The Flagpole

The Foundation's new advertising campaign, which launches next week across a variety of media, takes a joined-up approach to communicate the values and ethos of a Princethorpe Foundation education to prospective parents and pupils.

The new Foundation for Life campaign has been developed to highlight that our schools provide more than just an education, preparing pupils with the skills, learning and experiences which will put them on the road to happy and fulfilled lives. The concept underscores the unique strength of the Foundation and that there is a Princethorpe Foundation setting for every stage of a child’s educational journey. It also incorporates a gentle play on words.

Using a distinctive new graphic style emphasising the Tower icon, alongside eye-catching photography, the individual school logos and palette of Foundation brand colours, plus a new gold Foundation colour, the campaign is designed to be both visually impactful and incorporate strong messaging. Text panels emphasise that every individual is valued and that our family of schools aim to nurture, inspire and challenge our pupils to achieve great things.

Comments Melanie Butler, Foundation Assistant Head for Marketing, Admissions and Communications, "We have long wanted an overarching Foundation advertising campaign that encapsulates what the Foundation offers as a whole, as well as being adaptable to the personalities and nature of the individual school or nursery settings.

"Foundation Marketing and Communications Executive, Jo Flowers, and I have really enjoyed developing the campaign with the help of Marketing Consultant and OP, Nigel Bromley and our designer, Debbie McLaughlin. We hope the campaign will resonate not only with prospectives in terms of what they are looking for from a school or Foundation for their child, but with the whole Princethorpe community - staff, parents, pupils and Old Princethorpians alike."

Timed to coincide with the launch of Princethorpe’s 2025 admissions cycle, the Marketing Team will be working over the coming weeks to roll the campaign out across digital, outdoor and traditional media for all the Foundation schools. 

Check out the first of our advert concepts in the gallery!

Following a rigorous selection process Princethorpe College is delighted to announce that next year’s senior prefects have been chosen. Our congratulations go to Seb Bainbridge and Megan Shipton who will be Princethorpe’s new Heads of School. Working closely alongside them, will be Ruby Clark, Blessing Katanda, Oscar Reynolds and Jemima Teeton 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.

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 Princethorpe student body."

The full Prefect team will be announced shortly, their inauguration will take place on the last day of term, Friday 22 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.

Congratulations to Ben Smith, in the Lower Sixth, who is the ISA National Cross Country Champion and to Grace Darcey, in the Upper Sixth, who placed second in the Senior Girls race to claim the Silver medal.

After qualifying at the regional championships at Bedstone College, ten Princethorpe pupils travelled to Worksop College, in Nottinghamshire, on Saturday 2 March, to represent the Midlands in the ISA National Championships. They were on excellent form with five pupils finishing in the top ten and two earning themselves prized positions on the podium.

In the Senior Boys race, Ben delivered an outstanding performance finishing first across the line to take a well-deserved Gold Medal, hot on his heels but just missing a medal, in 4th place, was Upper Sixth Former, Will Harrison. In the Senior Girls race, Grace ran determinedly to finish second overall claiming herself a Silver Medal while Upper Sixth Former, Natasha Thomas finished not far behind in 8th.

All of Princethorpe’s pupils put in fantastic performances. In the Inter Girls race, Year 10, Lily Hunter finished 9th overall while in the Inter Boys, Year 10, Charlie Atkins was 25th. For the Junior Girls, Year 8, Issey Cleary was 14th. Then in the Minor Boys race, Year 7 pupil, Rufus Jones was 13th and for the Minor Girls, Year 7s, Esme Card finished 11th and Ellie Gane 16th.

Head of Outdoor Education, and PE Teacher, Will Bower, said, "It was good to see the College so well represented at the ISA National Championships. Well done to all of our competitors, we saw some excellent personal performances in tough races. I am delighted with the results."

It was fantastic to see OP Mike Cleary (Class of 1986) at the ISA event, he is pictured here with his daughter Year 8 Issey and the College's former Director of Sport, Gwil Price. 

Year 7 pupils Rufus, Esme and Ellie were in action one day later as well, at the Year 7 National Cross Country Championships where they delivered another excellent performance.

Next Friday, 15 March, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Father Jules Chevalier, the founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC). It was the MSC who established Princethorpe College in 1966 when they purchased St Mary’s Priory from the Benedictine nuns, so it is safe to say that our school would not be here today had it not been for Father Chevalier’s remarkable life and dedication to his mission. We are very much looking forward to celebrating his life in school next week with special activities, assemblies and a display of archive items.

Jules Chevalier was born on 15 March 1824 in Richelieu, France. His upbringing was not a wealthy one, and in order to support the family’s finances the young Jules left school early to become an apprentice to a shoemaker. Although Jules wished to enter religious life, his family could not afford the fees for him to attend the seminary; however, when he was 17, his father’s employer kindly offered to cover the costs and enabled him to fulfil his vocation to the priesthood.

