Head’s Weekly Update

Please see the full list of Leadership, Academic and Co-Curricular staff for the new academic year here. 

Any pastoral, day-to-day logistics or information should be sent to your child’s Divisional email address or tutor. Contact addresses for both can be found on the portal by clicking on 'My Children'.

Pastoral Divisional Leads (PDL), Head of Junior House and Deputies can be contacted on:

Dunbar@pangbourne.com - Ian Hart and Andy Thornhill

Harbinger@pangbourne.com - Jehan Dyer and Stephen Hennah

Hesperus@pangbourne.com  - Laura Besley-Piggott and Alex Unsworth

Illawarra@pangbourne.com - Donatienne Poitrat and Werner Nel

Macquarie@pangbourne.com  - Steph Kingsland and Tom Walford  

Boarding Head of House and Deputy Head of House can be contacted on:

Stgeorge@pangbourne.com (girls) - Shannon Flynn and Jackie Turner 

Portjackson@pangbourne.com (boys) - Paul Radford and Maddie White

Any ad hoc boarding requests should be sent to the above, relevant addresses. 

Tutors 

Each pupil is allocated a tutor whose role is wide-ranging but their most important function is to oversee each of our pupils’ academic, intellectual and personal development. Tutors manage the transitions into Year 7, into Year 9 and into the Sixth Form. They advise and guide on GCSE and A Level choices and university courses. Tutors meet their tutees regularly and are the first people to see and discuss grades and reports. They help their tutees manage their prep and study time, and also share the delivery of the Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education programme.

Your child’s tutor is referenced on the Portal and their contact address can be found on the portal by clicking on 'My Children'.

Other useful contact email addresses: 

admissions@pangbourne.com - for any prospective pupil enquiries 

hc@pangbourne.com - Health Centre 

shop@pangbourne.com - School Uniform Shop 

billing@pangbourne.com - for any billing queries

reception@pangbourne.com - for any general enquiries 

pangbourne@vectare.co.uk - for any bus booking queries 

amanda.james@pangbourne.com - EA to The Head for appointments with the Head 

ceri.king@pangbourne.com - PA to the Bursar for appointments with the Bursar

martin.palfrey@pangbourne.com - Network Systems and Data Manager, for any change of contact or address details once you have joined the College or if you have trouble accessing any of the school systems.

bursaryadmin@pangbourne.com - if you are interested in lift sharing with other parents, please email with the general direction you are travelling from and the College will put interested parties in touch with each other. 

questions@pangbourne.com - please use this email if you have a question or any feedback that you would like to share.

Reception Opening Hours: 

The Main Reception in Devitt House is staffed from 08:00-16:00

The Bursary Reception is staffed from 08:30-18:00.

The timetable timings for 2025-26 can be found here.

Independent schools are now being held to the same standards of pupil attendance as the maintained sector. Of all the independent schools that failed their inspection last academic year (of which there were many), the majority were due to a lack of compliance with the latest legislation. The following protocols ensure we are compliant and know where every child is and ensures they are properly supervised. 

Morning Arrivals

• Registration - this is for all pupils including boarders and Sixth Form students and takes place in their Division between 08:00 - 08:20. Divisions will open at 08:00. 

• Parking - all drop-offs in the morning and collections in the evening should be on the Parade Ground or the Café car park and vehicles should not drive down the small roads to the Divisions.

• Early Arrivals - any pupils wishing to arrive on site before the Divisions open at 08:00, may go to the Mess Hall from 07:30. Pupils may also book in for breakfast via their Pastoral Divisional Lead. This ensures proper supervision of all students who are onsite. 

After School Departures and Prep

• Due to the distance many of our students travel, the school day has a flexible end to prevent late arrival home followed by mountains of prep. It should be noted that the 30 minute prep slot at the end of the day is not sufficient for prep to be meaningful for students in Year 10 and above. 

• To realise the academic potential of our students they will be completing between 8-10 hours of prep a week in Years 10 and 11 and far more in the Sixth Form. This is built into the boarders’ programme in the evenings with additional prep times after dinner. As day pupils will also have extra prep to do whilst home in the evenings, the earlier bus departure time will enable academic success to be secured. This change also reflects parental feedback from last academic year.

• Parents may pick up at 17:15 or 17:45 from the Parade Ground. 

