Old Princethorpians

Grove du Toit has taken on the Headship of Princethorpe College with effect from January 2023. He succeeds outgoing Headmaster, Ed Hester, who has held the post since 2009. Mr Hester now becomes Foundation Principal, a dedicated role with responsibility for the strategic vision and direction of the whole Princethorpe Foundation, its three schools and nursery.

Mr du Toit was appointed as Headmaster back in May 2022 after a rigorous selection process and until December was Deputy Warden (Senior Deputy Head) at Forest School, a co-educational independent day school for children aged 4 to 18, located on the edge of Epping Forest, a position he held for five years.

Married to Marike, with whom he shares two daughters, aged 14 and 11, Mr du Toit, 43, is a practising Christian. South African by birth, he moved to the UK in 2005 and after a brief period teaching in the maintained sector, he has held a variety of leadership roles in HMC independent schools in and around London. Following his under-graduate studies at the University of Pretoria, he completed a MA in Education Management at King’s College London, and has recently completed his MBA at Salford University through their Business School.

Comments, Liz Griffin, Chair of Trustees, “We are delighted to finally welcome Grove on board. The Foundation Trustees were unanimous in the decision to appoint him as the next Headmaster of Princethorpe College. His passion for education and young people shone through throughout the selection process and our many encounters with him since. He has immense vision and energy combined with a wealth of experience and leaderships skills, but most importantly his personal values marry perfectly with the ethos of the College.

She continues, “Our thanks go to Ed Hester, who has done an outstanding job as Headmaster of Princethorpe College over the last 13 years. Of course, Ed will continue to have a very keen interest in life at Princethorpe and will be on hand to ensure a smooth transition and successful handover to Grove, who will be supported by Princethorpe’s excellent Senior Leadership Team.”

Comments, Grove du Toit, “I am excited and honoured to take on the Headship of Princethorpe College and lead the school into the next stage of its development, building on the excellent work of Ed Hester. I recognise and fully appreciate what a special community Princethorpe is and upholding its ethos and spirit of family will be central to my role. I look forward to immersing myself in school life and building relationships with staff, parents and pupils alike.”

Outgoing Headmaster, Ed Hester, adds, “Grove is a great fit for Princethorpe and brings with him a vast amount of experience and skills. I am delighted to be able to hand over the reins of running the College to him and am really excited at the prospect of working with him over the years ahead.”

The Princethorpe Foundation educates some 1,400 pupils aged 2 to 18 years across its senior school, Princethorpe College, and prep schools, Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery in Kenilworth and Crescent School in Bilton, Rugby.

Pupils, staff, trustees, parents and friends of Princethorpe College have been celebrating and giving thanks for Headmaster, Ed Hester's, thirteen-year tenure at the College.

Pupils, staff, trustees, parents and friends of Princethorpe College have been celebrating and giving thanks for Headmaster, Ed Hester's, thirteen-year tenure at the College.

Mr Hester’s role changed in January to that of Foundation Principal, responsible for the strategic vision and direction of the Princethorpe Foundation as a whole, when new Headmaster Grove du Toit took over the day-to-day running of the College.

Over his time in office Mr Hester has driven many significant milestones and developments at the College and indeed the wider Foundation, which now comprises Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery in Kenilworth and Crescent School in Rugby. The school has grown from 762 pupils and five form entry in 2009 to six or seven form entry and around 930 pupils today, its optimum size.  Thanks to Mr Hester and the team he has built around him, the College has grown in credibility and stature over the last thirteen years and is now a ‘first choice’ school for many families. The Foundation has grown and developed too, and now numbers some 1,400 pupils aged 2 to 18 years.

At a surprise event for Mr Hester, invited guests took a look back at some of the highlights and developments of his headship including successful mergers with Abbotsford School and Crescent School, the College’s ethos and its links with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, excellent ISI Inspections, membership of the prestigious Headmasters and Headmistresses’ Conference, significant campus developments, the College’s Golden Jubilee celebrations and handling of the Covid pandemic.

The event also celebrated academic, pastoral and co-curricular success and achievements at the College and the central part Mr Hester has played in this over the years. From his enthusiastic involvement in many academic, musical, charity and house events from results day and jazz band to welly wanging and abseiling down the iconic Tower.

At the final assembly of term Mr Hester was presented with a cut glass tankard by the pupil body and a commemorative book signed by all the pupils. One last surprise was in store when the whole Princethorpe community launched into a rousing rendition of ABBA’s Dancing Queen, dedicated to the ‘Greatest Edmund we’ve ever seen!’ For once Mr Hester was lost for words!! 