Following his ordination, Father Chevalier served as curate in three different parishes before being sent to the town of Issoudun, which at that time was known as the most de-Christianised community in the diocese. Also serving as curate in the parish was Father Chevalier’s close friend from the seminary, Father Emile Maugenest.

Since his time at the seminary, Father Chevalier had had a vision of a group of people dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus who would bring a message of love and hope to the world around them. At that time, France was experiencing considerable unrest in the aftermath of the French Revolution, with increasing levels of apathy and even hostility towards religion. Father Chevalier saw the love of the Sacred Heart as the remedy to these issues. Together with Father Maugenest, who shared his vision, he resolved to found a religious congregation of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Before embarking on their project, Father Chevalier and Father Maugenest sought a sign from God that this was His will. Their prayers were answered by two generous donations from anonymous benefactors; these gave them the affirmation and the means they needed to make Father Chevalier’s vision a reality, and the two priests formed the first community of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1854.

From its humble beginnings in a former vineyard in Issoudun, with a barn which was renovated to become the first MSC chapel, the MSC quickly grew across Europe and beyond. Father Chevalier lived to see his mission extending to America, Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific Islands before his death in 1907.

Father Chevalier’s vision lives on through the work of his extended MSC family, now present in over 50 countries around the world, who continue to share the message of God’s love for humankind. We look forward to celebrating with them next week as we give thanks for the life and mission of Father Jules Chevalier.

At the end of January, 11 Lower Sixth students took part in the online Senior Physics Challenge set by the University of Oxford’s British Physics Olympiad team. Across the country, almost 6,000 pupils from 297 schools participated in the competition, where 40 tricky multiple-choice questions are answered on a variety of Physics topics within a 50-minute time limit.

Congratulations go to: Joseph Baker, Ruby Clark, Leo Flannery, Jack Fleming, Louise Gambling, Seb Hume-Chignell, Ollie Hutton, Blessing Katanda, Giorgio Kleinmann and Anjola Okusanya, who all achieved a Bronze certificate. Special mentions to Leo, Jack, Ollie and Anjola, who were just one mark off a Silver certificate.

Then, 44 Year 11 pupils took part in the online Intermediate Physics Challenge, which also asks a series of challenging multiple-choice questions within a time limit. Just over 5,000 young physicists from 171 schools participated. Congratulations to all the Princethorpe pupils who took part but in particular to Max Phillips-Gore and Louis Yuen, (pictured) who both received a Gold certificate, the highest achievable award.

Congratulations to the Upper Sixth Form students who took part in this year’s British Biology Olympiad, that is organised by the Royal Society of Biology.

Designed to challenge and inspire, it offers the opportunity for biology students to develop their thinking and problem-solving skills and test their knowledge of biology across and beyond the A-level Biology specification.

The results of this year’s competition have now been received and the four students who took part in the 2024 British Biology Olympiad have all been awarded certificates. Lola Ashley and Rahul Samra received Bronze awards, while Lauren Bach and Alice Whittaker were awarded Commended. They faced tough national competition, and we congratulate all four on their success.

The British Army STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach team visited Princethorpe College 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 one of three workshops. In the first, ‘Disaster Relief’, the scene was set with a video of the 2005 earthquake that devastated Kathmandu, Nepal. The pupils’ task was to provide much needed humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the natural disaster and it 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 the co-ordinates of mobile phone masts on a map, then 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 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.

Back in February, pupils from Princethorpe College took part in the 2024 UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) Intermediate Challenge, a prestigious national problem-solving competition that recognises the best young mathematicians in the country.

The Challenge involves answering multiple choice questions and is sat under normal school exam conditions. This year the challenge was taken on-line and the best pupils in the country were awarded Bronze, Silver or Gold Certificates.

The competition is aimed at Years 9, 10 and 11 and 77 Princethorpe pupils were selected to take part. It is a demanding exercise designed to stretch and test pupils’ mathematical skills, so the College is delighted that once again Princethorpe’s mathematicians achieved exceptional results.

Congratulations to Dylan Williams in Year 11, who was awarded a Gold certificate, and took the award for best performing pupil in school. Dylan Williams, Daniel Ovens Gibbs, Jay Patil and Zach Hawkins all performed so well that they have qualified for the follow-on round, the Intermediate Kangaroo challenge.

