We are heading towards half term with just one week left now before we break up and pupils and staff have the chance to recharge their batteries.

A huge well done to all our pupils on your Home Learning over the past five weeks. When we return to lessons after half term Spring will definitely be in the air and we hope it won't be long before pupils can return to school.

Watch out for the next edition of the Flagpole on Friday 26 February.

Click here to email The Flagpole.

Preview

Headmaster's Message

Letter From The Headmaster

We are very pleased, as I am sure you are, to see the positive news about the progress of the vaccination programme and the decline in the number of Covid cases nationally. We hope very much that this trend will continue apace over the coming few weeks and that we will be able to welcome pupils back into school in March as suggested by the Prime Minister.

Thank you to all those parents who have sent individual comments through to us over the last few weeks. We are keen to get feedback from all parents and would appreciate you completing the online survey below so we can get your perspective on how your children are managing their workload during lockdown, your feelings on how home learning is going and their general well being.  We are concurrently surveying the pupils to get their views too.

If you could complete the survey by 9.00am on Tuesday 9 February 2021 that would be much appreciated.

Please click here to go to the survey.

Many thanks

Ed Hester

News

Oxbridge Offers For High-Flying Princethorpe Sixth Formers

Four Princethorpe College Sixth Form students are thrilled to have received offers for places at Oxford and Cambridge University.

Deputy Head Girl, Lauren Mason, will be reading Natural Sciences at Selwyn College, Cambridge, Deputy Head Girl, Grace McGrory, will be reading Law at Pembroke College, Oxford, Deputy Head Boy, James Gallagher, will be reading Law at The Queen’s College, Oxford and former Deputy Head Girl, Hannah Porter, will be reading History at Trinity College, Oxford.

Oxbridge places are highly oversubscribed and increasingly competitive, so these talented students will have faced a tough selection process consisting of pre-tests, intensive scrutiny of their academic and personal achievements and rigorous interviews.

Their success is not achieved without a great deal of hard work from the students, as well as hours of dedicated support and encouragement from their teachers, parents and even former students, who have provided individual guidance and support over the past few months.

Princethorpe College Head of Sixth Form, Ben Collie, commented, “These four students have earned this success. During their time at Princethorpe College they have applied themselves to their academic studies and to developing themselves as confident and mature young people. Applying to Oxbridge is an extremely rigorous and character-testing experience that seems to get tougher every year.  We were delighted to support them with their applications and are exceptionally proud of their achievement.”

We are very proud of these talented young people and of all our Upper Sixth students applying to study at University next year, the majority of whom have now received offers through the UCAS system.

College Careers Fair 2021 Is Shaping Up Nicely

Preparations for the College Virtual Careers Fair on the morning of Saturday 20 March are shaping up nicely.

Online registrations for the event, which is open to all pupils from Year 10 to Sixth Form, will open later in February.

A wide range of speakers and organisations will be on hand to offer advice and guidance on careers, universities and gap year options.  To date we have representatives from organisations as diverse as JLR to Nettitude and Aldi to Howkins Harrison giving presentations, alongside universities from across the country, such as Reading, Warwick, Leeds and Bristol.

There will be sessions on Accountancy, Architecture, Estate Agency and Chartered Surveying, the Armed Forces, Art and Film making, Computer Gaming and Cyber Security, Engineering and IT, Fashion, Retail, Business and Marketing, Medical, Law, Teaching, Entrepreneurship, Product Design, TV and Radio as well as the University Talks.

Comments, Jacqui Quinney, Head of Careers, "Attendees will be able to select three virtual workshops to attend over the course of the morning, following on from our Keynote Speaker, Dr Charlotte Cowie.  We are delighted with the breadth of careers we will have on offer, there promises to be a wealth of information and advice available."

An email will be sent to parents and pupils in Years 10 to Sixth Form with a link to the online registration page and information about all the speakers.

Science+ Campaign And Telethon Update

Parents will be pleased to know that we continue to develop our plans for the future of education at the College and the proposed new Science Centre.

