The Flagpole

Registrations for the College’s Careers Fair 2023 are now officially open.

The Careers Fair will take place on Saturday 18 March from 9.00am to 1.00pm and will provide a wealth of information, guidance and advice on careers and universities.

OP Felicity Hannah, a financial journalist, currently presenting Radio 4’s Money Box and the Green Money Show and Wake Up To Money on Radio 5 Live, will give two keynote addresses over the course of the morning and in addition to three career/university speaker sessions, attendees will also be able to visit the Exhibition part of the Fair in the Sixth Form Centre.  Light refreshments will be available.

Pupils in Years 10 to Sixth Form should register now and select the three sessions they would like to attend, plus a reserve choice. To help with your decision making you should refer to the Advice For Choosing Talks here and Speakers Biographies and Talk Topics here. We would like pupils and students to be accompanied by a parent or parents to the event, so conversations can continue afterwards. Attendees will receive a personalised timetable upon arrival on the day.

Once you are ready to register click on this link to complete the online booking form. The deadline for registering is Wednesday 1 March 2023.

The format of the day will be as follows:

• 8.30am - 9.00am - Registration in Limes for parents and pupils – refreshments available 
• 9.10am - 9.40am - Session 1 
• Walk
• 9.55am - 10.25am - Session 2 including Keynote
• Walk
• 10.35am - 11.05am - Session 3
• Walk
• 11.20am - 11.50am - Session 4 including Keynote
• Walk
• 12.00pm - 12.30pm - Session 5
• 12.30pm - 1.00pm - Exhibition remains open

A wide range of speakers and organisations will be on hand to offer advice and guidance on careers, universities and apprenticeships. We have representatives from organisations as diverse as the Police and Armed Forces to Price Waterhouse Coopers, Lotus Cars and J P Morgan giving presentations, and universities from across the country, such as Cardiff, Sheffield, Plymouth and nearer to home Warwick, with stalls in the exhibition part of the Fair.

Comments, Head of Careers, Jacqui Quinney, "The event will be a unique experience and will enable our pupils and students to gain a real insight into the work of work and further study, thus helping them prepare for important decisions that they will need to make over the next few years at Princethorpe and beyond."

For the second year running, College Sixth Formers have won the local Youth Speaks competition, the Rotary Club’s well-respected public speaking challenge. The Princethorpe students, Charlotte Frost, Eloise Keil and Tom Lomas saw off stiff competition from teams of pupils from other local schools in the local round held in Warwick on Wednesday 15 February.

Youth Speaks requires a team of three students to stand up and deliver a speech on a subject of their choice. It provides a great opportunity for young people to develop the ability to speak on a public platform, carry out research and formulate ideas, improve their self-confidence and presentation skills, and work together as a team. The structure of the event makes for an entertaining and diverting session where the students not only have to present clearly, but also spontaneously respond.

The team debated the motion ‘This House believes that Valentine's Day is nothing more than a commercial enterprise.’ Eloise spoke in favour and Tom spoke against while Charlotte acted as Chairman. They were commended for their teamwork as all were equally strong. They received a very warm response from the audience who clearly enjoyed the lighter moments in the debate. They had prepared meticulously so they were able to speak largely from memory and were commended also on their projection and their diction.

The team were helped and supported by Head of English, Chris Kerrigan who commented, “They did extremely well as a result of many hours of dedicated practice in their own time. The organiser said it was one of the strongest teams they had seen. It was a tightly fought competition and they put in an outstanding effort.”

The team thoroughly enjoyed the evening and learned a lot from listening to the other teams who took part. They will now be going on to the next round of the competition in March.

As the construction of Princethorpe’s Science Centre approaches its one-year milestone, new Headmaster, Grove du Toit, visited the site for the first time to check on progress.

Mr du Toit was taken on a tour of the new building by Foundation Assistant Head and Project Manager, Alex Darkes, Trendgrey MD, Nick Henderson, and Trendgrey Site Agent, Kevin Wynne.

