The Flagpole

Five Princethorpe pupils have been selected for the Independent Schools Football Association’s (ISFA) U13 Midlands squad. The Year 8 boys, Emmanuel Ravu, James Bostock, Jack McKay, Sid Penn and Jenson Lee will face regional representative teams in the ISFA U13 Regional Representative Festival that takes place next year in April at Shrewsbury School.

The boys were nominated by the College and earned the opportunity to represent their region in trials over a series of three weekends. The strength of footballing talent here at the College reflected in the Princethorpe domination of the Midlands ISFA team.

The College has a strong U13 team who are progressing well in the ISFA Trophy. The team are down to the last eight, reaching the Quarter Finals after beating Wetherby Preparatory School 4-2. They will next face Trinity School, Croydon, in late January.

Foundation Director of Sport, Lee Cassell, commented, “These boys are talented and committed. I know they will relish the opportunity to play against the best players in their age group and will be a credit to their school. This is a great opportunity to showcase their talents on an excellent pathway. We have had previous boys be part of the ISFA programme and it has only added to their footballing journey. It will be a great experience for them all.”

This year at Princethorpe College we hosted a whole school Christmas book swap in honour of the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod, in which families all exchange books on Christmas Eve. It took place in the Limes building at lunchtime on Monday 11 to Wednesday 13 December. The book swap was very popular, and the books just flew off the table as pupils jumped at the opportunity of taking a new book home for Christmas. For a special treat there was also a cup of hot chocolate on offer for which there was no shortage of takers too. We hope you enjoy your reading everyone.

Strength and conditioning coach, and Old Princethorpian, Tom Tombleson, returned to his old school, Princethorpe College, on Monday 18 December.

Tom left the College back in 2001 and after studying Sport Science and Management at Loughborough University pursued a career advising and coaching professional sports players. He played Rugby at a high level including representing England in Rugby Sevens. He has worked with a number of international rugby players and is currently the strength and conditioning coach for the England Rugby national team.

As well as enjoying a tour of his old school, Tom spoke to talented sports players from Years 8 to the Sixth Form, talking about the fitness and endurance required to successfully compete. He answered pupils’ questions with generosity and candour helping them to understand the preparation, practise, determination and resilience required to be successful in their chosen sport.

Our thanks go to Tom for taking time out of his busy schedule to visit the College and for generously sharing his expertise with pupils and staff. We were delighted to welcome him back to school and hope he enjoyed revisiting his old haunts. We are always grateful for the support of our Old Princethorpian community, they are such great role models for our current pupils, inspiring and encouraging them to follow their dreams.

Princethorpe College’s U13A Netball team have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Sisters n Sport Plate after beating Bablake School 23-14.

In the previous round, back in November, the girls had seen off The Crypt Grammar School by just one point, 22-21. Last week, on Monday 11 December, they faced Bablake School away and in a hard-fought game, they played superbly demonstrating excellent physicality and skill to win against a very competitive and well drilled opponent.

Head of Girls’ Games, Carly Walton, was delighted commenting, “The girls gave 100% showing both determination and tenacity. I was really proud of them all and I am looking forward to the next round which will take place after Christmas against Nottingham Girls’ High School.”

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

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 last academic year or for the excellent and sustained high standard of achievement displayed throughout last 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.

Christmas has come early for OP, Steve Dade (1986 -1990), as he is the lucky recipient of this year's Princethorpe Connect Christmas Hamper Prize Draw.

Steve who lives in Coventry, with his wife of 23 years, Becky, and teenage daughter, Charly, works in behaviour management at Evergreen School in Warwick, a 4-19 school for children and young people with Special Educational Needs.

Steve will be receiving his prize from OPs Secretary, Melanie Butler, who is hand delivering it to his home in Coventry this week.

Commented Steve, “I was delighted to hear of my win, it will be lovely to share with the family over Christmas!”

