Old Princethorpians

After 15 years of running his own company in Tree Surgery based in Rugby, George has embraced a wonderful opportunity to specialise in teaching and has joined Moulton College as an Arboriculture Lecturer.

He started his new role in December 2019 and is responsible for the day to day teaching of students, ranging from school leavers to mature students coming back to college to re-train. At the college he has an amazing Arboretum of over 100 different tree species as well as over 1,200 acres of usable agricultural land to practise and demonstrate the best modern working arboriculture practices, alongside the latest state of the art equipment, be it chainsaws and ropes and harnesses through to specialist diagnosis equipment used to identify ill health in trees.

George commented, "I believe my time spent and education gained at Princethorpe greatly assisted me in securing my role at Moulton College. I would like to think of myself being at Moulton for the remainder of my professional career and adding and building to the great foundations the College already has. If you take a look at the Moulton College Facebook page you will see a short interview with me there."

He continued, "I’d like to thank the wonderful teaching staff at Princethorpe College for all their help, guidance, support and assistance in my early years of education giving me the best start in my working life."

We were delighted to help you George and were very pleased to hear about your new appointment and to welcome you to the teaching fraternity.

Raymond Bethley, a former Princethorpe College pupil, who joined the College in Year 7 in 1993, recently contacted us to tell us about his new acting role.

He told us, "I have a new feature film coming out this month called Inmate Zero. It's currently being shown in America and Hong Kong and hits the screens in the UK at the end of January."

Raymond Bethley will be known to you for his roles in The Marshlands, Deep Cuts (2015) and Solitary.

We wish Raymond the best of luck with his new film and will continue to follow his career with interest.

On the 13 January 2020 Ciaran, a Princethorpe College pupil from 1988 to 1995, won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for his work on the popular animated series Danger Mouse.

The Awards evening was hosted by Katy Brand and Ciaran and his writing partner Andrew Barnett Jones were presented with their award by Hartley Hare and his handler Nigel Plaskitt. This was Ciaran’s third nomination in three years and he was thrilled to have finally won.

Since leaving Princethorpe, Ciaran has forged a career as a children’s author and scriptwriter. He writes for some of the UK’s best loved TV shows including Crackerjack, P J Masks, Mr Bean and Numberblocks and has previously won a BAFTA and a British Animation Award for his work.

Ciaran said, "While at Princethorpe I was given lots of opportunity to hone my creative writing skills and it fast became my passion. Since leaving I have continued to write and I know I wouldn’t have the career I now enjoy if Princethorpe and its teachers hadn’t given me the confidence to be creative and the space to write."

Congratulations Ciaran on your awards we were very pleased to hear of your achievements!

Back in January, friends and colleagues, including Chair of Trustees, Liz Griffin, were delighted to gather together to wish Foundation Bursar, Eddie Tolcher, a very happy 60th birthday.

Eddie has a long association with the Foundation schools, having first attended the Crescent School before moving on to Princethorpe College (1972 to 1978).  Princethorpe must have made a good impression because he returned as a parent, then a governor and finally as an employee. Eddie is also a member of our wonderful OPs Committee.

The College was delighted to help him celebrate his big birthday with a very big slice of cake!
 

We were delighted to hear from Sandy McKee who attended the College from 1999 to 2004.  We were fascinated to hear about what he has been up to in the intervening years.

Sandy shared, "I can't quite believe it's been 20 years since I first arrived at the college as part of 7B. Benet was my house and Mr Darkes was my form tutor.  

Since those days, it's been quite an adventure. I lived in Canada for a little while, where I trained and worked as a ski instructor. I also did short stints in Italian Alps teaching British children how to ski, it was much like my first experiences on the school ski trips led by Mr McCollin and Ms Abery.

In 2007, I went to study Broadcast Journalism as an undergraduate and after completing that, I headed off to London to try my luck in the media - I ended up working in music and entertainment TV for a few years. In various roles, I helped to produce multiple NME Awards, BAFTAs and festival coverage for BBC, Channel 4 and MTV.

Around 2015, I pivoted somewhat and ended up working back in the Midlands at Birmingham Children's Hospital. BCH is a world renowned paediatric hospital. There I trained up in Clinical Photography and spent three very fulfilling years filming for a wide variety of projects for communications, fundraising and our clinical education programmes, all run in conjunction with the University of Birmingham (filming surgical procedures, patient journeys, clinical training videos).

Over the last 18 months or so, I've been back in London working for the international humanitarian medical NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). We send medical teams to provide essential medical care in conflict zones, in the wake of natural disasters and in response to outbreaks of disease, such as the West African Ebola epidemic in 2015. My job involves producing and commissioning video and photography content. This is then used in our communications output, by news agencies and for broadcast programming. We're totally independent, so 100% of our funding comes from the generosity of people like you - please take a look at the website, if you feel so inclined - msf.org.uk.

In recent months, I returned from a documentary assignment on board our Search and Rescue vessel operating in the Mediterranean Sea - Ocean Viking. The ship's main objective is to save the lives of those fleeing North Africa in wholly un-seaworthy "boats" (in reality, they're just a few planks of wood and rubber tubes glued together) in the central Mediterranean. I was at sea for 24 days and in that time we completed four operations, rescuing 355 people in total, the youngest of which was only a year old. Over 100 of those rescued were unaccompanied minors. 

I think of my time at Princethorpe with huge fondness. I played a lot of sport, made a lot of friends and learned a lot about myself. It was truly formative. I really do appreciate the well rounded education I received, the kindness I was shown by my teachers and the confidence and self belief that I developed in my time there.   