They explored the new laboratories, preparation areas, breakout and study spaces across both floors, they saw the main entrance that fronts on to The Lime Walk and the breakthrough points to The Limes building, they also walked up the far side of the building to the site of the new tennis courts. Mr du Toit commented on the space and size of the laboratories and learning areas and their stunning views. He was particularly impressed to see how all the construction work was going on with minimal disruption to the day-to-day life of the school.

Mr du Toit said, “I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the construction site today. Our brand new Science Centre is going to be amazing, offering cutting-edge teaching and learning facilities for Princethorpe’s pupils. It will transform the whole campus and put Science study at the heart of our school, and I know it will inspire generations of Princethorpe scientists to come.”

The Science Centre is on schedule to open its doors for teaching in September 2023, it will have 1,800sq m of floor space and 10 laboratories spread over two floors. As work internally moves apace, soon the site office will be relocated and the last remaining portacabin will be removed to allow landscaping in front of the Centre to begin.

Following a rigorous selection process Princethorpe College is delighted to announce that next year’s senior prefects have been chosen. Our congratulations go to Natalya Elden and Izzy Wright who will be Princethorpe’s new Heads of School. Working closely alongside Natalya and Izzy, will be Radley Evans, Tom Lomas, Connor Silvester and Alice Whittaker who have all been appointed as Deputies.

The positions of Heads of School are the most senior student roles in the College, they are the leaders of our pupil community and provide an important link between pupils and staff. Our new senior prefects were appointed after taking part in a series of tasks and presentations and an interview with Headmaster, Grove du Toit, and Head of Sixth Form, Ben Collie.

Reacting to the news of their appointment, the Senior Prefects said, "We are thrilled about our appointments and look forward to serving and representing the student body to the greatest of our abilities."

The full Prefect team and Subject Ambassadors will be announced shortly, the Prefect Inauguration will take place on the last day of term, Friday 24 March, and they will begin their new roles after the Easter break.

All our Sixth Formers play an ambassadorial role within the school and at high profile public events such as Open Days and Entrance Exams, led by the Prefect team they act as important role models for the wider school community.

Our College production of The Addams Family - School Edition was just amazing. The Clarkson theatre was filled with humour and haunts galore as our talented cast of pupils, from Year 7 right up to Sixth Form, brought this legendary, quirky family to life.

We met the ultimate princess of darkness Wednesday Addams, all grown up and with a shocking secret that only her father, the suave Gomez, knows. She's fallen in love with a sweet young girl from a very respectable family. With the enchanting Morticia still in the dark, the two families meet for a fateful dinner with hilarious consequences.

For six performances we joined them, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Pugsley and more for a heart-warming story of love, family and friendship in this creepy but charming tale. It was spectacular, full of vibrant energy and enthusiasm and we are all still clicking our fingers and humming along to the songs after what was a most entertaining and enjoyable show.

Congratulations to everyone involved, on stage and behind the scenes and especially to the Directors, Mr Cowlishaw and Ms Newborough. We just can't wait to find out what their plans are for next year!

This term pupils in Year 11 have put their physics skills to the test in the British Physics Olympiad Intermediate Online challenge. Consisting of two sets of multiple-choice questions, the challenge goes well beyond the standard curriculum and is a valuable enrichment experience for pupils.

Alongside over 5,000 pupils from 179 schools, our top Year 11 physicists tackled the online challenge with enthusiasm building their confidence, understanding and problem-solving prowess. Their results were excellent with five pupils awarded Silver, Thomas Smith, Jack Fleming, Connor Smith, Freddie Dalton and Louise Gambling, who achieved the best score. Four pupils received Bronze Awards, Giorgio Kleinmann, Jemima Teeton, Lampros Papadogiannakis and Jack Dando.

Head of Physics, Dan Lee, commented, “The British Physics Olympiad Challenges are well respected tests. They encourage participants to approach problems with an open mind, taking the principles of Physics and applying their learning to the real world. Our pupils all did very well, congratulations to them all.”

The written Physics Challenge for Year 11 takes place later this year, which will allow our top physicists another chance to tackle a challenging written Physics paper.

The College’s Netball teams are having a super season with plenty of high scoring matches across the squads. Their commitment to training is paying dividends and keeping the coaches very happy.