Gold certificate: Dylan Williams, Daniel Ovens Gibbs, Jay Patil, Zach Hawkins, Samuel Divers, Jesse Esler, Amelia Chard and William Gower

Silver certificate: Kathryn Flegg, Leo May, Olivia Monk, Thomas Leret, Anna Johnson, Sean Birtley, Andrei Bodorin, Jorja Parris, Oliver Baker, Daniel Taylor, Louis Reynolds, Jessica Eddleston, Jessica Sarkies and Isabel Barnes

Bronze certificate: Harriet Sarkies, Arabella Pinder, Jonjo Boyle, Lucas Summers, Henry Sparkes, Mark Message, Luchia Oatridge, Georgina Sowter, Sebastian Darch, Abbas Hazra-Omer, Teni Okusanya, Henry Curnow, William Sutton, Mohammad Abedi, Emilia Parmenter, Jessica Murphy, Joseph Sheeran, Alexander Sykes, Benjamin Jones, Ewan Pearce, Oliver Hawkins, Frederick Knott, Luke Abrahamson, Abigail Mandava, Eloise Maffey, Thomas Zanyi, Sophie Nicolle, Eve O'Brien, Aaron Cooper and Olivia Wilde

Well done all and many thanks to all the pupils who took part, we hope you enjoyed the challenge.

Theo Scoutas
Post 16 Mathematics Co-ordinator

The Cross Country Squad had a super afternoon at this year’s Shrewsbury Spring Relays, on Wednesday 6 March. The sport of cross country running originated at Shrewsbury School, so it was a wonderful opportunity for our College runners to compete against some serious opposition in one of the final school races of the season.

A team of 21 travelled to Attingham Park to compete in the Senior Boys, Open Girls, Junior Boys and Mixed relay races.

The Mixed team claimed a Bronze for Princethorpe against a talented field with Ben Smith leading the way, followed by Jess Evans, Charlie Atkins, Natasha Thomas, Felix Batty and Grace Darcy. They ran the course in an overall team time of 47:03 minutes. Ben delivered the second fastest boys’ lap at 6:40 minutes while Grace was the third fastest girl at 7:34 minutes. Captain Grace ran a remarkable anchor leg almost claiming the team Silver on the line.

The Senior Boys just missed a medal finishing fourth overall with Ben Smith, Will Smith, Freddie Hadley, Tom Windley, Charlie Atkins and Felix Batty completing the course in 48:06 minutes.

For the Junior Boys, Mark Message, Toby Iley, James Bostock, Abbas Hazra-Omer, Sam Grindal and Soren Wasley all ran well against quality opposition finishing in 50:15 minutes to claim fifth place.

Princethorpe’s Girls did just as well, with the A team coming fifth after Jess Evans, Natasha Thomas, Delilah Teeton and Grace Darcy completed the course in 36:33 minutes and the B team eighth, with Penelope Jones, Marley Adnitt, Anabel Davis and Grace McCollin finishing in 39:04 minutes.

It was a fantastic afternoon’s effort by all and a wonderful send off for our Upper Sixth runners, Grace, Jess and Natasha, whose commitment to running over the last seven years at Princethorpe has been extraordinary.

Meet our new Junior House Leaders who will be supporting House Activities Leader, Miss O’Gorman, the House Activities Co-Ordinators, and the House Captains. They will be developing their leadership, teamwork, and communication skills by championing House activities with fellow pupils.

Our new Junior House Leaders were in action last week enthusiastically supporting the House Pancake Challenge, next week they have an exciting new House Competition to promote, House Of Games.

The House teams are looking forward to working with them all - well done everybody!

Austin House
Izzy Johnson (7)
Dami Ajagunna (8)
Evelyn Waterworth (7)
Adelaide Teeton (7)

Benet House
Josh Gorbutt (10)
Penny Thomas (7)
Zach Darare (7)
Evie Johnson (8)

Fisher House
Sam McCormick (7)
Gilbert Millward-Boyton (7)
Megan Thandi (10)
Delilah Clay (7)

More House
Lola Foulteron (10)
Jonjo Boyle (10)
Lola Esler (9)
Jess Sarkies (10)

Our Year 10 scientists had a fascinating and informative day when they attended GCSE Science Live at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham on Monday 26 February.

62 pupils had the chance to hear from five of Britain’s top scientists all working at the cutting edge of their specialisms. Their speakers included, the renowned Professor Lord Robert Winston, geneticist, Professor Steve Jones, material scientist, Dr Anna Ploszajski, theoretical nuclear physicist, Professor Jim Al-Khalili and, neuroscientist, Dr Hannah Critchlow, talking on topics as diverse as IVF, Swimming the English Channel, Time Travel and Consciousness.

Pupils also heard from Lead Examiner, Stewart Chenery, who led two sessions full of tips and guidance on how to improve GCSE science examination performance.

The day provided excellent curriculum enrichment together with inspirational insights into how science offers solutions for many of the world’s great problems.

At lunchtime, on Monday 4 March, we recognised and celebrated the many pupils who have risen to the challenge of the College’s ethos. 70 pupils from across the College came together to enjoy a celebratory buffet lunch. All had been nominated by their teachers; some had excelled or showed commitment to sport, performing arts, co-curricular or charity work, whilst others had gone over and above in their academic studies. All were an outstanding example for their peers. Headmaster, Grove du Toit thanked each and every one of them, recognising the commitment and effort and all that they do to enrich school life. A huge well done to them all. You can find out more here.