• College minibuses will depart the campus at 17:25.
  In addition there will be a shuttle service to Pangbourne Train Station at 17:20 and 17:50. 

• On-site prep will run from 17:15 to 17:45 in a silent and fully supervised space. Pupils wishing to stay for prep must sign up with their Pastoral Divisional Lead. 

• Divisions will close at 17:30. 

• Pupils may go to the Mess Hall whilst they are waiting to be picked up until 18:00. There is also the option for parents to book their child to stay for dinner at 18:00 via their Pastoral Divisional Lead. Pupils can then be picked up from outside the Mess Hall at 18:30 having been fed. 

• Please note that pupils must either leave at 17:15 or be signed in for supervised prep by their PDL. Pupils who remain on site must be accounted for from a safeguarding and fire safety perspective.

Wednesday Afternoon Arrangements

Please see the separate notice in this week’s newsletter regarding this.

My School Portal is the main communications method we use at Pangbourne and, once you have registered, you will be able to access most College systems using the same email address and password.

To register:

• Go to https://myportal.pangbourne.com.

• Click the link 'Forgot your password'.

• Enter the email address we have for you.

• Choose a suitable password.

The portal offers access to SOCS [Sport fixtures and results], Attendance, College Reports, Parent Evenings and much more. You will also be able to view your child’s timetable and see who his teachers are for each subject.

We will be launching the My School Portal app soon too, which will provide an even easier means to access College information.

If you do experience any problem registering, please let me know. You do not need to re-register if you have other children at Pangbourne and have accessed the portal before.

If you have not received your unique Class Charts access code, please contact your child’s tutor who will be able to provide you with it.

Last academic year we took the decision not to run any academic clinics. Instead, we invested our time and energy into ensuring our students had more contact time with teachers, classrooms were effective and our students worked to the standard we expected of them. 

The strategy reversed years of below-standard outcomes at GCSE and meant that 38% of the grades secured were 9-7 (up from 22% the year before) and 84% of grades secured were 9-5 (up from 61% the year before). It is perhaps worth noting that the state-school average in 2024 for Grades 9-7 was 21%! 

This rapid uplift in outcomes, securing a Value-added of +0.7 (up from +0.1 in 2024), has not been repeated in any other independent school. It was achieved through a very careful and intentional planning process and broke all previous College records. Our aim this year is to improve on this still further and ensure our current and future Year 11s secure the very best grades to set them up for the future. So we will be doing things that run counter to what used to happen and what some parents may expect. 

Although academic clinics have been reintroduced this year, they are not a golden bullet and cannot replace effective teaching and assessment. A clinic may be beneficial for a small number of students over a short period of time but not as a general strategy for success. Students should not rely on a clinic to plug gaps. They work as a highly targeted intervention, not a general catch-all. For example, we may run a Maths clinic for some students on the Foundation Tier to re-teach a particular strategy for a certain question-style. Not to re-teach the entire paper. 

Last academic year, the feedback from parents highlighted that the existing bus schedule meant buses departed too late for students to get home and then complete 10-12 hours a week of prep. The existing 30 minute prep slot was short in time and often unsupervised, meaning it was not effective and not much prep was completed. We listened to parent feedback and brought the timings of the buses forward so that students could arrive home and still complete their two hours of prep each night required to be successful in the GCSE programme. 

The College Day has been redesigned this year so that all staff and students eat at the same time. This also ensures that exam cohort pupils now can have extra time with their teachers during this time slot, alongside eating and socialising with their friends. This means that teachers can deliver very specific support (clinic) to solve particular problems in a timely manner. 

We would like to clarify the arrangements for Wednesday afternoons. Apologies if the end of day routine was unclear last Wednesday. 

As per previous years, Wednesday has always had an earlier finish to the day. However, as outlined in last week’s newsletter, we are now required to enforce tighter arrangements than previously and this has required some changes. Therefore, in line with our increasing responsibilities and desire to maintain a strong culture of safeguarding, the end of the day has been amended slightly. Appropriate levels of supervision and support will now also be in place. 

Compulsory commitments finish at 15:50, after which students have the opportunity to take part in Music, Drama, and elite sports activities. Dunbar students normally also have training or fixtures at this time.

