley Hall or Crescent Schools and there is no intention to make any changes in the foreseeable future. Any electronic notification that appears to be from any of the Foundation schools changing these details may be fraudulent. Our bank details are available on the Parent Bills, the Online Payment Portal and in the Information Booklet for each school, and only those details should be used.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or my colleagues in the Bursary if you are have any doubts about the correct details or indeed if anything appears suspicious.

Eddie Tolcher
Foundation Bursar

Please see below our current vacancies: 

Little Crackers

• Nursery Manager
• Nursery Practitioner

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

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

Please find below the Term Dates for 2022-23 and 2023-24

2022-23 (two page document) 

2023-24 (two page document)