To see the clip of the song, please click here.

To download Ed Hester's Princethorpe Journey Booklet click here.

Pupils, staff and trustees celebrated an important milestone in the construction of the new £8m state-of-the-art Science Centre at Princethorpe College. Headmaster, Ed Hester, donned a hi-vis jacket and hard hat and scaled the heights of the new building for a traditional topping out ceremony. Accompanied by the Heads of School, Freya Mills and Pratheesh Prabakaran, Year 7 representatives, Isaac Fowle and Chloe Sarkies, and invited guests, the topping out of the new £8 million Science Centre was celebrated on Wednesday 30 November.

Foundation Assistant Head, Alex Darkes explained that the practice of ‘topping out’ a new building can be traced to the ancient Scandinavian religious practice of placing a tree on the top of a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits of their ancestors who had been displaced. Though you will be pleased to know that no trees were removed in the construction of the Science Centre and we will be extensively landscaping the surrounding area and planting additional trees. The practice migrated to England with Scandinavian invaders.

Invited Princethorpe trustees and teachers as well as the Managing Director of contractor Trendgrey Construction Limited, Nick Henderson, were present at the ceremony joining in with the good humour of the occasion as the tree was decorated. An optional tour of the exciting new development followed the event revealing first-hand the ten new laboratories that will open for business at the start of the next academic year.

Nick Henderson described the progress of the development, “The project at Princethorpe College has been progressing extremely well and we’re delighted to be at a stage where the ‘topping out’ ceremony can take place. The new building will be state-of-the-art providing a wonderful teaching and learning environment for pupils at the College.”

Ed Hester, said, “We were delighted to celebrate this significant and traditional moment in the construction of our new Science Centre. We are looking forward to its opening next year. The building is looking incredible, and we are all excited by the learning opportunities it will present us.”

As we approach the anniversary of the start of the project, thanks to the hard work of the construction team and their contractors, Princethorpe’s new Science Centre continues to make great progress.

As at Week 50 of the build, the structure and layout of the ten new teaching laboratories is clear to see with the internal walls all in place. There are five large spacious laboratories on each floor, supported by preparation areas, workshops and storage spaces. The break-out area on the first floor, the staff bases, offices and plant room are all in place, as are the breakthrough points from The Limes. The roofing slates are on and the roof lights have been fitted. The windows are in, bar the main entrance, the brise soleil is complete and the wooden cladding has commenced. Inside most ventilation duct work is in place, as are most of the air handling units. The mechanical fit out of the plant rooms continues on both levels of the building. The construction team are starting to put up plaster boards and begin plastering and outside they are preparing to demolish the remaining portacabin as the ground is cleared for landscaping.

The new Science Centre will be an ‘intelligent’ building, driven by an integrated digital Building Management System to optimise heating and ventilation. Infrastructure will allow a progression, in time, to Ground Source Heat Pumps, for reliability. There will be LED illumination throughout, with presence sensors and daylight sensors to control light levels. An energy performance monitor in the ground floor circulation area will be visible to all will give a real-time picture of the building’s energy performance.

An immense amount of hard work, and energy has gone into the new Science Centre project and the build is progressing well. The project is on track to be completed by mid 2023 with the Science Centre opening its doors for pupils next school year, providing state of the art science facilities for the next generation of pupils to come through our doors.

As you can see in this latest time lapse clip, it’s all very exciting for us all here at Princethorpe!

Princethorpe College has a new Headmaster, Mr Grove du Toit, and as he settled into life at Princethorpe, the Heads of School, Freya and Pratheesh, sat down with him to ask him questions submitted by pupils from across the school. 

The question-and-answer session was recorded and shared with pupils, to help them all get to know more about their new Headmaster.

We also shared his answers on our social media, to introduce the wider Princethorpe community to Mr du Toit. If you missed the clips, you can find the full video on our school website here.

Following inspections by independent tree specialists and Rugby Borough Council, the College has very sadly started the removal of some of the Lime trees along the Lime Walk.

The trees, which date back to the early days of St Mary’s Priory, are aged around 150 years and have reached the end of their natural lifespan and there are signs of disease developing. The removal of some of the unhealthy trees may unfortunately compromise the remaining trees, although we will do our best to retain what trees we can along the east side of the avenue.

We know that this news will be upsetting to the Princethorpe community as the Limes are a much loved and integral part of the Princethorpe skyline. The trees were originally planted to commemorate the founding members of the St Mary's Priory community, the original Lime Walk running from the White Gate in Switzerland to the gate leading to the Acacia Walk. There is much within the archives to show how fond past pupils were of them, with pupils writing poetry about them, revising for exams under them and religious processiosn taking place through them.

