The Flagpole

With just eight weeks to go the countdown to the College's Entrance Exams for admission in September 2020 is well underway. This year the exams for Year 7 to 10 entry will take place on Saturday 9 November from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

Our friendly Admissions Team has been kept busy over the summer accepting registrations from prospective parents.  The deadline for registrations is Friday 4 October, to enable the seeking of references from junior schools.

There are still plenty of opportunities for prospective pupils and their parents to visit the College before the Entrance Exams, including our Open Morning on Thursday 26 September from 10.30am to 12.30pm, when Year 8 and 9 pupil tour guides will be available to show visitors around the school.

The Admissions Team are also holding a Year 6 Parents' Q and A session on Monday 16 September from 6.30pm to 7.30pm to answer any admissions and entrance examinations related questions in an informal forum.

There are still some places available on our Taster Days for children in Year 6 this September on the following dates:

• Wednesday 18 September and
• Tuesday 1 October

To register your interest in a Year 6 Taster Day click here.

For more information please contact the Admissions Team on 01926 634262.

Comments Melanie Butler, Assistant Head, Marketing, Admissions and Communications, "Parents and pupils still have time to register and one final opportunity to visit the College in the run up to the exams.  The results will be out at the end of November, making for an exam-free Christmas holiday, which has got to be good news."

If you have any queries relating to admissions please feel free to email the Registrars at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or call them on 01926 634201.

The latest edition of the College's Admissions Update e-newsletter has just been published. It is packed with news to give prospective parents and pupils a feel for College life, information on forthcoming events and helpful advice about the admissions process, particularly for those who are looking at entry in September 2020.

The newsletter reminds parents that this year our Entrance Exams for Years 7 to 10 admissions in September 2020 are on Saturday 9 November 2019 from 9.30am to 3.30pm. Early registration is advised.

The newsletter is issued twice a year to coincide with key admissions periods, the next edition will be published in Spring 2020.

Click here to go to the Admissions Update newsletter.

Or if you have any queries relating to admissions please feel free to email the team at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk.

Over the summer of 2019 the College enjoyed a very successful 14 day sports tour to South Africa. Taking our largest squad ever, of some 94 pupils and 11 staff, and for the first time including football, into the playing schedule of boys’ hockey, girls’ hockey, netball and rugby.  The tour travelled to Cape Town and then on to Johannesburg and Pretoria for a fortnight full of keenly contested matches and superb sight-seeing.

During the tour the rugby, netball, football and girls’ hockey teams participated in six full days of good spirited and competitive training and matches against school and club teams. The boys’ hockey team entered the Cape Town International Hockey festival playing schools from the UK as well as top South African teams – an amazing experience.  Our South African hosts were so hospitable and the training and matches were great experiences for all, with valuable lessons learnt both on and off the field.

Away from the sports field, the tour offered participants the chance to broaden their horizons with sightseeing and educational experiences that included the history of South Africa with tours of Soweto and the Apartheid Museum and a visit to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated.  Pupils also had the opportunity to experience South Africa’s vibrant culture at Lesedi village and get up close and personal with the wildlife in game drives at Pilanesberg Game Reserve, seeing the ‘Big Five’ and a ‘cattrick’ on their drives. The tour party also enjoyed some spectacular scenery after walking up Table Mountain in Cape Town and venturing to the most southern tip of Africa at Cape Point.

Neil McCollin, Acting Assistant Head (Co-Curricular), said, “South Africa is a truly stunning country, passionate and fiercely competitive in their sport. We had an excellent trip and played some inspiring matches and I know that our Princethorpe pupils returned home with a truly wonderful set of memories. The behaviour, engagement and camaraderie of the Princethorpe pupils was first class and I know that this is going to set them up for competitive sporting fixtures this season, but more importantly they will get even more out of their Sixth Form experience as a result of their time away together.”

Huge thanks go to all of the staff involved for their time and passion in putting together and running such an impressive trip.  We were also incredibly fortunate to have some amazing sponsors for the tour and we can not thank FTI consulting, BB Fencing, Building and Timber and COBA enough for their trust and support.