This term the teams have delivered super performances playing with tenacity and drive in their weekly block fixture games. Across the age groups they have racked up win after win against teams from local schools. The girls have taken on Kimbolton School, Lutterworth High, Leicester Grammar, Loughborough High, Kingsley, Bloxham, King Edwards High School and Bablake and King Henry’s, and the results have been good.

The U13s and U14s have also had excellent outings in their recent ISA Midlands tournaments at Loughborough High School.

The U14s got their tournament off to a great start on Friday 27 January, with a 30-0 win in their first game against Highclare School. They went on to beat Stafford Grammar and RGS convincingly before losing to Kings High School 14-7. As group runners up they qualified for the play-offs. There they first faced Kingsley in their semi-final where they won with a big goal difference qualifying for the final against Kings High once again. A resilient Princethorpe team played a much better match despite missing a shooter who had picked up an injury in the semis. In a very tight and fast game the girls played excellent netball only missing out on the top spot by two goals. They finished as overall tournament runners up. Well done to them all.

The U13s ISA tournament took place on Friday 3 February. They worked just as hard and were unbeaten in the group stages, seeing off Stafford Grammar 7-0, Birchfield School 12-0, Highclare School 14-0, Pitsford School 12-0, Tettenhall College 11-1 and Kingsley 9-1. They qualified for the play offs as group winners where the determined team managed to secure wins in the quarter finals against Bedstone 14-1 and in the semi-finals versus Loughborough High 6-2. They also faced King's High in the final where despite communicating and playing well, they went down 10-5 to finish as tournament runners up. Another good result, congratulations to them all.

Head of Girls' Games, Jen Law, said, “Things are looking very strong for Netball this season. Commitment is high across the year groups, the practice courts are full after school and I am delighted that the players’ dedication and hard work is being rewarded.”

Princethorpe College took two teams to compete in the Mid and South Warwickshire SFA U18 Small Sided Cup held at North Leamington School on Wednesday 15 February.

The two teams were a mixture of 1st and 2nd team players but on this occasion, they were separated by age. There was one Sixth Form team and one U16 team who were pitted in two different groups. Both teams won their respective groups and consequently met in the final.

Of course, that meant the final was a full bodied, high intensity game with both sets of players giving their all and playing some superb free flowing football. The decisive and winning goal came from Joel Nicoll and the game ended 1-0, with the U16 team taking the win. Calan Byrne was player of the tournament for the U16 winning team.

It was great to see such fantastic football, well done to them all.

Our U15 and U13 Girls' Football teams have played Kenilworth School in their first competitive matches ever. The U15s played away at Kenilworth last Wednesday 8 February, then this week it was the turn of the U13s to take on Kenilworth’s talented girls.

The players were all delighted to put on their boots and head out to the fields to show off their footballing prowess demonstrating a brilliant attitude throughout and determination and skill as they took their opponents on.

The U15s lost 6-0 to a very good Kenilworth side but hit the post and held their own in the second half after being 5-0 down at half-time. Their ability to bounce back after conceding a goal impressing their coach. Player of the match was Annabel Leigh.

The U13 A and B teams played a mixture of games against Kenilworth’s A, B and C sides and they all did really well. The U13As won one, drew one and lost won with Hattie Sarkies scoring an excellent goal. Player of the day was Darcey Wolsey. The U13B team drew one and lost two, well done to goal scorer Ruth Oritsejafor and player of the day Clea Roach.

All the girls really enjoyed their matches, definitely improving as a team, and they all represented their school fantastically.

Foundation Director of Sport, Lee Cassell, said “Our girls’ football programme began back in the summer when we had coaches from Long Itchington Ladies come into school to deliver sessions to the girls. It is great to now have girls playing competitive fixtures. There is plenty to build on here as we continue to develop our girls' football provision and we look forward to building a fixture programme, entering the local league and then cup competitions.”

Many congratulations to Year 9 pupil, Sophie Henry, who cooked up a storm in the Springboard Futurechef Regional Final on Monday 6 February at Stoke-on-Trent College.

Before the event, Sophie prepared thoroughly putting a lot of time into menu planning and practising her dishes. She was the youngest competitor in the Regional Final and the food she produced was of the highest standard and beautifully presented. Sophie prepared creamy mushroom tagliatelle with a rocket salad and an apricot and almond torte with a cream quenelle.

