Admissions Update

As the College looks forward to welcoming its new pupils to the school in September, the Admissions Team has now turned its attention to entry for 2025.

Entrance Examinations, for entry to the school in September 2024, will take place on Saturday 9 November 2024 and we are already busy accepting registrations.

For 2025 entry there are a range of scholarships available for particularly able or talented candidates, from Academic, Art and Performing Arts (Choral, Drama, Music, Musical Theatre including Dance) to Sport.

In addition, exceptional candidates who are both academically able and gifted and talented across a number of areas may be considered for an All-Rounder Scholarship, which would be awarded at the discretion of the Headmaster. Means-tested Bursaries are also available, along with The Thomas More Scholarship a means-tested scholarship for Catholic children, who attend a Catholic state primary school.

There are plenty of opportunities for prospective pupils and their parents to visit the College before the Entrance Exams take place; including our Open Morning in April, Summer Open Evening in June and Open Afternoon in September, as well as the Year 5 Taster Days in May and June.

Comments Melanie Butler, Assistant Head, Marketing, Admissions and Communications, "Parents and pupils will have plenty of time to prepare and opportunities to visit the College in the run up to the registration deadline on Friday 27 September."

Following the Entrance Exams, offer letters will be sent out on Thursday 28 November 2024 and the acceptance deadlines will be Monday 9 December 2024 for Years 8, 9 and 10 and Tuesday 4 March 2025 for Year 7. The acceptance deadline for Year 7 places is, by a nationally agreed code of practice, the same for all independent schools, allowing parents and children time to review all their options, including those from the maintained sector, before making a final decision.

To download a copy of our new 2025 Admissions and Entrance Examinations Booklet click here.

If you have any questions about the admissions process please contact the Registrar, Catherine Rogers and Assistant Registrar, Marie Holt, on 01926 634201/297 or email admissions@princethorpe.co.uk.

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Foundation Principal, Ed Hester, has recently, with colleagues, produced and published a Strategic Plan for the Foundation to underpin the success of all its schools, Princethorpe College, Crescent School and Crackley Hall School and Little Crackers Nursery. This has been one of his key aims over the past year, since changing his role from Head of Princethorpe College to Foundation Principal.

Commenting on the plan he says:

 “I first became a Princethorpe Foundation parent twenty-one years ago, then in 2009 I was delighted to be appointed as Head of the College and Foundation. I know that our schools are incredibly exciting places; we pride ourselves on being warm, kind and caring, as well as being disciplined and aspirational. We cater for a wide range of children from a variety of backgrounds and have an outstanding record of academic success by getting the very best from all our pupils. We have an amazing history, superb facilities and our people are incredibly friendly, bright and energetic. We aim to treat every pupil as an individual, supporting them to grow into mature, resilient, well-rounded and “world ready” young people, with a strong set of moral values to guide them through adult life.

“At the same time, we are a thriving multi-million-pound business with comprehensive plans to ensure we can deliver the very highest quality education to all our pupils. This plan has been shared with trustees, staff, current Foundation parents, OPs and I would now like to share it with prospective families.

"Through this document I am delighted to take you “behind the scenes” and give you an insight into our approach. I have tried to make it succinct but with sufficient detail to give a real understanding of our aims and ambitions as we move forward over the years ahead."

Click here to view the Foundation Strategic Plan.

Princethorpe College Upper Sixth Former and Academic Prefect, Joseph Newborough, is thrilled to have received an offer to read Maths and Physics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Head of Sixth Form, Ben Collie, comments, “Joseph has earned this success. Applying to Oxbridge is a character-testing experience. The process is very competitive, with students facing pre-tests, intensive scrutiny of their academic and personal achievements and rigorous interviews. This is excellent news for him.”

There is good news for the Upper Sixth across the board this year, with the College pleased to support 115 applications through UCAS. Many students applied early and are now reaping the benefits with 32 having already received decisions from all five of their university choices.

Ben Collie, continues, “Applications for medical courses are also progressing well, with interviews completed and two students now waiting on decisions, and the apprenticeship interview season is just about to kick off. Our Upper Sixth have exciting plans for the future, whether that be studying at university, undertaking internships or apprenticeships, working or taking gap years and we are delighted to support them all towards their next steps.”

