The Flagpole

We are currently putting together a plan for the expeditions; participants will be emailed directly regarding these details.

The continued priority should be to complete the physical, skill and volunteering sections. Please refer to the attached electronic assessor report guide illustrating how you can get your award signed off during lockdown conditions.

Assessor Report Guide

This is a summary of the temporary changes DofE have introduced to help you complete on time:

• Participants can now volunteer for family members – e.g. mentoring or coaching younger siblings
• Participants can now change activities more than once – time spent on previous activities will still count. You will need an assessor report for both activities though.
• Timescales - you can now choose to do your section activities less regularly, but for a longer period – so instead of doing an hour each week, you could think about doing two hours every other week if that fits better with your chosen activity. The activity must still be spread across the number of months you’ve chosen to spend on that section but you could do four hours per month on one day.

If you haven’t yet started one of your sections this is the perfect opportunity, the DofE requirements have never been more flexible! The link below provides some example activities that can be completed at home.

https://www.dofe.org/dofewithadifference/activities

The DofE have also provided some useful FAQs for participants:

https://www.dofe.org/coronavirus/faqs-participants

It is also worth checking the opportunity finder if you’re still struggling for ideas:

https://www.dofe.org/opportunity-finder/opportunity-for-dofe-participant/

Here are some tips if you can’t find someone to be your assessor, though I’m sure Princethorpe Staff (for example your tutor) will happily help you out:

https://www.dofe.org/dofewithadifference/assessors

Well done to all DofE participants for their continued commitment to the scheme in the current climate.

One of the very few positives to come out of this awful pandemic appears to be the increased popularity of exercise outside. Families have taken the opportunity to reengage with the outdoors in their local area. In beautiful weather, walking, running and biking the local footpaths and bridleways has become a national pastime.

Having been inspired by the efforts of Princethorpe pupils in PE, Games and their ‘permitted daily exercise’ Cross Country Club have decided to take on a June Challenge.

They will be recording their daily run, walk and biking distances and calculating the monthly totals. The aim is part motivational tool, part healthy competition. Clearly the keen cyclists will have a strong advantage! There has already been a strong uptake from the 30 runners who attend the weekly Cross Country Breakfast Club and represent the school in fixtures.

2019-20 was an excellent season. 15 qualified for the cancelled ISA Nationals and there were excellent performances from the six who ran at the ESAA Nationals. Two Y7 athletes qualified for the cancelled Y7 National Championships. 12 runners competed for Warwickshire County.

Equally satisfying were the team results. The U15 boys, U15 girls, U13 boys and U13 girls were ISA Midlands champions. The Senior boys, Inter boys, Junior girls and Minor girls placed first at the County Championships. Princethorpe entered the most runners of any school in Warwickshire at the Area and County Championships. What was most impressive of course was the weekly commitment to Breakfast Club, an awesome effort!

Princethorpe has a proud tradition in endurance running, despite current conditions it has been heartening to see the continued efforts of our athletes.

Why don't you take up the June challenge and see how you fair against the Cross Country squad?

This week we heard from OP Georgina Dadson, Class of 2014. Always a talented musician, Georgina went on to study at the Birmingham Conservatoire and graduated in the summer of 2018 taking the prestigious Doris Newton Music Club Prize. Georgina then moved into Artist Management and has since been working for IMG Artists but her desire to play and perform has always been strong.

Georgina said, “I am going to be concentrating more on playing and teaching guitar and, once the lockdown is over, I am looking forward to performing with my voice and guitar duo. I am part of the NYGE (National Youth Guitar Ensemble) Fellowship which is made up of people studying or recently graduated from music college. I joined the NYGE when I was in the Sixth Form at Princethorpe and it's what inspired me to go to music college, I highly recommend it.”

The National Youth Guitar Ensemble are now accepting VIDEO auditions to join any of their regional ensembles, they are open to students aged 12-25 and grade 5 to diploma level and Georgina has offered to chat to any students that are interested. More information on the NYGE can be found here: nyge.org.uk.

It was really great to hear Georgina's news and about the NYGE opportunities, and we look forward to seeing her performing when this is all finally over!