The Flagpole

Plans for the College Careers Fair on Saturday 18 March 2023 are shaping up nicely. Some 16 universities have already confirmed their attendance with nine hosting talks on subject areas such as How to choose a university and Applying for competitive university courses.

The Careers team are also in the process of firming up speakers on a wide range of career fields and sectors, from teaching and technology to advertising, the armed forces, veterinary science and medical careers.

The Fair is open to Year 10 to Sixth Form pupils and their parents. It will provide a ‘one stop careers shop’ with a wide range of speakers and organisations on hand to offer advice and guidance on careers, universities, apprenticeships and internships.

This year the event will take place in person from 9.30am to 1.00pm and, as before, will include a keynote speaker and career path workshops with presentations and Q and A sessions from parents and Old Princethorpians. Attendees will be able to attend up to three workshops plus the exhibition depending on their personal interests.

Comments, Jacqui Quinney, Head of Careers, “This is a really key event for our senior pupils. It will provide important information and advice to help them develop their career choices. Please do make a note of the date now, so as to not miss out on this very valuable opportunity.”

Registrations for the event will open in mid February.

If you would be willing to speak on a career area or work for an organisation that would like to have a stand in the exhibition part of the Fair, please contact amandamckenzie@princethorpe.co.uk

Princethorpe College is celebrating after pupils had a super successful outing at the Independent School Association’s National Swimming Championships. Together pupils brought home 12 Gold medals, 8 Silver medals and 5 Bronze medals, an incredible haul!

A team of nine swimmers had qualified to swim for the Midlands team at the Regional Finals in October and on Saturday 3 December they travelled down to the London Aquatics Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to take part.

Year 7, Issey Cleary was on fine form taking a Gold medal in the Year 7 50m Breaststroke in 39.36 seconds and a Silver in the Year 7 50m Butterfly in 37.21. Stephanie Bolton did nearly as well earning herself two Silver medals after finishing in second place in the Year 7 50m Backstroke in 35.81 and in the 50m Freestyle in 31.35. Both girls then swam for the Midlands team in the 4x50m Medley Relay helping the team finish in first place for a Gold medal in a team time of 2.24.94 minutes and then the 4x50m Freestyle Relay where they also took the Gold in a team time of 2.10.29.

Year 8 Charlotte Gower brought home a Silver and a Bronze medal after finishing in second place in the Year 8 50m Backstroke in 35.42 seconds and in third place in the Year 8 50m Freestyle in 30.53. Year 8, Tara Rodgers also won herself a Silver medal in the Year 8 50m Butterfly in 33.36 seconds. Together the girls swam for the Midlands team in the Year 8 4x50m Medley Relay finishing third for another bronze medal each in a team time of 2.24.94 minutes. Charlotte then swam in the Year 8 4x50m Freestyle Relay helping her team finish in 2.07.79 and earning herself another Bronze medal.

Year 10, André Onyekwe swam superbly in four events and came away with three Gold medals and one Silver. In the Year 9&10 100m Freestyle he finished in first place in a time of 56.67 seconds, while in the Year 9&10 100m Backstroke he took the Gold in 1.06.62 minutes. Then in the Year 9&10 4x50m Freestyle Relay he helped his team to first place in a team time of 1.47.49 and finally in the Year 9&10 4x50m Medley Relay another strong swim helped the team finish second in a team time of 2.06.34. Year 10, Harrison Guest joined André in the Medley Relay, swimming the Breaststroke leg and earning himself a Silver medal too, to add to his Bronze medal from the Year 9&10 100m Breaststroke where he finished third in 1.24.50.

In the senior races, Year 11, Lottie Hunter claimed a Gold medal in the Year 11-13 100m Freestyle finishing the course in 1.02.57 minutes and then took a second Gold when she helped the Midlands team finish first in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay in a team time of 1.57.96 minutes. Year 12, Connor Silvester earned himself a Silver medal in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay in a team time of 1.45.24.

Together pupils’ medal winning performances helped the Midlands team finish in second place overall at the national event.

Foundation Director of Sport, Lee Cassell, was delighted and said, "Our swimmers have traditionally done well in the ISA Swimming Championships, and they have had another really successful outing this year. Well done to everyone who competed in both the National Championships and in the qualifying regional competitions."