Right now, I'm still enjoying my work with MSF and I'm living in London with a friend from my Princethorpe days, Kate Fowler, who now works as a teacher at Highgate School. I'm also still big pals with former Head Boy, Mal O'Keeffe, and we often reminisce about our time at the college and hope to maybe come back one day to see how much it's changed. "

It is wonderful to hear of your work Sandy and to see that the Princethorpe ethos made such an impression.  

Huge congratulations to OP, Molly Geehan, who was recently selected for the Severn Stars U21 Performance Pathway squad.

Seven Stars are an English netball team based in Worcester that compete in the Netball Superleague.

In her final year at school Molly was Games Prefect and worked tirelessly to promote her sport to the younger years. Molly left Princethorpe just last summer and has gone on to study Journalism at the University of Worcester where of course she plays for the University netball team.  

Molly was surprised and delighted when she found out about her selection for the Seven Stars Performance Pathway commenting, "It was totally unexpected and it is the highest I have ever achieved at my netball, my best sporting moment since I was selected for WASPS U19 when I was just 14. I wanted to let the College know as it was Princethorpe who started me out on my netball career."

Molly made her debut for Seven Stars U21 on Saurday 1 February

Fantastic news Molly, but we weren't surprised to hear your news, you always were a committed and dedicated sportswomen. 

The College was delighted to hear from OP Ashley Crowley who was a pupil at Princethorpe College between 1990-1993. It was wonderful to hear how Ashley’s time at the College had inspired him, as it was his particular enjoyment of his Art and Design classes, that ultimately led him to pursue a career as an illustrator.

Afte finishing school Ashley went on to study Art and Design but eventually he chose a different career and since 2003 Ashley has worked as a full-time police officer. However, in 2015 he completed an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art and has since then has had six picture books published. His last book Pup 681, the story of a sea otter pup, was released just last year.

Ashley continues to work in Coventry and Warwickshire as a police officer but spends his free time working as an illustrator. He has even manged to squeeze in visits to schools both in the UK, in Balsall Common, and in the USA, in New York, to talk about his life and his work. Last summer he was also interviewed on BBC Radio WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio. We are very much hoping to invite Ashley back into school to talk to our Foundation pupils.

It really was marvellous to hear how Ashley’s Art and Design classes inspired him and we are looking forward to getting him back into school soon.

Michael Mitchell, a Princethorpe pupil from 2004 to 2009, updated us on career as a jockey since leaving the College.

Clearly an excellent rider, Michael first won the National Hunt Champion Jockey title in New Zealand in 2015, becoming the first Englishman to win the title since World War II. Then he added the American Champion Jockey title to his list of achievements in 2019, having spent three years race riding in America.

Very much a gentleman, Michael shared with us, "I chose not to ride the last race meet of the season in 2019 to ensure I could share the title with another jockey, Jack Doyle, who was tied for the lead before having a serious fall and being unable to compete in the last race meet."

Michael had scored his 20th victory of the season in the Aflac Supreme Novice Hurdle Stakes to tie Doyle. Now that's sportsmanship!

Congratulations on your racing success Michael, we were delighted to hear about your career.

Following the publication of the last Old Princethorpian Newsletter we were contacted by David Terron.  David had featured in the article on the Air Cadets at Princethorpe.

He said, "It was fascinating to see my name and that of my dear departed younger brother Steve in the notes for the ATC circa 1974/75. Not long after I wrote the notes for 1975 magazine I actually got bust to Cadet from Corporal as did Gary Peacock!  We had been gliding all day at RAF Gaydon and when Brother O’Rouke came to pick us up all we wanted to do was get home to Princethorpe and have some tea. We were therefore a bit tired and hungry when he pulled up outside a church in the middle of nowhere and told us to attend Mass before going back to school and supper.  Teenage rebellion kicked in and we refused. We were hauled up in front of Flying Officer Penn and demoted the next day whereupon we both left the flight.  Sadly the numbers then started dropping and the flight only lasted a year or so more. I hope Gary and I were not to blame! 8-) I know FO Penn got married and left, Mr Muhammad (whose day job was on the assembly line at Peugeot Coventry) left not long after as his family grew and he also got promoted at work I think.

He continued, "The time Steve and I and Gary spent in the Cadets were happy days, we got to go to RAF Shawbury for the Air Experience Flights in a Chipmunk, and I did my gliding solo (I was also gliding every weekend in Germany at RAF Laarbuch during the holidays at home) and we even manged a few trips to the RAF Museum, Cosford and so on. Thanks for sharing the memories."

David Terron was at Princethorpe from 1973 to 1976 and he was in Fisher House.  He finished his email to us with news that after 23 years in the Army, he has been an English teacher for the last 13 years at Elgin Academy, Moray in the far north of Scotland.

It was wonderful to hear from you David and to hear of your adventures as an Air Cadet.

Steve Doherty (Benet House, from 1981 to 1988) was in London earlier this month, with writers Caroline and James Moran, to pick up the award for Best Radio Comedy 2019 at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain annual award ceremony.

The project, called Prepper – about two women preparing for the end of the world and making a podcast about it – starred Sue Johnston (The Royle Family, Brookside) and Pearl Mackie (Dr Who).  Steve produced the show in North Wales, commissioned for BBC Radio 4 through his company, Giddy Goat Productions.  

He said “I’ve been making comedy on radio and TV for 25 years now. I still get a real kick out of it and it’s always nice to have your work recognised by peers. I’m particularly pleased the writing was recognised in what is a new way of making audio entertainment.”

A second set of four programmes is in the works and Series 1 is available to download via the BBC Sounds app.

Our congratulations to Steve on this wonderful achievement!