In late 2019 we launched our Science+ Campaign to raise funds towards our proposed state-of-the-art Science Centre offering Princethorpe parents their chance to make their mark on Princethorpe’s future. With a varied “Menu of Giving” which includes opportunities from sponsoring an element on our giant periodic table, to engraving your family’s name on a granite paver, there are options to suit everyone.

Our Science+ Campaign information is available to read here and it lays out all the information you need to know about the new, state-of-the-art, ten-laboratory Science Centre, our fundraising objectives and how Princethorpe parents can get involved.

Whilst the pandemic has inevitably delayed our plans slightly, we are hopeful that the project will proceed with a view to opening the doors to the new Science Centre in 2023, but we still need lots of support from the Princethorpe community.

In April we are enlisting the help of an enthusiastic team of recent Old Princethorpians to embark upon our first ever telephone fundraising campaign. Our professionally trained call team will be speaking to thousands of people across the school community from current parents to former students to help us with our fundraising.

Everyone we will be calling will receive a pre-call communication with the chance to opt-out of receiving a call, so this is not ‘cold calling’.

Also, if you have a son or daughter that has left the College within the last five years, they may be interested in applying for one of the remote calling roles. With competitive rates of pay and full training, these professional fundraising roles will be undertaken remotely from home or student accommodation.

They will need to be available from 6 – 20 April (Easter holidays for most universities). Training will take place on 6 – 7 April 9.00am – 4.00pm. Weekday calling is in the evenings, Saturday calling is during the day, Sunday calling is afternoon into evening. There will also be two full days off during the duration of the campaign.  Full details and how to apply are here

Development Director

 

View Gallery

An Assembly With Fisher's Furry Friends

When Louisa Fielding, Head of Fisher House, invited pupils to bring their pets to assembly this week, the result was beyond expectations with a whole variety of furry (and not so furry) friends joining in the fun. Lockdown has been difficult and while we have adapted and adjusted to remote learning, the lack of interaction has been a challenge for us all.

Noticeably many more cameras were on and gazing around there were huge smiles everywhere and an awful lot of animals. Princethorpe’s pupils and staff clearly appreciate their pets with dogs, cats, fish, rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs all logging on.

After all the introductions the assembly kicked off with Mrs Fielding talking about the many benefits of owning a pet; how they can help you stay fit, reduce loneliness and stress levels, help you make friends, teach responsibility and empathy and just what amazing companions they can be. We were introduced to many staff pets and there was a special mention for everyone’s favourite, Peanut, Matron’s therapy dog. Mrs Fielding finished the assembly with a prayer from the patron saint of pets St Francis of Assisi.

Fisher’s assembly was the first but not likely to be the last to include pets. It broke down barriers and built engagement and provided lots of lovely interaction for us all.

College Stars To Perform A Super Virtual Spectacle of Jesus Christ Superstar

Every year the Performing Arts team at Princethorpe College works tirelessly to stage a superb musical production. Who can forget the success of We Will Rock You, Little Shop of Horrors and Arabian Nights to name just a few of the fabulous productions they have staged in recent years?

First trailed back in February last year, there was great excitement amongst pupils that the 2021 show was to be the fantastic 1970s rock opera hit, Jesus Christ Superstar. Originally due to be staged this week, Directors, Jess Newborough and Gil Cowlishaw have just announced that this year’s College production is to be a world first, a completely virtual production. In agreement with the rights holders the College is recording individual virtual performances that will be edited together to produce a show. If all goes to plan, the ‘show week’ will be from Thursday 1 to Thursday 8 April 2021, with tickets being sold to stream the show as often as you like during the week.  Due to the strict copyright laws, the production will then be taken down, never to be seen again!

It promises to be highly entertaining, featuring a number of classic rock musical numbers including Gethsemane, I Don’t Know How To Love Him, Everything’s Alright and of course the powerful anthem Superstar.

The cast, many of whom have developed as performers in the annual musical productions over the last five years include Kyran Vaughan as Jesus, Megan Shipton as Mary Magdalene, Robyn Field as Judas, James Maclean as Pontius Pilate, Greg Burford as Caiaphas, Mary Lomas as Annas, Chloe O'Carroll-Bailey as Peter, Charlotte Fitzpatrick as Simon Zealotes, Roualeyn Alford as King Herod and Toby Convey, Elsie Kelley and Ignash Librowski as the High Priests with another 15 pupils involved in the chorus and dance routines.