The College's Feast Day took place on Thursday 8 December. This annual celebration involving the whole of the College community, marks the day back in 1854 that the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were founded and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Feast Day is an important day in the Princethorpe calendar, one where we all take time to give thanks to our community’s founders and celebrate Princethorpe’s special ethos and spirit of family.

As part of the celebrations, the school came together at lunchtime to hand out awards to pupils receiving House Prizes. Pupils had been nominated by their Head of House as a reward for the progress they had shown during the academic year or for the excellent and sustained high standard of achievement displayed throughout the year. You can find details of the award winners here. A super huge well done to everyone involved.

Scroll through the gallery to see photos of the award winners.

Families 'mulled' over the quiz with a glass of hot spiced wine and a mince pie at the start of the evening, whilst our Year 11 and Lower Sixth students carried out close-up demonstrations that included the naughty or nice indicator and the magic fairy dust repelling elves. 

The lecture itself tried to answer some of the following questions "Why is Santa always dressed in red?", "How many hours of running does Santa need to burn off the mince pie calories?", "How long would it take Santa’s body to process the alcohol in the 200 million glasses of sherry he drinks on Christmas Eve?", and "How is fog formed?" 

Demonstrations included multi-coloured flame jars to show the colours of the rainbow, turning sherry into water (Science is magic), making artificial fog with dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and making ice cream with liquid nitrogen (which was of course sampled by all of the students in the audience). 

The evening concluded with an online quiz which was closely contended and tested our guests on some of the content of the lecture. 

We would like to thank parents and pupils for attending on such a cold and dark winter evening, and all of the staff and pupil helpers who made it possible. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Princethorpe College Science Department! 

On Friday 9 December, Princethorpe College said farewell to much loved peripatetic teacher, Mrs Chris Carpenter. Chris started working for St Joseph’s (now Crackley Hall) in 1998 before joining Princethorpe College in 2001 as a teacher of Drama and English, she returned for a second stint at Princethorpe as a LAMDA peripatetic teacher in 2014.

Her pupils have thrived and with her encouragement have successfully progressed through the LAMDA syllabus, some right to the very top level, a number achieving Gold Medals at Grade 8. Keen for all her pupils to achieve their full potential Chris has always structured her teaching to bring out the best in every piece of work under study. She actively supported school performance events and has helped LAMDA become an integral part of the performing arts offering here at Princethorpe College.

Diligent to the end, a delighted Chris, who had hoped to scuttle away with little fuss, was surprised with flowers as she was teaching her very last lesson. Headmaster, Ed Hester said, “We would like to thank Chris for all her hard work and dedication to Princethorpe’s pupils. She has been instrumental in the success of LAMDA at the College and we will miss her. We wish her a happy, healthy and well-deserved retirement.”

The latest edition of the College’s magazine, The Tower Review, has just been published.

It tells the story of the school year, term by term, reflecting on the whole host of activities, achievements and successes that pupils from Year 7 through to Upper Sixth took part in. It includes highlights such as Prize Giving and the College production as well as reviews of sporting events and House competitions.

2021/22 was an amazing year filled full of wonderful and memorable moments to reflect on. We hope that our annual souvenir review will be treasured by pupils and parents alike.

The magazine will be mailed to parents with the Lent Term 2023 calendar and the Leavers of 2022 will be sent a hard copy in the post. An electronic copy can be found here and also on the school website.

If you would like to receive an additional copy please email marketing@princethorpe.co.uk with your name and address.

On Tuesday 13 December Princethorpe College Sixth Formers welcomed over 50 guests, for a special Senior Citizen's Christmas Celebratory Lunch. They included residents from a number of local care homes, Greenways, Town Thorns, Galanos House, Cubbington Mill Care and elderly parishoners from St Anne's, Wappenbury.

The lunch is an annual community event, although this was the first one after a two year break due to the pandemic, where the guests are served turkey and all the trimmings, prepared by the College catering team and waited on by College Sixth Formers. It was held in the Sixth Form atrium and delicious smells wafted across the room whilst all around there was chatter and laughter. 

