The Flagpole

Saturday 16 March - 10.00am to 12.00pm

Crescent School, Princethorpe's prep school in Bilton, Rugby, is holding an Open Morning on Saturday 16 March. Come and find out why Crescent School has been judged 'Excellent' in all areas by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. It's a great opportunity for prospective families considering Crescent School to come and have a look around and get a feel for the school. There will also be opportunities to speak to pupils, key members of staff and to meet Mr Thackway, Headmaster.

To find out more and to book your visit to Crescent School visit our website here.

There are a number of opportunities to visit the school during the course of the year. We encourage prospective parents and pupils to visit us both formally and informally to get a true flavour of the school.

Most of our pupils enter at Reception and at Year 3, though pupils are welcome at any age, dependent on a place being available. The school is proving popular so parents are being encouraged to apply early for places in Reception. 

Applications for places in the current Reception to Year 6 are treated on an individual basis. We are currently operating waiting groups in most year groups. Please get in touch with our Registrar, Mrs Helen Morley, regarding our availability for September 2024. 

We are now taking registrations for September 2025 entry to Reception and Year 3. 

Saturday 16 March - 12.00pm to 2.30pm 

Princethorpe College will be hosting its first Arts Festival on Saturday 16 March from 12.00pm to 2.30pm. All are welcome for a celebration of the arts and performing arts at Princethorpe, with displays of art, drama, music and more.

Entry is free; however, we would appreciate if you would book a ticket in advance of the event. Please click here.

We hope to see you there!

Tuesday 19 March - 2.00pm to 4.00pm

To mark St Joseph's Day on Tuesday 19 March, Crackley Hall School is holding a St Joseph’s Day Mass.

We cordially invite all former St Joseph's and Crackley Hall pupils and former staff to join us. The Mass will take place from 2.00pm to 3.00pm and afterwards there will be light refreshments for visitors and an opportunity to tour the school.

More information will be shared with all those registered before the event takes place.

To register please go to Princethorpe Connect.

Tuesday 19 March 2024 - 7.30pm to 10.00pm

Mrs Margaret-Louise O'Keeffe, former Deputy Head - Pastoral at the College, is delighted to join us once again to delve into the life of Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionism’s Mystery Man.

This talk, which will be her last, is specifically in honour of Alex Darkes who is retiring after 45 years of service at Princethorpe, and also in celebration of the Arts Society which he co-founded in 1995.

Who knows Caillebotte? Where does he come from? In what school was he trained? No one has been able to tell me. All I know is that Caillebotte is one of the most original painters to have come forward in some time, and I am not afraid I shall compromise myself by predicting that he will be famous before long.

So wrote the critic, Marius Chaumelin, after first seeing Caillebotte’s striking works in the Impressionist Exhibition of 1876. The prediction was correct for Caillebotte did become famous, not just as an artist but as an indispensable organiser, financier and publicist of other Impressionist Exhibitions and then also as a  patron and collector. As a wealthy man who never needed to work thanks to his family’s fortune, Caillebotte kept most his paintings or donated them to friends and, ironically, this led to a long period of neglect when his innovative cityscapes, portraits, still-lifes and landscapes were not on public view.

The dramatic purchase by the Art Institute of Chicago of his sensational Paris Street: Rainy Day in 1964 changed everything and led to a revaluation of his work. Before then, he was best known for the ultra-generous donation to the French state of major Impressionist works he had purchased, a donation which required his executors to negotiate patiently to persuade some intransigent officials to accept them.

This talk will illustrate the intriguing oeuvre of this unusual character, so aware of his own mortality, who died aged 45 in 1894.

Click here to book your place.

Friday 22 March 2024

Parents of students elected to serve on the Prefect Body, for the term of office which commences at the start of the Trinity Term 2024, will have received an invitation from the Headmaster inviting them to attend the Sixth Form Leadership Inauguration and Award Ceremony.

The ceremony takes place on Friday 22 March 2024 at 2.35pm, in the Sports Hall, as part of our final assembly of the term, and will be followed by afternoon tea and light refreshments in the Sixth Form Centre.

Replies will be due in by Friday 15 March.