The College is planning a programme of replanting elsewhere on the campus to commemorate the trees and the part they have played in the school’s rich history. Plans for landscaping and improving the area for school use will be shared as soon as they become available.

A rite of passage for all new Princethorpians is a climb to the top of Princethorpe’s iconic tower. With spectacular views across the Warwickshire countryside, it really rewards the winding nearly 200-step climb. It can be seen from miles around, is integral to the College’s identity and even features on the school crest. On Tuesday 31 January, in the bright winter sunshine, and as he marked the completion of his first month at Princethorpe, Mr du Toit made the climb to the top to take in the panoramic views. On the way up he discovered the secrets of the rooms in the Tower, including the bell room with nine old bells and the old water tanks for the Chapel’s organ. From the top he had a bird’s eye view of the whole College campus and of the progress of the College’s new state-of-the-art Science Centre.

The story sparked a lot of interest from OPs when we shared it on Facebook with a number of you recounting your climbs or regrets for never having ascended the Tower. From time to time we organise events or tours that include a trip up the Tower if that is something that interests you, please email oldprincethorpians@princethorpe.co.uk.

The latest edition of the College’s annual magazine, The Tower Review, was published just before Christmas.

It tells the story of the school year, term by term, reflecting on the whole host of activities, achievements and successes that pupils from Year 7 through to Upper Sixth took part in. It includes highlights such as Prize Giving and the College production as well as reviews of sporting events and House competitions.

2021/22 was an amazing year filled full of wonderful and memorable moments to reflect on. We hope that our annual souvenir review will be treasured by pupils and parents alike.

The magazine was mailed to the Leavers of 2022 and an electronic copy can be found on the school website.

If you would like to receive an additional copy please email marketing@princethorpe.co.uk with your name and address.

On Friday 9 December, Princethorpe College said farewell to much loved peripatetic teacher, Mrs Chris Carpenter. Chris started working for St Joseph’s (now Crackley Hall) in 1998 before joining Princethorpe College in 2001 as a teacher of Drama and English, she returned for a second stint at Princethorpe as a LAMDA peripatetic teacher in 2014.

Her pupils have thrived and with her encouragement have successfully progressed through the LAMDA syllabus, some right to the very top level, a number achieving Gold Medals at Grade 8. Keen for all her pupils to achieve their full potential Chris has always structured her teaching to bring out the best in every piece of work under study. She actively supported school performance events and has helped LAMDA become an integral part of the performing arts offering here at Princethorpe College.

Diligent to the end, a delighted Chris, who had hoped to scuttle away with little fuss, was surprised with flowers as she was teaching her very last lesson. Headmaster, Ed Hester said, “We would like to thank Chris for all her hard work and dedication to Princethorpe’s pupils. She has been instrumental in the success of LAMDA at the College and we will miss her. We wish her a happy, healthy and well-deserved retirement.”

Thinking of becoming a teacher? Then why not consider training with the Princethorpe Foundation.

Whether you are a new graduate or contemplating a career change, we have a wide range of opportunities available across the subjects including: Art and Design, Business Studies, Latin, English, Geography, History, Maths, MFL - French and Spanish, PE, Psychology, RE and at Primary.

Though our association with the Lion Alliance, we offer a year’s training as part of the School Direct scheme, leading to Qualified Teacher Status. Placements would be at Princethorpe and also at other schools within the Lion Alliance. Our training is supported by Warwick University, Birmingham City University, Coventry University and by our experienced mentors here at the Princethorpe Foundation.

You can preview the courses on offer here: www.gov.uk/find-postgraduate-teacher-training-courses by searching the database using the details: 1K1 – The Lion Alliance

Our Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning, Dr Liz Pyne is also happy to offer advice about the different routes into teaching and what Princethorpe can offer you. Please email Dr Pyne at lizpyne@princethorpe.co.uk.

Further information about the Lion Alliance can be found at www.thelionalliance.co.uk.

There is nothing like a landscape shot to engage our alumni community. We know you can never get enough and whatever the weather, we try get outside with a camera to capture the seasons as they pass.

There hasn’t been a lot of snow this winter, in this corner of Warwickshire but we have had plenty of bitingly cold and frosty mornings. Here are just a few winter morning photographs from this year’s finger chilling days.

Take a look at the gallery, we are sure they will prompt a few memories of cold winter mornings when you were at school!