Principal's Blog

19/02/2013

We were delighted to welcome His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, to the Academy recently. His Royal Highness visited a number of lessons to observe our innovative Pimlico Curriculum in action and he met staff involved in Teach First and the Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI). The PTI is the educational charity bearing the name of His Royal Highness and it relies upon our superb facilities for its programme of Saturday events to enhance the subject knowledge of newly qualified teachers, inspiring them through lectures from distinguished university academics. Pimlico’s close working relationship with the PTI is evidenced by their interest in our Pimlico Curriculum, and by their invitation to members of our senior staff to address their conferences both this year and last.

During the morning students were introduced to the Prince and they talked about the richness of their experience here. Our Steel Pans group performed for the Prince and his retinue at Hera’s assembly, and he cheerfully tried his hand at the pans afterwards, under the expert supervision of Year 11’s Kari-Ann! 

The visit was a wonderful and worthwhile experience for the students and staff. We all felt honoured that the Prince of Wales chose to join us in our school and it inspired a real sense of pride and confidence in Pimlico. Students who spoke to His Royal Highness did so articulately, with confidence and with great decorum. The visit demonstrated to the students that they can have real confidence in their ability to hold their own in any company.

From a personal perspective I could not have been prouder. The students and staff here are always a credit to the Academy but on days such as this they truly excel. Pimlico is gaining on increasingly positive reputation as a great school and visits like this only confirm for me why this reputation is merited.

Jerry Collins