Teacher of Food Technology, Jacqui Scott, said, “I am extremely proud of Sophie, she did brilliantly. She was awarded a cook book for being the cook’s choice and she received really positive feedback from the judges.”

Sophie also received her own embroidered set of chef’s whites. A huge well done to Sophie, she clearly has the makings of a master chef.

Ten of Princethorpe's finest physicists competed in this year’s online Senior Physics Challenge alongside over 5,500 pupils from 290 schools across the UK.

The Sixth Form students completed two multiple choice tests, each with 20 challenging and diverse questions. Head of Physics, Dan Lee, was delighted with their results commenting, “The British Physics Olympiad Challenges are well respected tests. Our students all did very well, congratulations to them all.”

Well done to Zak Abba, Jack Grindal, Andy Wills, Archy Walker and Jake Lambert for achieving the Bronze Award; Emma Sarkies and Oliver Llewellyn for achieving the Silver Award and a special mention to Chris Lock, Alex Flegg and Joseph Newborough, who all achieved the highest accolade of Gold.

This week, Sixth Form Art and Photography students visited the Tate Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to provide the students with an important opportunity to develop their ideas and inspirations as they start to prepare for their summer A-level examinations.

The students studied a wide-range of contemporary artwork and exhibitions, taking photos and sketching from observation. It was enjoyable and informative day covering many miles of galleries at the museums.

Head of Art, Paul Hubball added, “It was a very productive day out for the students. The trip was stimulating and inspiring, and they all have lots to assimilate now. It was really useful preparation for their upcoming externally set task for their A-level examinations.”

The British Army STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach team visited Princethorpe College again this week to deliver a series of workshops to Year 9 pupils.

The curriculum aligned interactive workshops gave pupils a chance to test their critical thinking, teamwork, perseverance, and leadership skills to overcome real-world challenges.

Pupils participated in ‘Disaster Relief’, the scene was set with a video of the 2005 earthquake that devastated Kathmandu, Nepal. Pupils’ task was to provide much needed humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the natural disaster and required the teams to build a Lego Mindstorms robot (with no instructions) from scratch, programme it and use it to locate people trapped beneath the rubble caused by the earthquake.

The second workshop, ‘Who’s the Hacker?’ challenged pupils to solve a puzzle using mathematical skill and logic. The teams had to plot co-ordinates of mobile phone masts on a map, use the range of each mast to determine who used their phones where and when, decipher codes to read encrypted messages, eliminate suspects and use evidence to deduce who the hacker was.

The third workshop, ‘Rocket Car’ introduced the Bloodhound Land Speed Record attempt, pupils learnt about rocket cars, and the foundational STEM principles behind them before moving on to the challenge of working in teams to design, build and launch their own rocket cars made out of a foam block, axels and wheels. They even assembled the rocket cartridges and were able to record real-time data such as their car's speed for analysis.

Year 9 engaged brilliantly with all the activities, showing their competitive sides whilst being creative and working outside of their comfort zones. Pupils were enthusiastic in the sessions learning a lot. Thank you to British Army STEM team for coming to join us and to all the staff who were involved in the organisation and delivery of the two-day event.

On Tuesday 7 February, Princethorpe College hosted its first successful networking event for families past and present, who work in the farming and agribusiness sector. The evening was designed to bring farming professionals together, foster new connections, exchange ideas, build relationships and allow attendees to explore potential business opportunities.

During the evening the attendees heard from Jules Mold on the diversification of her and husband David’s farming exploits Meadow Field Glamping, as well as from Dr Mathias Foo from the University of Warwick who spoke about his research into the use of light in agricultural practice. Both sessions were fascinating and informing and prompted many conversations.

The evening event was a great success, providing valuable opportunities for attendees to connect and learn from each other.

Steve Kowal, Development Director, said: “We would like to thank all our farming visitors and speakers for their participation and support in making the evening a success. We look forward to continuing to engage with the farming sector and building enduring and mutually beneficial relationships that support both our continued success”.