Jesus Christ Superstar is a particularly challenging show as it is completely ‘through-sung’, meaning that there is no dialogue between the songs.  Pupils have done an incredible job of learning their parts, and Keira MacRae has led weekly dance rehearsals on Zoom to teach the team the choreography she has devised.

Gil Cowlishaw, Director of Music, explains, “In ‘normal’ times, we would have never been allowed the opportunity to make a movie musical. In January, when the school’s closed again the easy thing to do would have been to admit defeat but that is not how we do things at Princethorpe. The Music Department has proved that virtual performances can work, with enough hard work from all involved, so we decided to make plans for an entirely virtual production of the show.  We were given permission from the rights holders, who confirmed that this has never been attempted before, and then checked that the cast were still up for it and of course unanimously, they were.”

It is sure to be super spectacle, so watch out for details of how to get tickets to the show. In the meantime good luck to everyone involved as you record your performances.

College Entrance Examinations Successfully Go Virtual

Feedback on Princethorpe’s virtual entrance exams has been incredibly positive with the overwhelming majority of prospective parents commenting on how well the session went. Despite the last-minute change to online assessments due to the national lockdown the ‘virtual’ Entrance Examinations ran very smoothly.

Saturday 23 January dawned bright and cold and with just the Admissions, Marketing and IT staff on site, the College was quiet and still, a stark contrast to the usual excited hustle and bustle of a traditional Entrance Examinations day. The proceedings were kicked off by Ed Hester, Headmaster, who spoke inspiringly to the registered pupils and their parents live online before the tests began. The children sat three 45-minute papers in English Comprehension, Maths and Free Writing, submitting their answers electronically at the end of each session. Off-site also working from home, the English and Maths departments were quick to begin assessing the submissions with the waiting staff teams working through the weekend to complete the process.

Apart from the exams being online, the College has kept the admissions process in-line with its normal procedures as far as possible. Along with the results of the exams, the Admissions Panel also considered candidates’ detailed references from their current school before making a decision. The results will be published as scheduled on Thursday 11 February 2021.

Melanie Butler, Assistant Head, Marketing and Admissions, commented, “Parental feedback on the virtual exams has been incredibly positive. In the circumstances we had no choice but to run the examinations online, for us, as always, it was most important that the children should have as positive an experience as possible. Happily the feedback on the day speaks for itself.”

Comments from parents included:

‘A great example of how a test can be run online without all the stress. Well done’

‘Thank you for making this a stress-free exercise for the children.’

‘Very well done in the most challenging of circumstances.’

‘It was really reassuring to see how organised the whole process was.’

‘Thank you for making this morning as easy and straight forward as you did.’

‘Thank you, the whole process was made very easy for all involved.’

‘A big well done to everyone that made this morning run so smoothly.’

‘To everyone involved well done and thank you.’

Melanie Butler, continued, “Huge thanks to all the staff who worked so hard to prepare for and deliver such a successful Entrance Examinations day.”

PTA Burns Night Quiz Was A Winner For All

Last Friday 29 January the College PTA hosted a super Scottish themed extravaganza in aid of Mary’s Meals, a charity close to Princethorpe’s heart. The virtual quiz celebrated Burns Night and proved to be a fabulous evening of fun.

Featuring Rabbie Burns’ renowned poetry, with a rendition of the great bard’s Address To A Haggis, it included six rounds of 10 questions each, with topics such as Geography, Music, Sport, Celebrities, Landmarks and General Knowledge all with a Scottish slant.

The quiz was free, but families were asked to donate to Mary’s Meals and the evening included a short insight into Princethorpe’s fundraising for the school feeding programme at Makalanga School in Malawi.

The evening was excellent lockdown entertainment. It was great to see everyone having such a good time and to receive lots of positive feedback including ‘Fabulous quiz night’, ‘Amazing Burns Night Quiz’ and ‘Thanks for a lovely evening’.

