The Flagpole

Many initiatives are underway to keep the spirit of giving to our local community and beyond alive during these times. Three of these are being promoted by our current Year 12 students, spearheaded by the Youth SVP group whose aim is 'to be generous with our time, our possessions and ourselves'. 

Firstly, more than 20 residents at two local care homes are being paired up with sixth form students who will write to them over the summer. The idea of Care Home Pen Pals is to continue the links we have already established through our community service activities during Friday afternoon Enrichment. Some residents at Cubbington Mill Care Home are keen to write back, whilst residents such as June, Mary and Brenda at Greenways Care Home in Long Itchington are delighted to hear from pupils they have already got to know during the Friday afternoon visits this past year.

Secondly, pupils are keen to continue the longstanding support the college has given to Mary's Meals and in particular to raise money for children at Makalanga School, our link school in Malawi. Working with governments, community leaders and our trusted partners, Mary's Meals has developed new methods of distribution to reach children in their communities and provide food to them at home, until it is safe for them to return to the classroom. More information is available via this link.  The Princethorpe response has been a fundraising idea centred on food and family. 'Make a Meal, Give a Meal' is about Princethorpe students making a delicious meal for their family or those in their social distance 'bubble' and then making a donation to our Makalanga project via our online fundraising page - £4 would feed a child for three months, £8 for six months. £15.90 is the precise figure to feed a child for a year. 

Thirdly, all members of the Princethorpe community are doubtless wondering what to do with their spare coins or even notes. Well, why not save up your coins and put them in a Mary's Meals big blue mug or a jam jar and bring into school in September. We will wait until the money is safe to count and then add it to our online fundraising for Makalanga.  

Whether you know about Mary's Meals or not, you will be inspired by a new documentary film released by Mary's Meals on 25 June and available to watch here. It features actor Gerard Butler on a heartwarming adventure from the bright lights of Hollywood to the classrooms in Haiti and Liberia. 

On a very final note, our planned trip to Malawi has been postponed to July 2021. More news about the classrooms refurbishment project for which we fundraised, and the possibility of joining the trip to follow. 

Rod Isaacs
Assistant Head of Sixth Form