More photos are available on the school website here.

We look forward to the experiences translating into positive results on the pitches over the coming season.

At the start of the summer holidays, 30 talented tourists from Princethorpe College took part in a marvellous musical adventure when they embarked on a performance tour of one of the most significant cities in the history of music, Vienna.

Their six-day action-packed itinerary included the chance to follow in the footsteps of Mozart by visiting his apartments in the city, exploring the science of sound at the interactive Haus Der Musik Museum and seeing how European royalty (and the musicians in their patronage) lived by exploring the stunning Esterhazy Palace. Of course, no visit to the city would be complete without a visit to the world-famous Spanish Riding School or the chance to explore Klimt’s magnificent masterpieces in the Baroque Palace turned art museum the Belvedere.

Whilst in Vienna, Princethorpe’s prodigies performed in three fantastic venues. The choir had the honour of singing in the incredible Haydnsaal concert hall (where none other than Josef Haydn conducted the premiers of many of his most important symphonies). Then together with the Orchestra and Jazz Band they performed to appreciative and sizeable audiences under the world-famous Ferris Wheel of Prater Park, and finally spent a magical evening entertaining a full house in the gothic masterpiece that is Vortivkirke.

This is the first time that the College has taken its instrumental groups on tour, and the entire trip was a resounding success.

Plans are already in place to take the Music department on tour to Belgium in July 2020, and details of how to get involved can be found here.

Two Princethorpe Year 11 pupils, Oscar Blunsom-Washbrook and Mason Winterburn have been selected for the 2019/20 U16 Rugby Wasps Academy. Oscar who plays as hooker and flanker and Mason who plays scrum half will now take part in the Player Development Pathway, a programme that challenges young rugby players supporting them as they take their next steps towards the Senior game.

Over the school summer holidays the boys spent seven weeks training twice a week with the Wasps Academy taking part in summer pre-season training sessions, a Rugby Football Union Festival and matches that took place across the Midlands, as far afield as Coventry, Malvern, Aylesbury, Birmingham, Oxford and Henley-on-Thames. They faced teams from clubs that included Saracens, Harlequins, Newcastle and Cardiff Blues.

Academy rugby is incredibly competitive, so the boys are excited and extremely proud to have both been retained into the final U16 squad.

Foundation Director of Sport, Neil McCollin, commented “Oscar and Mason have demonstrated commitment and an unwavering passion for Rugby, we are delighted that their talent and dedication has been recognised and that they are going forward with Wasps for the season ahead.”

Congratulations boys, we know you will work hard and hope you have a fantastic season.

Friday 13 September to Sunday 22 September from 9.00am - 5.00pm

St Anne’s church sits on a large fortified Iron Age settlement dating back to approximately 700BC known as the Wappenbury camp, the river Leam forming part of its defences.

An early Catholic directory mentions a Catholic Mission at Wappenbury in 1734 and therefore this implies that there was Catholic activity in the 1600s.

The first Diocesan records of the Mission start in 1744 with a record of baptisms. The priest at this time and recorded at Wappenbury was Fr W Walmsley OSF, 1744-1768.

The small chapel built by Lord Clifford is reliably assumed to be the current Sanctuary. The new chapel was built and completed in 1849 extending from the north side of the old Clifford chapel and opened by Bishop Nicholas Wiseman and dedicated to the Mother of Our Lady, St Anne. The church was the first Catholic parish church to be built in the diocese since the reformation.

The incumbent priest of St Anne’s would offer Mass for the nuns at St Mary’s Priory, which is now Princethorpe College.

St Anne’s was completely renovated and refurbished between January and September 2014. The re-dedication of St Anne’s took place on Saturday 18 June 2016. 

The church will be open from Friday 13 September to Sunday 22 September from 9.00am - 5.00pm. Refreshments will be served on Saturday 21 September between 10.00am and 12noon and on Sunday 22 September between 10.00am and 1.00pm.

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

The church is five minutes drive from Princethorpe College - we would be delighted to see you!