The Flagpole

World Porridge Day, held annually on or around 10 October, is a fundraising event organised by Mary’s Meals in aid of hungry children in the developing world and it has a regular place in the Princethorpe calendar too. 

The charity provides daily meals in a place of learning, addressing both the immediate needs of hungry children whilst encouraging them to go to school where they can gain an education that can help them out of poverty. Through their school feeding programmes in 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean Mary's Meals now feeds over 2.2 million children every year. It costs just £15.90 to feed a child for a whole year and 97% of all donations go directly to this hands-on work.

This year, conflict, COVID-19, climate change and the rising cost of living have converged to create world hunger on an unprecedented scale. Over 5.7 million children under five are now a step away from famine. This is why Princethorpe College remains deeply committed - through the work of Mary's Meals - to supporting a daily meal in school for every child at Makalanga school in Malawi. Year on year for the past five years, we have raised over £10,000 to make that possible. 

Our own World Porridge Day celebration, which will include our annual inter-house welly-wanging competition will actually take place over two days - Thursday 6 and 7 October during break time. Scotland, where Mary's Meals has its roots has an obvious connection to porridge and in Malawi, the staple food is a maize porridge enriched with vitamins... so porridge will be on sale at break time to help raise funds for the charity. Cost will be £2.00, including toppings and will be cash only.

Families are also encouraged to order a big blue mug through this online form which can support any further fundraising at home - wherever or whenever cash is still in use!

Please support us in our fundraising for Makalanga School by donating on our dedicated site here. 

Or to support the Mary's Meals emergency appeal click here

Thank you. 

Mary Benham
Chaplaincy Co-ordinator

Pink Day will be taking place on Friday 14 October - this is our annual fundraiser for breast cancer charities. Please bring in £2 for the charity pot for the pleasure of a non-uniform day, and if you are in Sixth Form dress to impress in pink!

Non-Uniform Days
On non-uniform days we still expect certain standards of appearance to be upheld as
detailed below:

• Clothes should be sensible, safe and suitable for a school day.

• Clothes should not be too tight or too short, sheer or flesh revealing.

• Headwear is not permitted inside the school buildings.

If staff consider that a pupil’s appearance does not meet these standards, the pupil may be asked to change into borrowed clothing for the day. Pupils are not compelled to participate in non-uniform days and may choose to wear normal uniform, however, if they do wear non-uniform they are expected to pay for this privilege. If a pupil fails to make the appropriate donation senior staff will follow this up and make parents aware of the situation.

Maybe you were lucky enough to get away over the summer holidays and now there are a few foreign coins or notes lurking in a pocket or a handbag?

Why not round them up and put them to good use? All donations would be gratefully received and all money raised will be split between UK projects of the SVP (St Vincent de Paul Society), including support for the homeless, elderly, handicapped and those coming out of prison and an overseas SVP project helping to fund secondary school education children - especially girls - in India. Click here to discover what the SVP organisation is about and how your donation can help.

The money can be current or out of date, British or foreign; anything is welcome.

Click here and watch the video to see how cash4coins works. This is what you can donate:

• All foreign coins and banknotes
• Current UK coins and banknotes
• Any old British and Irish money
• Even obsolete currency

Please send in money in a strong envelope labelled ‘Rod Isaacs - Cash4Coins’. This can be handed in to form tutors to pass on.  We raised nearly £170 last year. 

Many thanks

Rod Isaacs
Assistant Head of Sixth Form