The real winners though, thanks to everyone’s amazing generosity, were the children at Makalanga School with donations to the PTA Quiz and to the half-marathon weekend runners, Rod Isaacs, Ben Collie, Jen Law and Rod’s good friend Michael Koch, totalling £2359.17.  A figure that benefits from the Government’s pledge to match funding, doubling the donations to an outstanding £4718.34 for this deserving cause.

Huge thanks to all who took part and all who donated to Mary’s Meals.

More information available here: Princthorpe4Makalanga

Home School Bistro - Cook Along Videos From Holroyd Howe

Our fantastic school caterers, Holroyd Howe, have introduced a series of cook-along videos - Home School Bistro - that are available from their Holroyd Howe YouTube channel!

Holroyd Howe Youtube Channel

Between now and half term, Dan Collier their Head of Food Development and his daughters, Lauren and Eva, will bring a savoury and sweet recipe to life each week from the Home School Bistro recipe pack.

Home School Bistro Pack

All put together on a step by step basis for pupils and parents to watch and cook-along!

We must admit it looks fantastic so why not give it a go.

Events

Calendar Of Events

Our events programme carries on with many events going online for the Lent 2021 Term, for more details see the College website or My School Portal.

A summary of upcoming key events can also be found below:

  • GCSE Options Evening (for Year 9) - Thursday 11 February 2021
  • Upper Sixth Online Parents' Evening - Thursday 4 March 2021
  • Year 10 Online Parents' Evening - Thursday 11 March 2021
  • Virtual Careers Fair (Year 10 to Upper Sixth) - Saturday 20 March 2021

Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Virtual Open Morning

Saturday 6 March 2021 - 10.30am to 11.30am 

On Saturday 6 March 2021 from 10.30am to 11.30am Crackley Hall will be holding a Virtual Open Morning to give prospective families an insight into the many aspects of school life at Crackley Hall and Little Crackers and the firm foundation they give children for their future learning.

From September 2021 the school will be having two Reception classes. There is availability for places in Year 3 next year with some places also available in other years. The final deadline for applications is Friday 21 May 2021.

The nursery has recently undergone a refurbishment and places are currently available in our Badgers (Pre-school), Hedgehogs (3s) and Dormice (2s) age groups.

For more information and to register for the event please contact Admissions Secretary, Mrs Jenny Vaughan on 01926  514410 or email admissions@crackleyhall.co.uk.

Crescent School Virtual Open Morning

Saturday 13 March 2021 - 10.30am to 11.30am

On Saturday 13 March 2021 from 10.30am to 11.30am Crescent School will be holding a Virtual Open Morning to give prospective families an insight into the many aspects of school life at Crescent School and the firm foundation they give children for their future learning.

Prospective parents and pupils will find out more about the Crescent School Promise of Good Friends, Good Learners and Good Citizens.

Registrations are being taken for Reception 2021 and beyond and for Year 1 2021 (where there are two classes), waiting groups apply in other year groups. The final deadline for applications is Friday 21 May 2021.

For more information and to register for the event please contact the Registrar, Mrs Helen Morley, on 01788 523851 or email admissions@crescentschool.co.uk.

Parents' Reading Group - Reminder

The Parents' Reading Group has been running for many years now. A group of parents get together once a month to discuss a book we have all previously agreed on. It's an opportunity for readers to share their reading interests with others and to pick up suggestions to broaden their own reading. We are very eclectic in our tastes and completely unpretentious. We'd welcome newcomers and can guarantee all a warm and friendly welcome when we are once again able to meet.

As circumstances will not permit us to meet at present many of us have kept in touch about books via email.  Please let me know if you’d like to be on the reading group emailing list (chriskerrigan@princethorpe.co.uk) and I’ll add you to it. We look forward to welcoming a few new faces when permitted to meet, but until then we’ll continue to share reading suggestions via email.

Chris Kerrigan
Head of English

Academic

Upper Sixth Mock Exam Reports - Reminder

Upper Sixth Mock Exam Reports will be published to the parent portal today, Friday 5 February 2021. Once published, you will receive an email notification advising that the reports are available to view on My School Portal.