The College was proud to see two Princethorpe pupils win medals at the England Athletics Age Group Championships in Sheffield at the start of half term. The event took place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 February with pupils representing their athletics clubs.

Year 11, André Onyekwe, and Year 10, Grace McCollin, both put in personal bests and we applaud their success.

André competed in the U17 Boys High Jump and claimed the Silver medal with an amazing jump of 1.95 metres. He also took Bronze in the U17 Triple Jump with an outstanding hop, step and leap, and personal best, of 13.46 metres.

Grace ran in the U17 Girls Hurdles and sprinted her way to a Bronze medal in a fantastic personal best of 8.63 seconds.

Congratulations also to, Year 11, Olivia Monk who qualified for U17 Girls 60m semi-final with a new personal best of 7.83 seconds and, Year 10, Penelope Jones, who ran a personal best in the U17 Girls 60m Hurdles of 9.37 seconds. It is a fantastic achievement for all these athletes to be competing at this elite level of sport.

You can watch André and Grace in action on the College’s Sports Instagram @princethorpefoundationsport

We are looking forward to watching this next generation of young Olympians develop, it is going to be a really exciting summer of sport!

Princethorpe College is introducing a new BTEC Level 2 Performing Arts Dance programme from September 2024, strengthening our performing arts pathways and providing an exciting new creative subject for pupils to study.

Leading the subject will be Rachel Fox, an experienced dance teacher, performer and choreographer, who will be joining us from Birmingham’s renowned specialist Performing Arts Academy BOA. With a first-class degree in Dance, postgraduate teaching qualifications and plenty of experience of teaching BTEC Dance at Level 2 and beyond, Mrs Fox will deliver a highly creative course that enables pupils to refine their performance skills, explore diverse styles and choreograph their own work.

The new BTEC Level 2 qualification is open to all pupils who are currently in Year 9 for a September 2024 start. Find out more on our website here.

The addition of Dance to the curriculum will be reflected in our PE, Games and co-curricular offering of clubs and activities and Mrs Fox will also be available to other pupils, where possible, to assist with dance work related to out of school commitments.

The Princethorpe Foundation has just published its Environmental Sustainability Plan. Developed by staff and pupils, it gives a really good insight into what we are doing and what we are aiming to achieve in the future.

You will be aware that the UK government has set ambitious plans to achieve Net Zero. In parallel, the Princethorpe Foundation is taking its own steps on the journey to sustainability. Our ambition is to become carbon neutral, whilst making sure that our environment is safe, fit for-purpose and healthy. Our aim is to remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as we emit. Firstly, by reducing our emissions as much as possible and secondly, by offsetting what we do emit.

As part of our journey towards net zero, we have measured the Foundation’s carbon footprint and we will further refine these metrics to measure our progress.

We feel optimistic about joining the fight to build a better future for us all and for the planet, and we are determined to engage and play an active part in the sustainability solution. As part of this we have a central role in educating all our stakeholders about the importance of environmental sustainability. We want our school communities to clearly understand the current global issues and embrace the solutions.

By mobilising our pupils with the requisite knowledge, skills and the desire to effect positive change, we know that the next generation will become the creative problem-solvers of the future.

You will see from the plan that we are working hard to embed environmental sustainability into our thinking and actions in nine key areas and it is particularly heartening to see the high levels of engagement from our pupils. 

Many thanks to Foundation Assistant Head, Alex Darkes, who has led the project for the Foundation and chaired our Environmental Sustainability Board so capably. As Alex retires at the end of April, Foundation Principal, Ed Hester will take over this role and spearhead our future work in the area.

You can read our Environmental Sustainability Plan here.

Our College production of Loserville was magnificent. The Clarkson Theatre was filled full of energetic rock songs as audiences were transported back to America in the 1970s.

Loserville tells the story of unlikely hero Michael Dork and his closest friends, a group of socially awkward boys, struggling through High School and constantly thwarted by popular and privileged school quarterback, Eddie Arch and his cronies. Michael is trying to invent email, Lucas is writing his first Sci-Fi novel (Galaxy Battles; Episode 4) and Marvin and Francis spend all their time building a space ship from a shopping trolley. Then one day, a new girl arrives at the school. Holly is intelligent, funny and harbours a desire to become NASA’s first woman in space. Her sudden arrival throws everyone’s world into turmoil.