Steve is still great friends with fellow OP, Richard Williams. Remembering his time at Princethorpe, Steve commented “I have some great memories from my time at Princethorpe, I was in More House and my form tutors were Paul Adams, Frank McGreevy and John Miller. I have particularly fond memories of playing for the school Rugby team as we were very good!”

We wish Steve and family a very happy Christmas indeed!

Thanks to all those who engaged with Princethorpe Connect in the run up to the prize draw, we are nearly at 1,500 online members and look forward to building on this in 2024!

Our 2024 Princethorpe College Calendar, featuring 12 superb images of the College and its grounds is available to purchase through our online shop.

Priced at £6, visit Princethorpe Connect to get your order in today and enjoy fabulous photos of Princethorpe throughout 2024.

The Christmas tree in the College Chapel has been lovingly decorated with twinkling lights and carefully hand cut stars. In what has become an important tradition here at Princethorpe, the College community were invited to write the names of those who have touched their lives with love on a star. Each individual handwritten star was then carefully positioned on the tree.

The message of Christmas is one of love and the decorated Christmas tree in the Chapel is our College’s symbolic representation of that message. The many stars on the tree a testament to the presence of love in the world.

Standing alongside this year’s Chapel Christmas tree is our ‘Tree of Resilience’ which has also been decorated beautifully with brightly coloured paper chains. In their Advent Reflection, pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 were encouraged to share how they are living up to this year’s Chaplaincy theme of ‘Resilience’ by writing an example of how they have shown resilience this term on a strip of paper. Their thoughts were then joined together in a paper chain.

Our thanks go to Year 7 pupils, Gwenan Roberts, Dylan Llewellyn, Sophie Crawford and Max Wither, who, alongside their peers, have helped with decorating our trees.

We hosted our Christmas Science Lecture on Tuesday 12 December. As a warm-up, families 'mulled' over a Science and Christmas themed quiz with a glass of hot spiced wine and a mince pie, whilst our Lower Sixth Formers carried out close-up demonstrations that included extinguishing candles with carbon dioxide and the human-powered electricity generator.

The lecture itself explored having a sustainable Christmas, discussing food waste, carbon footprint and the sustainability of gifts and Christmas trees. It included the ‘Gift Wrap Challenge’ and had plenty of ideas on how to care for the planet by taking an eco-friendly approach to Christmas.

The evening concluded with an audience participation online quiz which was closely contended and tested our guests on the content of the lecture. Prizes went to the Cowlishaw, Lloyd and Wilcox-Smith families.

We would like to thank parents and pupils for attending the evening and the staff and STEAM Ambassadors who made it possible.

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

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 and given to local families in need.

Mary Benham, Chaplaincy Coordinator, said, “The level of enthusiasm and support shown for our appeal 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.”

A special thank you to the PTA who donated a whole box of Selection Boxes that will be sure to provide Christmas joy.

Thank you to all the pupils that helped with organising the donations, some of which you can see in the photo.

The latest edition of the College’s magazine, The Tower Review, will be mailed to parents over the Christmas holidays.

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.

2022/23 was another 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 2024 calendar and the Leavers of 2023 will be sent a hard copy in the post. 

You can also read a copy here.

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

Princethorpe’s popular PTA Christmas Fair took place on Sunday 10 December and hundreds of visitors descended on a College resplendent in decorations.

There were plenty of stalls selling a range of artisan products and gifts and an array of seasonal activities for all ages to partake in. Father Christmas and his elves made their usual stop off at the Fair, delighting children of all ages. The crowds enjoyed musical entertainment with a range of traditional melodies to get everyone in the Christmas spirit and in the Sixth Form Dining Room, families gathered to enjoy warming hot drinks and delicious mince pies.

Our huge thanks go out to the many helpers, supporters and workers who worked all weekend to make the event such a success. It is one of the PTA’s main fundraising events and they are delighted to report that this year the fair and Christmas raffle have so far raised a superb £4,933.89.

It won't be long before planning for the Summer Fete on Sunday 30 June begins in earnest. If you fancy getting involved, then do email the PTA at pta@princethorpe.co.uk.