There will be an opportunity for parents to discuss their child’s report at the forthcoming at the Upper Sixth Virtual Parents’ Evening on Thursday 4 March 2021 (please note date change from Thursday 18 March 2021).

We look forward to seeing you then.

Dr Michael Reddish
Deputy Head - Academic

Year 9 Parents’ Virtual GCSE Options Information Evening

Thursday 11 February 2021

On Thursday 11 February we are holding the virtual GCSE Options Information Evening. The evening will commence at 6.00pm and comprises a short presentation on the options process followed by an opportunity for parents and pupils to attend subject specific presentations with Q & A sessions. Links to these presentations can be found here and will be sent separately to you via iSAMS. Four sessions will be available during the evening but the sessions will be recorded should you wish to view them after the event.

We hope that this evening, together with last week’s Parents’ Evening, will give Year 9 parents the best possible support in helping their son or daughter decide their GCSE options. You will shortly receive a hard copy of the GCSE Options Booklet via the post, a pdf copy can be viewed by clicking here.

After half term, we will host Academic Review Evening appointments in the week commencing Monday 22 February, in which you can discuss your son or daughter's proposed GCSE choices with their tutor along with their general academic progress before submitting their final choices. 

The day after the Options Evening, we will email you with a link to an online GCSE Options Form so you can submit your child's GCSE choices. Please make sure to have submitted the form by 9am Monday 1 March. We will then collate that information to create the Option Blocks for next year’s GCSEs. Once the Option Blocks have been finalized, we will contact you to let you know that your child's choices have been successfully entered on to the system.

Dr Michael Reddish
Deputy Head - Academic

 

2021 Summer Examinations Update - Reminder

You will no doubt be aware that Ofqual and the Department for Education have issued some outline proposals for the examinations this summer. We anticipate detailed instructions being issued in February following the results of the consultation, but we welcome the outline proposals in so far as they fall broadly in line with what we anticipated and planned for and are what we believe is the right approach for our pupils.

The proposals broadly state that teachers would be asked to provide Teacher Assessed Grades (TAG) and would be supported in that by being provided with externally set papers and mark schemes to be sat, probably, in mid-May to early June. These tests would form a very important part of the TAG but not determine it entirely. This is very much what we had in mind with our proposed Final Internal Assessments.

These new tests would come with the advantages of being centrally set, benefitting from exam board guidance and having the additional quality assurance of random sampling across all schools in the country. Given that we will all hopefully be back in school by that point, they should also be able to run in proper controlled conditions.

We will wait to find out the specific details of the tests and their content and then look to amend our current proposals. The Final Internal Assessments would most likely be removed though, if we do have more detail on the nature and content of the exam board tests, we would certainly look to give the pupils the opportunities to practise similar tests before the real ones. As soon as we have that detail and have worked through the amended plans we will of course update you as soon as possible.

Ofqual and DfE have invited feedback on their proposals. You can find details of the proposals here and enter your feedback here.

Whilst we do understand that this is an extremely unsettling time, we are confident that our pupils are very well placed when compared to the picture nationally. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that the pupils are fully supported and prepared in order to get the best possible grades they deserve.

Please also see the links below for the FAQs we have sent our to Year 11 and Upper Sixth parents and pupils this week for your reference.

Thank you as always for your support.

Michael Reddish
Deputy Head - Academic

Ed Hester
Headmaster

Reading Reminder

The value of reading a book are well documented and we thought it timely with half-term on the horizon to remind ourselves of a few reasons why it is beneficial.

Well-being – helps relaxation and enjoyment away from a screen

  • Develops creativity, imagination, curiosity and thinking skills
  • Builds confidence
  • Widens our repertoire of vocabulary and comprehension
  • Embeds grammar into our writing
  • Enhances our world picture of the diversity that surround us

Encourage reading, share books together whenever you can and get talking about them with family members. Why not get a family member to take a risk by reading something that another family member recommends?

For inspiration please click here to have a look at the list of recommendations and see also the advice about reading for pleasure here.