Loserville was filled full off brilliant and energetic rock songs by James Bourne of Busted and for five performances we joined our talented Musical Theatre Group on an exciting, if at times bumpy, ride to see our heroes got their 'Ticket Outta Loseville'.

It was spectacular show, full of vibrant energy and enthusiasm and we are all humming along to the songs after what was a most entertaining and enjoyable performance.

Congratulations to everyone involved, on stage and behind the scenes and especially to the Directors, Mr Cowlishaw and Ms Newborough. We just can't wait to find out what their plans are for next year!

Many congratulations to Jasper Nicholls (Year 9), Daniel Ovens Gibbs (Year 10) and Alex Flegg (Upper Sixth) who were the College’s top performing pupils in their age categories in this year’s Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC). Jasper attained so highly that he was awarded a Merit certificate, placing him in the top 10% of those who took part in the OUCC competition.

The OUCC is an invitational event for those who finished in the top 10% of the UK Bebras Challenge. Both challenges test skills such as logical thinking, pattern recognition and decomposition, as well as computer programming. The OUCC encourages pupils to develop their skills one stage further, consisting of three sections of problems for pupils to solve. It is renowned for being an exceedingly tough challenge and for the first time this year, the competition had a time limit.

15 Princethorpe pupils from Year 9 through to the Sixth Form had qualified for this year’s OUCC competition, a real achievement in its itself. All were awarded certificates.

Head of Computer Science, Ed Musson commented, “Computational thinking is an incredibly useful and powerful skill and all of these pupils have mastered it to a level well beyond their years. It was great to see their abilities being recognised in such a prestigious competition.”

Talented Art Scholar, Genevieve Slater-Tucker has been recognised as one of the highest performers in her GCSE Fine Art exam.

Now in the Lower Sixth, Genevieve was delighted to recently discover that she had scored one of the best results in the country in the OCR exam board’s GCSE Art and Design: Fine Art qualification.

Genevieve said: “I was amazed and very proud to hear I had done so well. I have always enjoyed art and worked really hard on the development of my GCSE assessed pieces. The news was unexpected, and I am really thrilled.”

College Head of Art, Paul Hubball, commented: “We are so proud of Genevieve, it was a delight to receive this news. We have had comments from the Moderators before but nothing in writing. It isn’t easy to achieve top marks, but her work is innovative, skilful and complex and worthy of this recognition.”

To mark her success, Mr Hubball presented Genevieve with a special certificate in her Art lesson just before half term.

Genevieve is pictured here with one of her paintings, That Living Mystic Tree inspired and named after the line in the Rossetti poem The Blessed Damozel.

The Foundation's new advertising campaign, which launches next week across a variety of media, takes a joined-up approach to communicate the values and ethos of a Princethorpe Foundation education to prospective parents and pupils.

The new Foundation for Life campaign has been developed to highlight that our schools provide more than just an education, preparing pupils with the skills, learning and experiences which will put them on the road to happy and fulfilled lives. The concept underscores the unique strength of the Foundation and that there is a Princethorpe Foundation setting for every stage of a child’s educational journey. It also incorporates a gentle play on words.

Using a distinctive new graphic style emphasising the Tower icon, alongside eye-catching photography, the individual school logos and palette of Foundation brand colours, plus a new gold Foundation colour, the campaign is designed to be both visually impactful and incorporate strong messaging. Text panels emphasise that every individual is valued and that our family of schools aim to nurture, inspire and challenge our pupils to achieve great things.

Comments Melanie Butler, Foundation Assistant Head for Marketing, Admissions and Communications, "We have long wanted an overarching Foundation advertising campaign that encapsulates what the Foundation offers as a whole, as well as being adaptable to the personalities and nature of the individual school or nursery settings.

"We hope the campaign will resonate not only with prospectives in terms of what they are looking for from a school or Foundation for their child, but with the whole Princethorpe community - staff, parents, pupils and Old Princethorpians alike."