For those not involved in these activities, there are the following options:

1. Remain onsite to be supervised in their Divisional spaces or in the Sixth Form Centre. This will be a chance to complete any outstanding work or socialise/ kick a ball on Devitt Lawn etc. 

2. Dunbar have supervised prep in the library from 16:00 for those who have completed their fixture/training and are on the bus or not collected until 17:15/45.

3. Leave the College at 15:50 if collected. (Please do not be pressured by your child to collect them. They can remain at school, fully supervised, until 17:45 if need be and will be perfectly happy.)

Please note:

• All students will register in their Divisions between 15:40 - 15:50 before the start of afternoon activities.

• The College buses will still depart at 17:25, and there are two station shuttle buses at 17:20 and 17:50.

The Wednesday early finish was a core piece of feedback from parents during the 23/24 academic year and parents were overwhelmingly in support of keeping it. We will keep this under review to make sure it still fits with the wishes of current and future parents. 

I would like to remind parents that when pupils are selected in teams or are involved in formal team training on Saturdays that it is an expectation that they honour this commitment. We endeavour to release all team sheets 48 hours in advance and all fixture timings and details can be found on the Parent Portal or here.

If there are emergency absences then the Director of Sport and your child’s coach (if known) should be contacted as soon as possible. If this is planned then approval should be sought from Mr Mark Skidmore via the absence form on the parent portal.

We need to uphold the expectation of fixture selection or it becomes very challenging to consistently run a full Saturday fixture programme. If your child is not involved in fixture then there is a recreational fitness programme available for them, if they so wish. 

Thank you for your ongoing support in supporting the sport programme and fixtures. 

Mr Sam Hewick, Director of Sport (sam.hewick@pangbourne.com)

At Pangbourne College, we are committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our students. To strengthen this commitment, we have invested in The Wellbeing Hub, a trusted resource created by experts in child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing.

We are delighted to offer all parents and guardians free access to this valuable platform.

As a member of The Wellbeing Hub, you will have access to:

• Expert advice on supporting your child’s wellbeing including parenting courses

• Articles, videos, and practical tools to help you navigate everyday challenges

• Guidance on topics such as friendships, online safety, resilience, and more

• Monthly webinars with experts in their field to help you support your child

To help you navigate the platform, you can watch a guided video tour of The Wellbeing Hub HERE.

You can save The Wellbeing Hub to your phone or computer so it’s easy to find. Click HERE for a guide on how to do this.

How to register:

1. Click this link to register.

2. Fill out the form to create an account

If you have any questions specifically about access, please contact the team at info@teentips.co.uk.

We are excited to provide this enhanced level of pastoral support and hope you find The Wellbeing Hub both helpful and inspiring. Please contact Caroline Bond, Pastoral Liaison (caroline.bond@pangbourne.com) if you have any questions or would like to give feedback.  

The Pangbourne Parents Association (PPA) would love to welcome all parents with or without your children, to our annual welcome walk around the grounds of the College on Saturday 13 September. It is a lovely way to meet other parents and to see some of the amazing grounds. 

We will meet outside Port Jackson at 08:45 and refreshments will be served on our return. Dogs are very welcome on leads please.  We kindly ask for a donation of £5 on the day to cover catering costs (cash is preferred).

We look forward to welcoming both new and current parents as well as members of staff, Old Pangbournians (OPs) and Parents of OPs (POPs) who are all part of the Pangbournian Community.

We are holding our Sixth Form Open Evening on Thursday 18 September and all Year 11 parents and pupils are encouraged to attend.

There will be refreshments available in the Sixth Form café from 17:15 to 17:45. The evening will start with a talk from Mr Knight and Ms Kaur, Head of Sixth Form in the Chapel at 17:45 (polite reminer that no drinks are allowed to be taken into the Chapel).

Following the talk, there will be a chance for you to look around the new Sixth Form Centre as well as hear from subject experts about the subjects on offer as part of our A Level and BTEC curriculum. The subject departments will be based in Devitt House and the Sixth Form Centre. The evening will run from 17:45 – 19:30. 

There will be a Rowing meeting for parents on Saturday 20 September to hear more about the College Rowing programme. Please see below for an outline of the day. If this changes in any way we will be in touch to let you know.

08:30 - Drop off your child at the river.

09:00 - Meet at the Sixth Form café for teas/coffees and pastries.

