OPs who would like to get a flavour of what College life is like for our pupils today can download a copy of The Pinnacle. Issue 10 is out today Friday 5 October.
The Pinnacle showcases exceptional work by our pupils across the Foundation. This issue celebrates a wide range of academic and sporting achievements, plus a feature on the summer Camps International trip to Tanzania.
Click below if you would like to download a copy.
Languages teacher Mrs Stella Keenan has raised over £250 for Cancer Charity Myeloma UK. She was inspired to run the recent Kenilworth Half Marathon in an effort to support her colleague Sarah Stewart who is receiving treatment for a rare form of cancer, myeloma.
Many OPs will know Sarah, Head of the Modern Languages Department, who has worked at the College since 1985. Sarah is responding well to treatment and remains in very close touch with Princethorpe.
Not only did the Stella complete the 13.1 miles in two hours, but she also inspired all the teachers in the Modern Languages department to hold a cake sale in order to raise further cash. Cakes were baked by many colleagues, which were then sold in the staff room during one of the pre-term training days.
Stella described her efforts, “Whilst the race was hard work it has been worth every second to try to do something practical to support Sarah. Myeloma is a lesser known cancer so I feel it is very important to raise awareness about this less publicised thread of the disease.”
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OP Clem Clements' visit to the College's Summer Fete and Motoring Festival at the end of June paid dividends.
Arriving in his gyrocopter to the delight of the assembled crowds, Clem was himself delighted when he learnt that he had won the Best Commercial Vehicle category, voted for by the other Motoring Festival participants.
Image shows Clem receiving his prize from Alex Darkes, organiser of the Motoring Festival.
Towards the end of the summer holidays Princethorpe was transformed into a film set by the BBC who decided that the College was the perfect setting for some scenes from its new period crime drama 'Father Brown'.
During the filming which took place over a week in August, nuns walked the cloisters for the first time in nearly 50 years and some pupils even got the chance to be extras.
Comments Foundation Bursar, Eddie Tolcher, "We are looking at new ways to generate income for the College and this was a very exciting project to be involved in. Now the BBC know where we are hopefully we'll be considered for future filming opportunities."
The series, based on the G K Chesterton novels, will star Harry Potter and The Fast Show's Mark Williams as Father Brown investigating different crimes in the local area. With a kind heart, he seeks to forgive those who have done wrong while getting to the bottom of the mysteries.
We look forward to seeing the series on our screens in Spring 2013.
The College has just unveiled a new look website and advertising campaign for the new academic year.
The website, which has a fresher, more modern look and feel with eye-catching images, links into the College's systems to feature a real time calendar and staff information. Later in October the site will also feature a new short film about the College and its ethos from the pupils' perspective.
Old Princethorpians can find information relevant to them on their own dedicated button at the bottom of the site, click here to link.
The new ad campaign, which is appearing currently at Leamington train station, on bus backs, bill boards and in local print media, asserts that contrary to popular belief, 'Great minds don't think alike'.
The eye catching graphic of a flip-top-headed youngster with lots of different feelings about what they want from school is accompanied by copy explaining how at Princethorpe we don't have a 'one size fits all' approach to education. It goes on to explain how we help our pupils develop as individuals to become the best that they can be.
Comments, Alex Darkes, Assistant Head, Marketing and Operations, "We obviously hope the new website and ad campaign will grab people's attention. The ads are designed to make people smile, but we also want them to come away understanding what we are about and wanting to come and find out more."
Summer 2012 saw some very pleasing A-level and GCSE results for the College's pupils, these are very strong indicators that the school’s academic achievements across the ability range continue to go from strength to strength.
This summer at the top end a third of all A-level grades were A* or A and over 60% of grades were A*, A or B; our best A-level results in the College’s history by some margin. At GCSE almost two fifths of GCSE grades were A* or A.
A-level summary results:
Top performers included Megan O’Gorman with four A*s and an A, outgoing Head Girl, Ellie Eaton, with three A*s and Jack Collins also with three A*s.
GCSE summary results:
Headmaster, Ed Hester, said that he was delighted with the results and particularly pleased that pupils have achieved more grades at A* and A than ever before.