Sixth Formers, Sam Allen, Marcus Critchley, Dom Evetts and William Gibson-Sexton were on hand to assist with the arrival of the guests whilst Lara Cutri, Noah Kemp, Dina Parmenter, Chloe O'Carroll-Bailey, Toby West, Isy Williams and Erika Zanyi did a sterling job entertaining all with festive tunes, accompanied by Head of Music, Gil Cowlishaw. Ruby Harris and Head of School, Freya Mills led the assembled guests in the now traditional joyful singing along of much loved Christmas carols, including Ding Dong Merrily On High, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Ed Hester, Headmaster, who had popped in to welcome the senior citizens, happily joined in the communal singing and even played the sleigh bells in time to the music. 

Before they left all of the visitors were presented with a personalised Christmas card produced by pupils from the College and from local primary school, Our Lady's in Princethorpe, who also gave us a wonderful performance of some songs from their Nativity. 

Head of Sixth Form, Ben Collie commented, "It was wonderful to see old and young chatting and making memories together. They really embodied the true spirit of Christmas. A huge thank you to our Sixth Formers and staff for organising such a lovely festive event." 

Scroll through the gallery to have a look at some of the images from the afternoon. 

The Christmas tree in the College Chapel has been lovingly decorated with twinkling lights and carefully hand cut candles, each holding the name of a special someone.

All members of the college community were invited to write the names of those who have touched their lives with love and have a special place in their hearts on a candle. Then each individual candle has been carefully positioned on the tree.

Mary Benham, Chaplaincy Co-ordinator, said, “The message of Christmas is one of love and the decorated Christmas tree in the Chapel is our symbolic representation of that message. The many candles on the tree are a testament to the presence of love in the world – and the way in which, individually, all our lives have been enriched by love.”

Our thanks go to Year 7 pupils, Hattie Godfrey and Lottie Corbin (pictured), who, alongside their peers, have helped with preparing and hanging the candles.

Princethorpe College pupils, parents and staff have once again responded generously to the seasonal Food Bank appeal. The school community was asked to bring in items of non-perishable food and they did not disappoint, showing a sense of empathy, generosity and solidarity. All the donations have been passed on to the St Vincent de Paul Society, to be packed into hampers to be given to local families in need.

Mary Benham, Chaplaincy Coordinator added, “The level of enthusiasm and support shown for our Chaplaincy challenge was wonderful, affirming the school’s spirit of family ethos and showing that pupils embrace the communities they live in and are willing to help those who are less fortunate than themselves.” She continued, “It is easy to sometimes think that one person alone cannot make a big impact, but by bringing all of those individual small acts of kindness together we have been able to show how we care.”

Thank you to Year 7 pupils, Katherine Lee and Ro Somerset (pictured) and their peers for their help with organising the donations, some of which you can see in the photo.

This year's House Singing Competition did not disappoint, with spirited renditions of some all-time favourites in the Sports Hall on Feast Day. Austin gave a rousing performance of I Want It That Way, Fisher harmonised with Uptown Girl, More entertained us with I’m A Believer and Benet belted out Reach For The Stars.

The Lower School, Years 7-10, went first with the Upper School, Years 11 and Sixth Form, in the second round. There was much rivalry but there can be only one winner…and this year for the Lower School Benet stole the show while for the older years it was More who brought the house down.

A super huge well done to everyone involved and many thanks to this year's judges, Mr Heath and Mrs Young, from the Foundation's Estates team.

You can watch clips from the winning songs on the College's social media here.

On Wednesday 7 December, a group of Religious Studies A-Level students visited Oxford University to take part in an A-Level conference. They heard from Oxford academics who discussed questions such as the existence of God and the problem of evil, both of which feature in their A-Level syllabus. It was a great opportunity to help them secure their knowledge of these important topics before their upcoming exams, and also served to give them a taste of university-style lectures. OP, Issy Wardman, an RS A-Level student from the Princethorpe Class of 2021 who is now studying at Oxford Brookes, joined the group for lunch; her responses to their many questions covered advice on all manner of topics, from revision strategies to university applications! It was a really useful day for them all.

Commiserations to the 1st XI Football team who despite being a goal up at half time, thanks to Toby Nicoll assisted by Luc Sen-Gupta, and a great penalty save by Finn Osborn, eventually went down 1-3 to Hampton School in the Boodles ISFA National Cup on Wednesday 7 December. An intense game saw Princethorpe never give up until the final whistle blew.

Well played to all, it was a fantastic achievement to reach the last 16, the furthest the College has ever progressed in the competition, and the very best of luck to Hampton in the next round.  

