Old Princethorpians

A huge congratulations to all our OPs who have recently completed university courses and degrees. It’s been great hearing of your achievements and here’s a snapshot of just some of this summer’s success from Princethorpe’s 2010 – 2013 leavers:

Anthony Watters
Left Princethorpe 2010

Anthony headed to Northumbria University to study for a BSc in IT Management for Business. He graduated this summer with a 2:1 and is currently working as a Graduate SAP Consultant at Capgemini, an IT Consultancy Firm.

Holly Gollop
Left Princethorpe 2012

Holly completed her degree this summer and will graduate with a First in Law from the University of Bournemouth in November. You may remember we featured Holly’s success in securing a £10,000 Scholarship to continue her Law studies at the University of Law in our last OP’s update. She’s already started and although challenging, she’s sure it will be worth it!

Lizzie Hester
Left Princethorpe 2012

Lizzie studied English at Queen Mary University of London graduating with a First this summer. She is currently working as a Teaching Assistant here at Princethorpe and is planning to travel and volunteer in Australia and Sri Lanka in the New Year. Following in her family’s footsteps, Lizzie is hoping to become an English Teacher and will start her PGCE next September! 

Hannah Little
Left Princethorpe 2012

Since leaving Princethorpe, Hannah has gained a 2:1 degree in Law from the University of Hertfordshire, graduating this summer. She is currently working as a Client Service Administrator for the FA92 Group supporting Financial and Mortgage Advisors.

Chris Bond
Left Princethorpe 2013

Chris graduated this summer from the University of Exeter securing a first MMath Mathematics degree (not a typo - a maths degree with inclusive masters). In November, Chris starts as a Graduate Engineer with Roke, who are based in Hampshire.

Fergus Preston
Left Princethorpe 2013

Fergus studied Medicinal Chemistry at Nottingham Trent University, graduating with a 2:1 and this summer was awarded an MSc with Merit in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery from the University of Birmingham. Fergus is now applying for PhD studentships in organic/medicinal chemistry to commence next year.

Good luck to all with your next steps and congratulations to any we haven’t mentioned! Please click the image gallery to check out our recent graduates.

A huge congratulations to all our OPs who have recently completed university courses and degrees. It’s been great hearing of your achievements and here’s a snapshot of just some of this summer’s success from Princethorpe’s 2014 leavers:

Hannah Gallagher
Left Princethorpe 2014

Hannah studied Psychology with Criminology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), graduating with a 2:1 this summer and now moves on to a Master’s in Criminology at NTU.

Charlotte Moulding
Left Princethorpe 2014

Charlotte went to Northampton University to study Children's Nursing and finished her degree this summer. Awarded a 2:1, she will graduate in February 2018 and has just started her first job as a Registered Paediatric Nurse at Walsgrave Hospital.

Nico Parfitt
Left Princethorpe 2014

After Princethorpe, Nico studied English Literature at Kings College London, graduating with a First this summer. He is currently taking some time out in Germany, doing a language course and weighing up whether to continue his studies, either in England or Germany, or find a job, preferably in publishing.

Lucy Stanton
Left Princethorpe 2014

Lucy studied at the University of Warwick and this summer graduated with a 2:1 in Sociology. As of 21 September, she has just started a full time job as a Marketing Assistant for Listers Group.  

Good luck to all with your next steps and congratulations to any we haven’t mentioned! Please click the image gallery to check out or recent graduates.

Helen Fitchett has reached the three month mark in her year working at Downlands College, Toowoomba, Queensland as a Teaching Assistant. Downlands is a fellow MSC school and past students from the College are now working at Princethorpe, in a form of exchange.

She comments, "So far it has been a term of experiences. I’ve learnt a huge amount about Australian culture; I now know what a ‘ranga’ is and I have been repeatedly warned about the notorious deadly snakes they have here."

Working as a boarding assistant she has created a great rapport with the Grade 5-9 girls whom she assists looking after. "The girls come from various backgrounds and different situations" she continues, "it has been a pleasure to work with them although the differences can sometimes be difficult to deal with. It has made me appreciate just how big Australia is."

At Downlands College Helen has been lucky enough to grab the role of Stage Manager of their upcoming musical ‘Crazy For You’ (May 2018), having studied Theatre Practice at University she is excited to get stuck into it.

Helen says, "The staff here are absolutely lovely and are supportive no matter how you’re feeling. It was pretty difficult to adjust at first as I went straight from finishing university to a completely new experience, but I’ve been supported by the staff here and the staff at Princethorpe."

Outside Downlands, Helen has just finished a two week East Coast Trip from Cairns back to Toowoomba. She visited Green Island, the Daintree Rainforest, the Whitsundays, Airlie Beach, Fraser Island, Mount Tambourine and Rainbow Beach.  It was an amazing two week backpacker trip that she really enjoyed.