OP and former Crackley Hall pupil, Toby Lee has been in touch to share the exciting news that he has reached the final five nominees for the 'UK Young Blues Artist Of The Year' in the 2023 UK Blues Awards.

Voting is open for the awards until Sunday 19 February, and it would be wonderful if our Foundation community could support Toby. You can vote for him here: https://www.ukblues.org/. We wish him the very best of luck!

Toby attended Crackley Hall School from 2014 to 2016 and then Princethorpe College until 2017. Dubbed a future superstar of the blues by Joe Bonamassa, Toby boasts an impressive musical CV.

In 2016 he was cast as Zack Mooneyham in the West End production of School of Rock the Musical for which he subsequently won an Olivier Award for 'Outstanding Achievement in Music'.

He has appeared on many TV shows around the world including TFI Friday twice, Little Big Shots USA, Spain and the UK, Comic Relief, Michael McIntyre, The X Factor, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Blue Peter and Tonight at the London Palladium where he performed with McFly.

Toby has shared the stage with a host of stars including Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Peter Frampton, Slash, Lukas Nelson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and has appeared alongside his hero, Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall.

Toby is off on tour soon. He is playing locally in Leamington in March, but the tickets for the gig have sadly already sold out. He is also playing at the UK Blues Awards in London in April.

You can find out more here: www.toby-lee.com

109 Sixth Formers, 19 professionals and one day, Tuesday 7 February, came together to make for a very successful Sixth Form Interview Skills Day. Designed to perfect their interview technique, sharpen communication skills, presentational qualities and the ability to respond to feedback, during the day the College's Lower Sixth students have each taken part in a formal interview.

Taking the role of interviewer were senior professionals from a variety of different business backgrounds. All were past or present parents, or friends of the College, with years of interviewing experience out in the working world.

In readiness for their one-to-one interviews, students had submitted their curriculum vitaes to be scrutinised beforehand. Exactly like in a real interview these documents formed the basis of questions that were discussed. Then at the end of the interview the professionals provided valuable feedback with constructive suggestions for improvement.

Feedback was very positive with many of the interviewers commenting on how impressed they were with the College's Lower Sixth students, and the students equally delighted and impressed with the suggestions and support received.

Head of Careers, Jacqui Quinney, commented, “Our Lower Sixth were encouraged to prepare well for these interviews. Our aim was to provide them with a head start in developing their interview technique. It was an extremely important day for them all as they face the looming reality of university and workplace interviews. The skills practised today will benefit all of our students and we are immensely grateful to the volunteer interviewers who have given up their time to help us today.”

Individual red and white carnations were distributed to classrooms across the College on Tuesday 14 February in celebration of St Valentine’s Day.

In recent weeks Princethorpe’s Sixth Form students had been busy promoting the charity fundraiser in aid of the MS Society. On Monday afternoon, Princethorpe’s very own Cupids, began preparing the flowers, delicately wrapping and handwriting personal messages for the anonymous gifts, ready for the surprise deliveries. There were red carnations for that special someone and white carnations as a thank you to a great friend.

This year the Sixth Formers have raised over £150, all of which will be donated to support the charity in its work.

We had a great day of swimming at the Warwick School U12 and U13 Swimming Gala on Thursday 2 February, with double gold medals for Charlotte, Issey and Stephanie. The U12 Girls team swam brilliantly to win their competition and the U12 and U13 girls took first place overall in the girls’ competition. A fantastic result. Well done to them all!

The latest issue of The Old Princethorpian, the Princethorpe Foundation’s termly e-newsletter for past pupils, staff and parents, old and new, has just been published and was mailed out over last weekend. 

The newsletter aims to keep our alumni in touch with each other and news, developments and events across the Foundation. It includes the latest Foundation and College news, and plenty of news and updates from OPs across the decades.

Coming up soon is our popular Pub Meet at The Royal Pug, in Leamington, on Friday 10 March. Full details of all OP events can be found in the Events section on Princethorpe Connect here: connect.princethorpe.co.uk/events

We hope our alumni enjoy reading the newsletter and finding out what is going on in the alumni community. The next edition will be published in May.

You can read the newsletter here: www.oldprincethorpian.co.uk