The Flagpole

Sunday 23 June from 2.00pm to 4.30pm

A celebration of our pupils GCSE and A-level Art, Photography and Design work will take place in the College's Sixth Form Centre on Sunday 23 June from 2.00pm to 4.30pm.

A range of design and technology projects, from resistant materials to textiles, will be showcased alongside the stunning art and photography work the College is renowned for.

Comments, Paul Hubball, Head of Art, "This is a great opportunity to share our pupils' fantastic creativity with a wider audience and to welcome more art and design lovers to Princethorpe."

Added Head of Design and Technology, Paul Scopes, "We look forward to welcoming all the exam pupils and their families from across Design, Art and Photography to enjoy the fruit of their labours."

All are welcome. Admission will be £2 per car including entry to the College's Summer Fete and Motoring Festival. Light refreshments will be served.

Sunday 23 June 2019 from 2.00pm to 4.30pm

The Princethorpe College PTA Summer Fête and Annual Motoring Festival is this Sunday – we look forward to seeing you all from 2.00pm – 4.30pm.

As we’ve mentioned in the the previous Flagpole, there’s something for everyone with loads of stalls, fun and games including Zorbs, live music, BBQ food and refreshments etc.  We have over 30 stalls selling local wares, our usual raffle, tombola, book stall and bar!  We also have our very popular ‘Pre-loved Uniform Stall’.  Entry is only £2 per car so please do come along and support us.

As always we will be holding a raffle, this year with a 1st Prize of £250, 2nd Prize of a Fortnum and Mason Hamper, 3rd Prize of £100 and many more fabulous items to be won. Completed tickets can be returned on the day to at the PTA Stall and also purchased on the day. The raffle will be drawn towards the end of the event so don't miss out! 

We are always on the lookout for volunteers, so if you can help in any way on the day, even for half an hour, we would really like to hear from you! Please email us at pta@princethorpe.co.uk.

We do hope that you are able to come along to this fun, family event.

Many thanks
Princethorpe PTA 

Friday 28 June 2019 - 6.00pm optional tour, 7.00pm drinks reception, 7.30pm supper

OPs who left the College in 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009 (or those who were in the same year groups) are cordially invited back to the OPs annual Summer Supper on Friday 28 June to celebrate their respective 50th, 40th, 30th, 20th and 10th anniversaries of leaving.

Comments OPs Secretary, Melanie Butler, "We know many OPs are keener to come to these events if they can be sure of seeing some familiar faces.  By focusing on these year groups we hope to get a critical mass of attendees, although OPs from other years will of course be welcome too!"

The Summer Supper is an established event in the OPs calendar, attracting a large number of OPs, former and current members of staff. The supper is preceded by an optional tour and drinks in the Quad. Every year the OPs recognise long-standing members of staff and say farewell to any staff leaving the College.

Numbers are limited to around 100 guests, so if you would like to attend please email oldprincethorpians@princethorpe.co.uk, message Old Princethorpians on Facebook or call Melanie Butler on 01926 634284 by Monday 24 June to reserve your place.

On Tuesday 2 July 2019 at 7.30pm in the Chapel Tim Campain will play a wide variety of pieces from various genres. This year promises a special programme to mark twenty-five years of the popular Hugh Page Memorial Organ Recitals.

The renowned Princethorpe Binns’ organ of 1901 was built by James J Binns, Bramley Organ Works, Leeds. It was restored by Hugh Page in 1984.

From our archives we have a fascinating insight into the numerous letters that were written between Peter Paul Pugin and Sister Procurator of the Priory regarding the organ and the delay in placing the organ. An extract from one of the letters:

March 30th 1901 

...."it is all nonsense Binns saying the organ would be finished long ago if he had has a design for case. I sent him the design for case with full working drawings which he never acknowledged. He could have worked on it at once. The console is quite a separate affair. When I see Binns I will give him a bit of my mind. I was not at all extravagant in the design for the case and a tracing of it is now enclosed which you will kindly return after M Prioress has seen it. I will send on details of console as soon as I can!"

Please click here for a booking form. 

Tickets - £5.00 for each of the events including refreshments. All Foundation pupils free of charge.

The main image shows the original position of the organ console - it was moved to the gallery in approximately 1908 to make way for a statue of St Peter. This statue was taken by the nuns to Fernham when they left St Mary's Priory 1965. 

Fr Teddy O'Brien MSC and the parishioners of St Anne's R C Church, Wappenbury, invite you to celebrate the summer holiday Sunday Masses at 8.30am and 10.15am in St Anne's from Sunday 28 July to Sunday 25 August inclusive.

Please note there will be no 10.15am Mass on Sundays during this period in Princethorpe College chapel.

For further information about the parish of St Anne's please click here

Wednesday 11 September 2019 - 7.30pm

In our last meeting we discussed City of Sinners by A A Dhand. It was quite refreshing to read something as undemanding as this – a crime novel with numerous twists and turns exploring crime in the Asian communities of Bradford.  Dhand certainly knows the city and its inhabitants well.   At the heart of the novel is the extreme suspicion and antagonism between Muslim and Sikh communities within the city.  These racial issues are explored with some insight and sensitivity as the backdrop to some engaging and sometimes shocking crime detecting. 

Our next meeting will be on 11 September in the library at 7.30pm and we hope to welcome some newcomers to the first meeting of the new academic year.   We are using the long summer break for quite a challenging read and hope to get through Atwood’s Alias Grace.  We will also be discussing Force of Nature by Jane Harper and, as a piece of award winning non-fiction, we’ll be looking at Wilding by Isabella Tree.  Obviously not everyone will be reading all of these, but we hope there is something here for everybody so please come along in September and tell us what you thought of one or more of these books.  We are a small but friendly group of readers with broad tastes, always willing to try the recommendations of others.

Chris Kerrigan
Head of English