It seems Australia, that Helen is also Crazy For You as she says, "I’m already planning my adventures for the eight week summer holidays. I’d recommend anyone visiting Australia not to miss Whitehaven Beach and Fraser Island. Australia is huge, you need the whole year just to get through it, it can be difficult to travel at times but it’s so worth it.

We can't wait to hear more about her adventures over her year down under.

Bethany Smith was at Princethorpe from Year 7 all the way through to Upper Sixth, leaving in 2013. After her time at Princethorpe she headed to Brighton University to study Biological Sciences and graduated this summer with First Class Honours.

Following her degree success, Bethany was awarded the Royal Society of Biology Award for Best Performing Graduate and has subsequently been elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Biology.

She is currently a Research Assistant Intern with the Seawatch Foundation in New Quay, Wales, and will be moving to Australia in January 2018 to study for a Master’s in Marine Biology and Ecology at James Cook University. After her Master’s, she is hoping to progress onto a PhD.

Good luck Bethany, we can’t wait to hear about your time in Australia!

Thanks to Daniel Lane for getting in touch.  Daniel was a pupil at Princethorpe from 2006 – 2013 and then ‘swapped sides’ staying on at the College to gain valuable work experience as Teaching Assistant for a year. 

Since then he has been at the University of Exeter reading Economics and Finance and we were delighted to hear that he graduated with a 2:1 this July.

Over the summer he worked as a summer intern at a firm of accountants - a placement he secured thanks to Peter Rollason and the ever reliable OPs network!

Three years as a student wasn’t quite enough for Daniel so he is now back down at Exeter again this time studying for an MSc in Financial Economics.

Daniel comments “I’m only two weeks into my new course but so far it’s enjoyable and a good challenge.  I’m already applying for graduate roles at professional services firms as I would like to secure an ACA training contract to start next autumn.”

OP Murray Wells spent his university summer break helping out on one of the most exciting projects in British engineering - the Bloodhound land speed record team.

The Bloodhound SSC project is building a supersonic car at its Avonmouth workshop in a bid to break the land speed record and reach 1,000mph. The project aims to inspire the next generation to enjoy, explore and get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The 21-year-old from Long Itchington, Warwickshire, is now back at the University of Hertfordshire while the car is in Newquay, Cornwall, for a month of testing.

To watch Murray's experiences which were covered by the BBC click on this link to the BBC Website.

News has reached us that recent OP Bethan Ellis clinched a gold medal at the 2017 School Games Finals this summer.

Held at Loughborough University over four days from 31 August – 3 September, the School Games sees each of the home nations come face-to-face across twelve team and individual sports for young people aged 15-18. The sports range from Athletics to Hockey and Swimming to Wheelchair Basketball.

Bethan represented England at Cricket and takes up the story;

“The England and Wales Cricket Board selected 39 students and split us across three teams with us all playing against each other once. Players were selected from performance throughout the season and the work we’ve done all year in our Regional Development Centres (RDC) – mine is based at Loughborough. Our team went straight through to the final as we won both our initial matches and we won the final meaning we won the whole thing!”

Going for gold isn’t an unusual occurrence for Bethan as last year, she also scooped a gold medal at the School Games representing England at Hockey. She continues;

“The School Games was a really good experience. To take part in a multi-sport event and to live on the site on campus for the event was great. We were able to watch and speak to athletes from different sports which was really nice and different to normal competitions. I had a good idea of what to expect from competing last year but it was great to get to experience it all again.”

Having left Princethorpe this summer, Bethan is now studying Sports Science at the University of Birmingham. She continues to train and play at Warwickshire CCC with the senior squad and with the Loughborough RDC.

Pictured is Bethan (left) with fellow School Games Cricket and Hockey teammate Sarah Glenn. 

Many congratulations to OP Caroline Hay, a pupil at Princethorpe from 2007 – 2014, who graduated this summer with a 2.1 in Geography from Portsmouth University.

On finishing university Caroline completed a six-week placement with local firm Dennis Eagle in their Sales and Marketing department before her geography wanderlust took her off around the world.

She went on a fundraising walk to Machu Picchu in Peru with University friends in aid of the charity ‘Action against Hunger’ and stayed on in South America to explore Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. She is currently travelling in Australia and will shortly go on to New Zealand before returning to the UK in early December.

Comments Caroline, “The Iguaza Falls that border Brazil and Argentina were absolutely amazing” she continues, “When I return to the UK I will be looking for a job, hopefully one that uses my geography skills, like an environmental or coastal town planning role.”

Thanks to Melvin Glynn for forwarding us news of the annual Upper Sixth of 1975 Get Together.  This year's event took place at the Feng Shang Chinese Restaurant near London's Regent's Park.

The gang pictured had a great meal, caught up on old times at Princethorpe and had a lot of laughs!

From left to right standing Mark Neal and Dominic Flynn, sitting down Peter Hurst, Phil Clements, Melvin Glynn, P.J. McCormack, Martin Holland and Andrew Kirwin.

I left Princethorpe in 2014. I took a gap year as I was unsure what to do with my life, I volunteered at Bilton Grange as a teaching assistant for the Michaelmas Term, I then spent time travelling in Nepal.