Princethorpe’s Senior Girls Cross Country team travelled north to The Grammar School at Leeds on Saturday 3 December to compete in the ESAA National Finals of the Schools' Cross Country Cup.

Year 12s, Grace Darcy, Jess Evans, Emma Sarkies and Natasha Thomas and Year 11s, Kate Pomerleau and Ava Farren had run in a local round at Princethorpe, and then a regional final in Bromsgrove to qualify for the event. They were competing against runners from schools across the country, from as far afield as Cumbria and Northumberland to Kent and Dorset, as they set off around the 3.15km course. It was a great opportunity for the girls to compete against some of the UK’s very best.

Ava Farren was first across the line for Princethorpe finishing 54th closely followed by Grace Darcy 56th and Jess Evans 58th, and the rest of the team then safely made their way across the finish line.

Teacher of PE and Games, Will Bower, was pleased with their performance saying, “Well done to the Senior Girls Cross Country team on an excellent run. It was fantastic to see the College represented at the ESAA Cross-Country National Final. The girls finished 18th out of the whole country which is an amazing achievement.”

Congratulations girls you should be #princethorpeandproud

We are offering members of the Princethorpe community one last chance to leave their mark on the College's new Science Centre. 

This incredible development, due to be ready for teaching in September 2023, will facilitate not only state of the art science education at Princethorpe but also the opportunity to redevelop the existing site for complete cross-curricular enhancement.

Our Periodic Table display will feature 15 x 15cms tiles each showing the name of the element, the chemical symbol, the atomic number as well your chosen inscription (15 characters including spaces).

This last chance to contribute is available by donating £250 for any of the remaining elements:

These elements are available on a first come, first served basis.

We also have one Upper Tier element remaining, Cu Copper 29, for a donation of £500.

The closing date for donations will be Friday 6 January 2023. Don’t miss out on this final opportunity to ensure your chosen name or message is recorded in perpetuity in the future of the Princethorpe Foundation.

To participate, visit the link where you can donate online: click here There is the opportunity to make a one-off payment of £250 or 10 regular payments of £25.

So many of our parents, staff and friends have done much already to support the Foundation and we are incredibly appreciative of this.

AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on amazon.co.uk. The difference is that when you shop through the smile.amazon.co.uk web address, AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to the charitable organisation selected by the customer.

So whenever you make an eligible purchase from Amazon via AmazonSmile, the charitable organisation benefits at no additional cost to you.

The Princethorpe Foundation is a charity and within the Foundation, the Development Office work to enable the provision of more bursaries to deserving pupils, to update our facilities and buildings, and to meet our strategic development plans. You can find out more about the work of the Development Office on our school website here. 

The Development Office is asking the Princethorpe community to consider choosing The Princethorpe Foundation as their nominated charity on AmazonSmile. 

How do I shop at AmazonSmile?

To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.co.uk from the web browser on your computer or mobile device.

Can I use my existing amazon.co.uk account on smile.amazon.co.uk?

Yes, you use the same account on amazon.co.uk and smile.amazon.co.uk. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same. Simply visit smile.amazon.co.uk and log in to your usual Amazon account.

Which products on AmazonSmile are eligible for charitable donations?

Millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations to charities by Amazon. You will see eligible products marked 'Eligible for smile.amazon.co.uk' on their product detail pages. Recurring Subscribe-and-Save purchases and subscription renewals are not currently eligible.

How do I select to support the Princethorpe Foundation when shopping on AmazonSmile?

On your first visit to smile.amazon.co.uk you need to select a charitable organisation to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping, simply search for and select 'The Princethorpe Foundation'. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.co.uk will result in a donation to support Development Office projects.

How will you use the donations you receive?

All donations received via smile.amazon.co.uk will go towards our Annual Fund. Each year, this fund supports the purchase of necessary academic and extracurricular equipment, ensures educational, enrichment and entertainment opportunities for students, and helps maintain the School’s academic and sporting facilities. Your Annual Fund contributions are at the heart of all that we do, and all that we give to our pupils.

The 2023 College calendar featuring 12 superb images of the College and its grounds is a perfect present and complete with term and key dates, is sure to be a handy addition for any kitchen or office.

To ensure UK orders can arrive in time for Christmas, orders and payment will need to be received by 12 noon on Monday 19 December 2022 please.

Purchases can now be made easily via our online shop at https://connect.princethorpe.co.uk/shop or from the College shop.