Bookbuzz - Year 7 And 8 - Reminder

It has been wonderful to see pupils enjoying their Bookbuzz books and discussing them with each other.  Volunteers from Year 7 and 8 will shortly be creating quizzes and other activities based on the books in order to keep the conversations going and promote the active reading strategies that are so important across the curriculum.  If your child has not yet finished his or her Bookbuzz book, it would be great if you could encourage them to do so over the next couple of weeks, so that they can get the most out of the follow-up activities we will do.  

Learning In Action

Year 7 - The Water Cycle

Year 7 pupil, Alexa Holland produced a lovely diagram on the Water Cycle. It impressed her teacher, Miss Reed, so much that she wanted to share it in the Flagpole. It's a clear explanation with well drawn diagrams and excellent annotations. Great Geography work Alexa!

Year 13 BTEC Virtual Coaching

PE Teacher, Hannah Carminati, was really pleased with the work submitted by Year 13 student Ross Low.

Ross produced some excellent 'Virtual Coaching Sessions' for Unit 4 of his Level 3 BTEC course. The unit focuses on teaching learners to plan and design fitness training programmes. Within his excellent responses, Ross has explored the different styles of leadership. His work was presented in a Powerpont and Video that you can see in the gallery and here:

Ross Low

 

View Gallery

Year 8 DT Lockdown Bedroom Design Challenge

In Design and Technology, Year 8 are undertaking an extended design and make project focused on the interior design of a teenage bedroom. A perfect challenge for the latest lockdown! 

DT Teacher, Tom Walton is delighted with Sam James' concept commenting, "Sam has applied himself with great focus, creativity and skill to create this fantastic, imaginative and vibrant design. It's brilliant work!"

 

 

View Gallery

Year 9 Exploring Peter Pan

In Year 9 Drama pupils have been studying a live performance of Peter Pan and exploring the character of Captain Hook.  Drama teacher, Celia Scott was delighted with Jack Dando's outstanding response to the character, who unusually is played by a woman, the actress Anna Francolini, in the performance.

You can read his analysis of what makes the character so menacing and the dramatic impact of the role being played by a woman here:

Jack Dando

Mrs Scott was also impressed with Lampros Papadogiannakis work exploring the puppets used in the performance. That you find here:

Lampros Papadogiannakis

Impressive Year 9 Still Life And Crushed Can Artwork

Year 9 started off their home learning Art lessons practising tonal drawing to produce an accurate drawing of a coke can, carefully observing shape and tone. They have now started a project looking at Still Life and have been exploring a variety of art styles and artists, producing an artist study of their choice.

Art Teacher, Helen Plenderleith has been super impressed with their responses. Featured in the gallery are some great examples of their excellent work including pieces by Amaanya Bose, Georgia Dowling, Millicent George and Grace Legge. 

View Gallery

Excellent Essay On GCSE Text To Kill A Mockingbird

Mrs Challinor was impressed by Year 11, Prateesh Prabakaran's English Literature essay.  It was part of his mock English Literature assessment and she said, "It is the best GCSE level essay on the novel To Kill a Mockingbird that I have ever read'.  Prateesh was awarded a da Vinci merit for his full mark answer, and Mrs Challinor added, "I hope that Prateesh's English career goes on to continue flying at A-level!"

You can read his super essay on this classic novel here: 

Prateesh Prabakaran

Super Swiss Rolls From Virtual Cook-a-long Club

Food and Nutrition Teacher, Jacqui Scott runs an after-school cookery club and wanted to share the simply amazing Swiss Rolls that were made by pupils on Wednesday 27 January. 16 pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 joined Ms Scott virtually from their kitchens at home. They cooked alongside her and then while their masterpieces were in the oven enjoyed a demonstration on piping and decorating techniques with chocolate. As you can see in the gallery their creations were just fantastic and we are sure they tasted just as good as they looked. 

The pictured Swiss Rolls were made by Year 9 pupils: James Reynolds, Finn Knight-Gray and David Ikuomola, Year 8: Lucy Basford and Year 7: Martha Summers 

View Gallery

Year 8 English Exploring Shackleton's Expedition

In response to their Year 8 English lesson to develop transactional writing skills, Chloe Potts and Jessica Lane did some particularly impressive work.

