Progress Reports for Year 9 and Lower Sixth will be published today, Friday 29 March, and will be available to view on the Pupil and Parent Portals.
Dr Michael Reddish
Deputy Head - Academic
Tuesday 2 April 2019
We are very pleased indeed to have a very popular writer Frank Cottrell Boyce visiting the school on 2 April. We are linking up with the Stratford Literary Festival to facilitate this visit and he will be speaking to all Year 7 on that occasion about his work.
In preparation for this visit, I’d like to encourage your children to read one of his books, which are usually very much enjoyed by this age group. My suggestion would be Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth although there are many other titles which might go down well and which are available in the school library. These include Million, Cosmic, Framed, Astounding Broccoli Boy and Desirable.
I certainly hope that the children will get a lot out of this visit, particularly if they have been able to enjoy some of Frank Cottrell Boyce’s writing in advance.
Chris Kerrigan
Head of English
Please click here for the Easter holiday homework expectations.
Thank you
Dr Liz Pyne
Assistant Head - Teaching and Learning
All exam candidates have now checked their exam entries and been issued with their personal exam timetable together with a copy of the Candidate Booklet. (Click here to download a copy).
It is important that candidates familiarise themselves with the content of the information booklet – a key change this year is the start time for afternoon exams - now 1.10pm. This will ensure that GCSE exams finish before the buses leave at 3.45pm but many A-level exams will continue beyond this time and candidates must make their own arrangements for transport home.
Candidates have been asked to look carefully at their timetables to identify any clashes or, for A-level candidates with two exams on the same day, a lengthy exam in the morning giving them less than 45 minutes break before the afternoon exam begins. All such issues will need to be discussed with me – an email in the first instance to: examinations@princethorpe.co.uk will enable me to see how many candidates are affected each day.
Individual timetables can also be viewed on the pupil portal and, nearer the time, rooms and seat numbers will be displayed.
For the first time this year, JCQ (the body responsible for all public examinations) have included an exam contingency day to be used if a significant, unexpected event arises nationally or locally during the exam period such that no pupils (or a large number of them) are able to take an exam when planned. Wednesday 26 June is the contingency day and crucially, all pupils must be available up to and including Wednesday 26 June in case one of their exams is moved.
JCQ have made it clear that if an exam is moved and a candidate is unable to attend then special consideration will not be considered. This means that even if your child has sat the first paper in a subject and then misses the moved one, the normal process of being able to ‘scale up’ the result from previous papers and make it count for the whole subject will not apply: any pupil who is unable to sit the moved exam will be given zero in that paper.
In light of this, please make sure that any holiday arrangements are only booked for after Wednesday 26 June even if the last exam on their current timetable is before that date.
Key dates for this summer’s exams are:
· First written Exam - Monday 13 May
· Final written exam (Year 11) - Tuesday 18 June
· Final written exam (Upper Sixth) - Tuesday 25 June
· JCQ Exams Contingency Day - Wednesday 26 June
· A-level Results - Thursday 15 August
· GCSE Results - Thursday 22 August
A-level results, the College will open at 7.00am and results will be published to the pupil portal at 9.00am.
GCSE results, the College will open at 9.00am and results will be published to the pupil portal at 10.00am.
On both days, staff will be on hand to assist with queries and to advise on future options. Any results envelopes not collected by 2.30pm on results days will be posted home.
If parents wish to have access to the exams section of the portal, this facility has to be enabled by the pupil beforehand, see the written Candidate Booklet for instructions.
Please note that results cannot be given out over the telephone.
If a pupil wants their results to be collected by a third party, written permission must be sent to the Exams Officer before 1 July 2019. Please include the full name, address and date of birth of the person collecting. On results day, the 3rd party will need to bring photo ID with them before results can be handed over.
Shellagh Dodds
Examinations Officer
Year 11 Exams - Important Dates
Formal lessons end for Year 11 on Wednesday 8 May 2019 and the GCSE exam period runs from Monday 13 May 2018 until Wednesday 26 June 2019. Please read the notice from Shellagh Dodds, our Examinations Officer, very carefully. It gives important information regarding exam timetables and the need for all pupils to be available up to and including Wednesday 26 June.
Year 11 Exams - Study Period Arrangements
Following the end of their formal lessons, Year 11 pupils may revise at home and come in only for their timetabled exams. We will keep the Year 11 timetable running as normal up to Friday 17 May so if any Year 11 pupils wish to study supervised in school they can follow their normal timetable, bringing with them whatever revision materials they wish to use for whichever subject they wish to study. If they are in school they must attend each lesson on their normal timetable that day, including tutor time, to make sure we have an accurate register.
From Monday 20 May onwards, rooms will be allocated for Year 11 pupils who wish to come into school to revise. They will be supervised but their normal teachers are unlikely to be available. Pupils will be allocated a specific room within which to study. They are unlikely to have access to IT facilities so should bring all the material with them that they need to revise from.
Maintaining an accurate record of who has come in to study and where they are is of course essential from a Health and Safety perspective. Pupils who come into school must make sure to sign in and be registered either in their timetabled lessons initially or in their specific allocated study base from then on. Any pupils who do not follow those rules will have to revise at home.
For our planning purposes we need to know who will be in school on any particular day and at what times. We will shortly circulate the form below in hard copy to the Year 11 pupils. Please fill it in to let us know when your son or daughter will be in school and return it to the Student Hub by Friday 3 May 2018.
Please click here for Exam Period Attendance Form.
Thank you for your support.
May I take this opportunity to wish all of Year 11 the very best of luck for their GCSEs. They have been working very hard and we have been delighted with the progress that the vast majority of pupils have already made between their first and second mock exams. They are on the home straight now. I am sure that they will reflect carefully on their mocks and take full advantage of the revision guidance they have received and the time they have left to prepare.
Dr Michael Reddish
Deputy Head - Academic
Please note that Upper Sixth study leave will commence after school on Friday 10 May.
Ben Collie
Head of Sixth Form
