The Flagpole

Six talented Princethorpe College hockey players have been selected for England Hockey’s Midlands Junior Regional Performance Centre. Year 10 pupils, Tom Hollis and Alice Whittaker and Year 11s, Molly Harper, Ben Hardy, Evie Phillips and Lara Tripp-Smith, have been playing hockey at school, club and county level for a number of years.

The Junior Regional Performance Centre programme will provide them with regular high-quality intensive training from professional coaches and the chance to play competitive hockey against some of the best young hockey players in the country.

Head of Boys' Sport, Mike Turns, said, “The Junior Regional Performance Centres are a real opportunity for these young players. They will be able to advance their game and playing skills and make their mark within a talented pool of athletes. There is potential for them to even be selected for the Futures Cup. It’s a really big achievement.”

It’s fantastic news for them and their clubs and the College is delighted for them.

Back in April pupils from Princethorpe College took part in the 2021 UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) Junior Challenge, a prestigious national problem-solving competition that recognises the best young mathematicians in the country. The Challenge involves answering multiple choice questions and is sat under normal school exam conditions. The papers are then sent away to be marked by UKMT and the best pupils in the country are awarded Bronze, Silver or Gold Certificates.

The competition is aimed at pupils in Year 8 and Year 9 and Princethorpe selected 73 able mathematicians to participate in this year’s Challenge. It is a demanding exercise designed to stretch and test pupils’ mathematical skills, so the College is delighted that this year, Princethorpe’s mathematicians achieved exceptional results.

Congratulations go to Year 8 pupil, Zach Hawkins who was awarded a Gold certificate, and took the award for best performing pupil in school, and to Year 7 pupil, Emily Hutton, who was awarded a Silver certificate, and took the award for best performing pupil in Year 7.

Gold certificates were also awarded to Year 8 pupils Noah Granfield, Amelia Chard and Dylan Williams. Our Gold certificate winners (pictured) all performed so well that they have also all qualified for the follow-on round, the Junior Kangaroo Challenge.

Silver certificates went to: Matthew Crawford, Cassia O’Hanlon, Soren Wasley, Thomas Leret, Roxy Glenn, Olivia Wilde, Oliver Passantino

Bronze certificates were awarded to: Anna Johnson, Ferdie Worrall, Pippa Evans, Theo Sparkes, Oliver Baker, Jonjo Boyle, Daniel Taylor, Ariana Gray, Ben Jones, Charlie Atkins, Eden Chaplow, Aaron Cooper, Sophie Dovey, Daniel Ovens Gibbs, Ethan Peachey

Well done all and many thanks to all the pupils who took part, we hope you enjoyed the challenge.

Theo Scoutas
Post 16 Mathematics Co-ordinator

Each year the College participates in CILIP's (The Library and Information Assocation) shadowing scheme for the Carnegie Medal, a literary award recognising an outstanding new book written for young adults. The award was established in 1936 in memory of the Scottish born philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919).

The shadowing scheme challenges pupils, librarians and teachers to read titles from the shortlist selected by the Carnegie judging panel and to discuss the merits of each title before voting for their own winner. Previous winners of the award have included Philip Pullman, Patrick Ness, Sarah Crossan and, of course, J K Rowling.

The announcement of the National winner will be made on Wednesday 16 June and it's always thrilling as we wait with anticipation to see if our pupils’ vote match that of the national judges.

This year there are 16 pupils from Year 7 to the Upper Sixth taking part in the shadowing scheme, including Lauren Mason and Charlotte Fitzpatrick who have participated for the last seven years which is quite an achievement.

For more information about the shortlist and the award go to: carnegiegreenaway.org.uk

One of the Carnegie longlisted titles this year is Tom Palmer’s After the War – From Auschwitz to Ambleside. Based on the fascinating true events of Jewish children who were rescued and re-located to the Calgarth Estate in Windermere, it is an emotive and provocative story of hope, friendship and resilience.

During the Trinity term this wonderful book will be read during Tutor Time to all pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 by their Tutors in a pilot DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) session each week. Pupils will then have a Q & A session with the author, Tom Palmer, on Thursday 10 June, when he is going to do a pre-recorded ‘virtual’ visit to the College. He will talk about his research for the book and provide pupils with an opportunity to discover more about the lives of children at Windermere. You can also find out more about the book here; tompalmer.co.uk/after-the-war

It was lovely to welcome our future Year 7s to Princethorpe last Saturday 22 May. Opportunities to visit the College have been limited over the last year so the Sports Department had organised a special incoming Year 7 Sports Festival.

The soon to be pupils enjoyed a carousel of different activities out on the astro and the tennis courts, including Invasion Games, Athletics Throwing and Running, Relay Games, Cricket Bowling, Catching, Fielding and Batting skills.

The youngsters had a busy morning as they rotated round the different challenges and it was a great introduction to the school. There was plenty of enthusiasm and excitement and it was good to see the children mixing and making new friends.

A huge well done to them all. We are really looking forward to meeting them again in June when they have their Induction Day.

The College's Admissions Update e-newsletter has just been published and can be found here. 

It is full of articles and news to give prospective parents and pupils a feel for College life, information on forthcoming open days and events and helpful advice about the admissions process. It will be of particular interest to those looking at entry to the school in September 2022, in Years 7 to 10 and Sixth Form.

The newsletter is issued twice a year to coincide with key admissions periods, and the next edition will be published in Autumn 2021, just prior to our Entrance Exams on Saturday 6 November 2021.

For further information on admissions please do contact the admissions team at admissions@princethorpe.co.uk or call 01926 634201.

On Saturday 22 May we welcomed Year 5 pupils from local (and not so local) primary schools for a fantastic, fun-filled Taster Experience. The youngsters enjoyed a morning or afternoon taking part in a special session designed to give them an insight into life at Princethorpe College. The morning session was open to all while the afternoon session focused on the Foundation Junior Schools. 

As well as experiencing exciting sample lessons the children got to make new friends, explore the school campus and start to feel at home at our school. We saw plenty of impressive work and, of course, at break time everyone was treated to a legendary Princethorpe cookie.

Our Year 5 Taster Experiences are a great way for primary school youngsters to get a feel for our friendly school as they start to think about where they will go to secondary school.

There are just a few places left now on our next Year 5 Taster Experience that is taking place on Saturday 19 June. If you know someone who would be interested please do encourage them to find out more here: www.princethorpe.co.uk/visit