Mrs Pascoe-Williams challenged the class to consider Adventurers, looking at people who have explored extreme environments, and specifically Ernest Shackleton’s trip to the Antarctic. They studied pictures of the trip and thought about what makes a good leader and then watched a short video about Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctica Expedition. At the end of the lesson pupils were asked to write an evaluation, a persuasive email or a diary entry.

You can read the girls’ excellent responses here:

Chloe Potts

Jessica Lane

Pastoral

Year 9 Immunisations Thursday 25 February 2021

The Immunisation Team are pleased to be able to offer Year 9 pupils the availability to book an appointment for their school leaver boosters (DTP/Men ACWY) immunisations at Princethorpe College. Please note this clinic is via pre-booked appointments only so we will only be able to vaccinate children who have an appointment, please refer to details below:

Date: Thursday 25 February 2021

Time: from 9.30am -2.00pm

Venue: Princethorpe College

Contact E-mail: northimms@covwarkpt.nhs.uk

Please include your child’s full name, date of birth, School, and your telephone number within your email or telephone message.

Appointments are booked directly with the Immunisation team via the email address above.

Whilst I won’t have any access to the appointment system, as always I am happy to answer any queries paulagreig@princethorpe.co.uk

Mrs Paula Greig
Senior Matron 

 

 

Calling All Knitters - Teams4U Shoe-Box Appeal

The Teams4U Shoe-Box Appeal Charity, which sends the boxes overseas every November, is asking for help.

The charity were very short of children's mittens for the boxes last Christmas and are seeking any knitters out there to help out. The sizes the charity most need are for children 6-11 years of age and 12 -16 years of age but any size at all would be more than welcome.

The last delivery of over 50,000 that included 2800 boxes from our local co-ordinator, Pam Hopwood, were received with great joy.

Please ask anyone you know to start knitting and send the completed mittens into College marked for the attention of Loretta Curtis, Development Assistant.

Start click clacking as soon as you can to help a very good cause.

The link to a pattern is here

Thank you

 

 

 

 

View Gallery

Key Worker School

While we await further news from the Government on when schools are to reopen (Monday 8 March at the earliest), please be reminded that we are running Key Worker School here at Princethorpe College. 

The school is held in the Sixth Form Atrium and is open Monday to Friday 8.00am to 4.30pm. Sadly, there is no catering available in school, so lunch, snacks, a packed lunch and drinks need to be brought in by pupils, along with their own laptops for online working. School uniform does not need to be worn. A Lateral Flow Covid- 19 test will also be taken on a pupil's first day in school and then weekly from then onwards (consent from parents for this is required). 

If parents would like their child to come into school, please contact Mrs Beth Sharpe for more details and to request a booking form.

 

 

 

 

 

Confirmation Programme 2021 Update - Reminder

The date for Confirmation which was provisionally scheduled for Friday 12 March has been postponed until next term and the dates will be published as soon as they become available.  It is likely that the Sacrament will be celebrated on a number of occasions in small groups.

Confirmation sessions will continue as previously arranged and began this term the week beginning Monday 25 January with Session 5.  All sessions will be online at 1.15pm on the Confirmation Team.

Mary Benham
Chaplaincy Co-ordinator

Universities and Careers

National Apprenticeships Week

It’s National Apprenticeships week from Monday 8 February to Friday 12 February.

  • Join each day to discover something new about what’s on offer and what’s involved in studying while working.
  • Hear from current apprentices about their experiences.
  • Meet and speak to employers' apprenticeship providers about what opportunities await you and receive expert advice on choosing between your options after school or college.

To get involved in all of this and more, sign here.

Are You Interested In A Career In The Army?

Would you like an insight into securing an apprenticeship with the British Army on a full salary? 

98% of new soldiers enrol on an apprenticeship, making the British Army the largest employer provider. But what does it mean to do an apprenticeship as a soldier?

Join their event on Friday 12 February and find out more. You will have the opportunity to explore the 40 apprenticeship schemes on offer, ranging from healthcare to IT and engineering to business administration.

This event is open to anyone keen to find out more about apprenticeships. If you are interested please register here.