Timed to coincide with the launch of Princethorpe’s 2025 admissions cycle, the Marketing Team will be working over the coming weeks to roll the campaign out across digital, outdoor and traditional media for all the Foundation schools. 

Check out the first of our advert concepts in the gallery!

Princethorpe College welcomed a special guest on Monday 15 January when award-winning author Ben Davis visited the school.

Mr Davis spent the day at Princethorpe hosting three creative writing workshops with Year 8 pupils.

The workshops began with Mr Davis reading extracts from his books including My Dad is Definitely not a Crime Lord and My Brilliant Plan to Fix Everything. Pupils then focused on creating their own short stories using Mr Davis’s methodology for creative writing. It included writing a plan before beginning their story and then focusing on bringing their stories to life by using visually descriptive language. Year 8 engaged enthusiastically with the former stand up comedian’s humour led approach with a number enjoying reading out their written work at the end of the workshop.

After the workshop there was also time for a question-and-answer session and for a book signing.

Nicola Treadwell, College Librarian, said:

“It was a real pleasure to welcome Ben to Princethorpe. His books are appealing and engaging, and their humour ensures that they are always popular with our pupils. The workshop was great fun and Year 8 produced some fabulous creative writing under his guidance. I have come across Ben’s books before and I know that his books are fantastic for all sorts of readers. I was delighted when he agreed to visit the school.”

Huge thanks to Ben Davis for visiting Princethorpe College and inspiring the next generation of successful writers and maybe even a future author or two.

All of Ben's books are available for pupils to borrow from the school library. 

Many congratulations to Year 10 pupil, Sophie Henry, who was commended for her technical skills and ability in a hotly contested Springboard Futurechef Regional Final at Worcestershire College, before half term on Tuesday 6 February.

Six future chefs from across the Midlands competed in the event, preparing two courses in 90 minutes for a budget of just £10. Sophie, who is studying Food and Nutrition at GCSE, had prepared thoroughly putting a lot of time into planning her dishes. The food she produced was of the highest standard and beautifully presented, it included a main course of Chicken Normande and Dauphinoise Potatoes with a dessert course of Chocolate and Raspberry Swiss Roll.

The competition was fierce, with the judges complimenting the contestants for the standard and talent demonstrated.

Princethorpe’s Teacher of Food Technology, Jacqui Scott, said, “I am extremely proud of Sophie, she did brilliantly. Her two-course meal was outstanding, her timing brilliant and she received really positive feedback from the judges.”

A huge well done to Sophie, although she didn’t win this time, we think she truly has the makings of a master chef.

The latest issue of The Old Princethorpian, the Princethorpe Foundation’s termly e-newsletter for past pupils, staff and parents is out now. Click here to have a read.

Our newsletter aims to keep our alumni in touch with one another and news, developments and events across the Foundation.

The next event on the OP calendar is our Bluebells and Brunch which takes place on Saturday 11 May. For more details of all our alumni events please visit Princethorpe Connect.

If you have any comments on the e-newsletter or news to share then please do get in touch, email oldprincethorpians@princethorpe.co.uk.

The latest issue of the Pinnacle has just been published, showcasing yet more of our pupils' excellent work. The magazine's new editorial team, Julia Lindsay, Jo Evans and Sarah Duran, have given the Pinnacle a bit of a revamp and they hope you like its restyle.

The Pinnacle has always celebrated our pupils at their best and this edition includes plenty more examples of their outstanding efforts. History features, with project work from Year 7, 8 and 9, on the Romans, Richard III and World War Two. As does MFL, with excellent examples of descriptive writing from Year 7 and Year 8 in Spanish and in French.

There is a special Photography Club feature exploring evening photography and a cross foundation spread showing the different initiatives that take place across all the Foundation schools.

A double-sided Minnacle is included too, with equally impressive work by Crackley Hall and Crescent pupils. It's wonderful to celebrate their talents.

Printed copies have been sent home with pupils or you can read a copy of The Pinnacle on our school website here: https://www.princethorpe.co.uk/publications

The latest edition of the College’s magazine, The Tower Review, was published at the end of the Michaelmas Term.

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.

2022/23 was another 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.

You can download a copy of it on our school website here: https://www.princethorpe.co.uk/publications