I started studying a Disaster Management BSc at Coventry University in 2015. I have completed my first two years of study and for my placement year I undertook an internship in Operations and Development at Team Rubicon UK.

Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders and “kickass civilians” to rapidly deploy emergency response teams in the UK and around the world.

On Wednesday 6 September, TR decided to respond to the devastation that Hurricane Irma left. TR volunteers were on the ground in the Caribbean within 48 hours of Hurricane Irma making landfall. TR sent light liaison and assessment teams to the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Turks and Caicos and Barbados. TR are now assisting communities to recover and rebuild in the aftermath of the Hurricanes Irma and Maria that have devastated the region.

I deployed to the British Virgin Islands on Tuesday 19 September on a two-week deployment to do as much work as possible to help the local population. We cleared out the debris and rubbish at three different schools, an old people’s home and a fire station, we were lucky enough to be allowed to stay at one of the schools we were helping at. It was a priority to the local population we encountered to get their kids back into education. We undertook a lot of mucking out and construction work. The level of destruction that we encountered was unlike anything I have ever seen no building escaped without damage. There were no trees that had leaves, it was shocking to witness. However, the most incredible thing that I witnessed was the resilience of the local population and their optimism that they showed about their future. They were incredibly kind to us and very grateful we were there and we were privileged to have been able to help in any way that we could.

If you would like to donate to support Team Rubicon's work it would be very much appreciated and it will enable us to continue to be able to do work to help as many people as possible.

Click here to donate to the appeal.

We were delighted to recently hear from former RS Teacher Ed Smith who had some ‘small world’ news to share with us earlier this month.

Ed, who left Princethorpe in 2012, is now living and working in Beijing at Harrow International School as a Housemaster, teaching IGCSE and A-level History. After his time here in Warwickshire, he headed to the English School of Kyrenia where he taught IB for three years before moving to Beijing in 2015. Ed comments;

“I regularly think back to my time at Princethorpe which was a wonderful place to teach. Last year I was happy to show former students Andrew Cooper and Lottie Brown around Beijing and this year, very surprised to meet former student Nadine Le Cornu in Shanghai where she is now teaching!”

Former Princethorpe student Nadine, who left in 2008, gained a BSc from the University of Reading in Human and Physical Geography and completed her PGCE at the University of Southampton. She continues her story;

“After completing my PGCE, I remained in Southampton for four years working at Redbridge Community School and in 2016, I made the move to the Far East joining The British International School Shanghai Puxi. Initially taking up the post of Geography Teacher in August 2016, this year, I became Head of Geography. It’s all busy busy but I’m loving living abroad and being able to travel.”

It’s great to be able to find out what everyone is up to so if you have an update to share or even a ‘small world’ story like Ed and Nadine, please do let us know!

OP Matt Parsons' alternative rock band Jacklines are set to headline Birmingham's o2 Institute a week today, Friday 13 October!

The band formed back in 2013 when Matt teamed up with James Cooper (friend of OP Paul Fuller – they actually met on Paul’s stag-do). The pair started jamming and then met drummer Rudolph Gucci Suc, who then introduced them to bassist Laszlo Gacsi.

Comments, Matt, "We are headlining Birmingham o2 Institute on Friday 13th October which will mark the release of our second EP which is called ‘A World Divided’. The cover of which was designed by talented OP Tom Barnes. After the gig we are heading out to do a mini tour of Slovakia (Rudolph’s home) for a week."

Tickets for the show are available on Ticketmaster (search for Jacklines) and are only £7. There will be several support bands. Doors open at 18:30 but Jacklines will be on stage at approx. 21:00.

Jacklines performed on the main stage at Princefest last year and we knew they were set for great things!

https://www.jacklines.com/

When it comes to having fun and finding new things to do former parents and best friends Loretta Curtis and Di Downes certainly know how.

Last year, just for a lark, they filled in a form for the television programme Bargain Hunt never expecting much to come of the application. Well, several months later Loretta received a phone call from a researcher at the BBC offering Di and herself a telephone interview. Not only did they pass that first round but they were also then invited to an audition at a hotel in Warwick.

A few days later Loretta and Di received emails to say that the producer of the programme would be delighted to offer them the opportunity to come and film the ‘buying’ stage of Bargain Hunt in Hungerford. Well, never being a pair to turn down a chance of some entertainment off they went to the town for the filming. Antiques expert, Richard Madley, was on hand to offer advice and a valuation of the items that Di and Loretta were considering. What a time they had meeting lots of the crew and not forgetting their opponents, Clint and Matthew, a great day was had by all the teams. A few weeks later it was the auction at Bigwoods Auction House in Stratford upon Avon. Another brilliant day – food and refreshments provided and lots of conversation between all the teams that were in action for the programme.

Di and Loretta are not letting on whether they won or not, made any money or not, and they are yet to find out when their programme will be televised but safe to say these two never miss a chance for some fun!