09:15 - Presentation and Q&A with Mr Green.

10:45 - Make your way to the river to watch end of training and BBQ.

13:30 - End.

If your child is not yet rowing but you are interested in attending please do not hesitate to sign up. All parents are welcome!

Please sign up via the Google Form here.

In July 2025, the Boat House planning application was approved by the West Berkshire planning authority. Thanks to the incredible generosity of the College community, over £1.6m has been committed to the Appeal, and construction is planned to begin in 2026. The rowing team will share more information at the meeting on 20 September.

The first College Service and Parade will be taking place on Sunday 21 September, please find information about the timing of the morning below:

09:00 College Choir and Chamber Choir in Chapel

09:00 Refreshments available to be purchased in the Café between 09:00 – 10:45 (but these must not be taken into Chapel, please)

09:15 Pupils to Divisions for briefing with Division Chiefs

Please note: pupils should arrive at College already dressed in their No. 1 uniform.

As in all previous years, Year 9 pupils do not participate in the first Parade of the year. Year 9 pupils should be wearing their No. 1 uniform but as they are not taking part in the Parade on this occasion, there will be some leniency for any new pupils who have not managed to get their No. 1 uniform fully sorted yet.

09:45 All pupils from Years 9 to Upper Sixth to be seated in Chapel

10:00 Service in Chapel - please be seated in good time   
Pupils in Years 7 & 8 are welcome but not required to attend. All parents are very welcome to attend.

10:45 Service ends and refreshments available in Mess Hall

11:15 Parade begins

11:45-12:00: Parade ends

We are delighted to be supporting this year’s Macmillan Coffee Morning, which will take place on Monday 22 September.

• For pupils: Please bring in some money or a card to purchase cakes (cakes will be £1 each), which will be on sale at break time outside the Mess Hall and the Sixth Form Café.

• For parents: You are warmly invited to join us in the Sixth Form Café after morning drop-off to purchase a coffee. We kindly ask that parents also make a donation for each item purchased. This will be a wonderful opportunity to catch up with other parents over coffee while supporting a fantastic cause.

All proceeds will go directly to Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity that provides vital care, advice, and financial support to people living with cancer and their families. Every cake purchased – along with your generous donations – helps make a real difference.

A huge thank you to our caterers, Thomas Franks for generously donating the cakes for this important cause.

We are delighted to be able to give final details for this year’s Divisional Music Competition, taking place on Thursday 25 September in the Chapel. This year’s adjudicator is Mr Oliver Tarney, Assistant Director of Music at Tiffin School, who will be judging a lively programme of performances including Division songs, solo instrumentalists, and solo singers. The performance will run from 19:00 to 21:00, with refreshments available for parents in the Sixth Form Café from 18:00.

Owing to limited space, tickets are only available to parents of pupils in Year 9 and Upper Sixth, as well as parents of any pupils entering one of the solo classes; if any tickets are still available shortly before the event we may be able to offer these on a first-come, first-served basis.

All pupils in Years 9 and above are required to attend and participate, and an evening meal will be provided for them in Mess Hall before the performance. We very much look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be a vibrant and entertaining evening of music. For those parents who are unable to attend in person, a live stream link will be provided nearer the time.

Tickets are available here.

Please see the private tennis coaching letter here.

VMT lessons will resume next week, and all pupils have been sent a link to join a new platform, Involve Education, where they can find details of their lesson time; this system will allow us to monitor lessons more closely, provide weekly updates to pupils and parents on what to focus on in private practice, and make communication between VMTs and parents easier. Parents of pupils taking VMT lessons will receive an email invitation to join the platform within the next 24 hours. From there, you will be able to see your child’s lesson schedule each week and, if you use the app version, opt in to notifications to help you support their musical progress (including reminders on the morning of their lesson).

There is still time to sign up for instrumental or vocal lessons; if your child is interested in exploring this, please contact Mr Thornhill (andrew.thornhill@pangbourne.com). We can also arrange a fifteen-minute taster lesson for those who would like to try an instrument or voice lesson before committing.

Once every half term a group of parents meet to pray for the College and upcoming events. The first meeting of the year is on Monday 15 September from 19:45 - 21:00 at the Chaplain’s house (this is situated next to Dunbar).

Please email anna.jeffers@pangbourne.com if you would like to come or to be added to the mailing list.