“These results are the best ever in the College’s history, with 65% of all grades at B or better. Whilst we are of course delighted with their academic achievements, these pupils have many other fine qualities: kindness, respect and a strong sense of right and wrong which will be as important for them - if not more - as they move on to the next phase of their education. This is a year group which has worked exceptionally hard and I am delighted pupils have been rewarded for their outstanding efforts,” he commented.
Image shows from left to right, Jack Collins, Lizzie Hester, Emilie Reszka, Ed Hester (Headmaster), Catherine Boraston and Daniel Leung.
It was great to see brother and sister Mikey and Hannah Logue back on site on Tuesday 11 September. They returned to pass on valuable advice about the travelling and volunteering work they had each undertaken since leaving Princethorpe.
Mikey, who left in 2010, began with his fascinating tales of travel abroad during his Gap year. His journeys took him across South East Asia and Australia. Mikey provided plenty of valuable tips to those Lower Sixth students who were already perhaps considering embarking on such an experience. He offered wise words when it came to deterring potential thieves explaining the importance of carrying a fake wallet and expired credit cards to throw at anyone who should cross your path. He advised on areas such as transport, communicating with the locals, vaccinations, security, visas and having the all-important escape route if things don’t go according to plan.
Mikey’s colourful talk sold the idea of Gap life to the 107 Lower Sixth students in the audience with his final words being “do things you would have never thought possible.”
Younger sister Hannah, who left Princethorpe in summer 2012, shared her experiences of volunteering work in Burkina Faso, Africa. Hannah’s delightful account of her time spent living within a Burkina Faso compound gave students an insight into the sort of work available in the third poorest country in the world. She talked through photographs of her working with orphans and nursery age children and explained how she helped to make a difference to their buildings by putting her artistic skills to good use with some painting work. Her attachment to the people and place was clear as she described how, through Red Cross funding, they were able to treat the children to a day out at a playground; something many of them had not previously experienced.
Hannah’s experiences contrasted with her brother’s offering our Lower Sixth students an insight into the ways in which life in and beyond Sixth Form can be enriched by having the drive and the desire to achieve something different.
Thanks to both of them for making the time to come back to College to share their experiences with us.
A beautiful sunny day brought many old faces back to the College on Saturday 1 September as we celebrated and remembered one of our Old Princethorpians Alex Wallis, who was tragically killed in a car crash on New Year's Eve 2010.
The first ever OPs Sports Day was a true sporting spectacle as the College played the Old Princethorpians at rugby, netball and boys and girls hockey with all the points being added together to produce a collective sporting score for the honour of raising the Alex Wallis Memorial Shield.
All games were closely contested with the Old Princethorpians teams including some fantastic players from the past years.
As the culmination of the day the John Shinkwin Trophy Rugby Match was contested for the fourth year with the Old Princethorpians looking to overturn last year's pasting.
The College had completed a solid pre-season with many new faces and started the game on the front foot as they controlled the early exchanges. The Old Boys featured many experienced players and some who are playing a good standard of university rugby.
Soon the game started to change as Princethorpe tried to force the pass and began to put themselves under pressure. The deadlock was broken as Princethorpe were awarded a penalty which was converted by McCallum. This lead was short lived as the Old Princethorpians escaped the College's tackles for Joe Gravestock to crash over. Half Time 5-3.
The second half tested everyone’s fitness as holes started to appear in both teams' defences. Both sides continued to try and play rugby and the College should have converted an early chance with a try but again the pass didn’t go to hand. The final score was 11-3 to the Old Boys who regained the John Shinkwin Trophy deservedly and ended a fantastic day of sport and celebration.
The final overall result saw the Old Princethorpians win the Alex Wallis Memorial Shield 34-26, but sport was the real winner on the day and all involved certainly played in the true college spirit as we remembered ‘Wallis.’
Images show the OPs 1st XV and John Shinkwin presenting the Shinkwin Cup to Ben Warman and Richard Sidaway.
The date of next year's OPs Sports Day is Saturday 31 August 2013, contact jonfitt@princethorpe.co.uk if you would like to get involved.
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