Free Webinars For Year 12 Students Interested In Health Careers

The University of Leeds is offering free webinars which will give an overview of each of the programmes offered at the university, with perspectives from their current students and a chance to ask any questions you may have.

The dates are:

Monday 22 February: Medicine & Gateway to Medicine
Monday 1 March: Alternatives to Medicine/5th UCAS option
Friday 5 March: Dental Surgery & Hygiene and Therapy
Monday 8 March: Nursing - Adult, Child and Mental Health
Monday 15 March: Healthcare Sciences
Friday 19 March: Social Work
Monday 22 March: Psychology
Monday 29 March: Midwifery


All sessions run from 4.30pm to 5.30pm. Find out more and register here.

 

 

Work Experience - Reminder

Although circumstances are very difficult at the moment, we still hope that our current Year 11 and Lower Sixth might be able to gain some work experience this summer, even in the virtual world. A small number of pupils did manage to undertake a placement last summer, which was a real bonus. Once we have more clear guidelines from the Government about any testing which could take place in the summer, we will be in touch again. Many thanks for your continued support.

Mike Taylor
Work Experience Co-ordinator

PTA

Princethorpe College PTA - Easyfundraising

Help us raise money for our school for free every time you shop online

Princethorpe College PTA is now registered with easyfundraising and you could help us to raise funds for the school at no extra cost to you.

Since our usual fundraising events are on hold at the moment, this is a great opportunity to keep raising much needed funds for the school. When you shop online, with over 4,100 of your favourite retailers, including John Lewis & Partners, Amazon, eBay, notonthehighstreet, you will raise free donations for Princethorpe College PTA.

If you’re not already signed up, it only takes a few minutes, then you can begin using the easyfundraising website or app straightaway - simply shop online as normal. This will be an enormous help to the school, at no extra cost to you.

Visit our easyfundraising page here to get started and thank you for your continued support of the PTA.

Co-Curricular

Duke Of Edinburgh's Award - 2020-21 Update

Well done to those who have managed to continue with their physical, volunteering and skills sections despite lockdown.  Do please keep logging your hours and recording evidence.  Some pupils have even signed off sections, a fantastic effort! 

If you haven’t started, you should consider utilising the DofE temporary changes.  DofE have provided additional options so that you can complete your award despite the pandemic.  

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

In addition to the email sent to pupils and parents with full details, further resources can be found on MySchoolPortal.  

Expedition Update  

As we were forced to postpone the Gold and Silver training planned for 29-31 January, we are aiming to re-arrange the Silver training to take place 13-14 March; this may be online. 

It is also looking very likely that we will use the Option 2 expedition plan where pupils complete local day walks rather than overnight camping for the bronze and silver practice trips.

I will contact DofE participants and parents directly by email following the Government announcement on 22 February.  This announcement is likely to lay out the next steps for school return, the assessment dates and the implications for school trips. 

Well done for your continued efforts to complete your award, my priority remains to provide the best possible DofE expedition experience for pupils. 

Will Bower
Head of Outdoor Education – DofE Manager

View Gallery

Duke Of Edinburgh's Award - 2019-20 - Complete Your Award - Reminder

Bronze 

Well done to all who have completed their award so far; certificates will be distributed in due course.

For the remainder of participants, please prioritise this over the coming weeks by uploading your physical, volunteering and skills section assessor reports. 

For help please refer to the DofE temporary Changes Update, eDofE Completion Guide and the Electronic Assessor Report Guide.

Mr Robertson and I will be in touch to complete the DofE Completion Drop-In Sessions online.

Silver and Gold

Well done to those who have managed to complete their physical volunteering and skills sections; excellent work. An update regarding the qualifying expeditions will be sent out in due course as the lockdown restrictions are lifted.  

For help please refer to the DofE temporary Changes Update, eDofE Completion Guide and the Electronic Assessor Report Guide.

I will contact participants to help you to sign off your volunteering, physical and skill sections. 

Will Bower
Head of Outdoor Education – DofE Manager

View Gallery

Housekeeping

Term Dates 2020-21 And 2021-22 - Reminder

Please find below the Term Dates for 2020-21 and 2021-22.

2020-21 (two page document) - updated 20 November

2021-22 (two page document)