Princethorpe College was delighted to welcome world-famous British Jaguar car designer, Ian Callum CBE, owner and Director of Design at CALLUM, and Phil Popham, CEO of Lotus Cars, to the College on Tuesday 3 March 2020.  Mr Callum and Mr Popham visited the school to find out more about the College’s development plans for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) subjects.

On their visit Ian Callum and Phil Popham toured the school and grounds, taking in the Design and Technology workshops and the Art studios as well as the wider campus buildings and grounds. They also visited the site of the new Science building, heard about the school’s plans for improvements across the campus and the work underway to drive the Science+ fundraising campaign forward.

Ian Callum and Phil Popham were impressed by Princethorpe College’s strong design heritage commenting, “This school has got it right, the creative design and STEM subjects are hugely important for all our futures. It will be down to the young people of today to address the challenges and schools should be equipping them with the skills to do so. The design work on show here at the College is just amazing.”

During the tour Ian and Phil met with Sixth Form Product Design students and took time to answer their questions on a wide range of topics that ranged from their route into the design world and the process of design through to the challenges facing designers today.

Our Director of Development, said, “It’s been a privilege to welcome Ian and Phil to Princethorpe and showcase all of the fantastic work our pupils and staff are doing. We’re situated right in the heart of the UK automotive industry here in the West Midlands, and it has been incredibly valuable to hear from two giants of the car industry that we are getting things right here at Princethorpe with our STEAM agenda. Our Science+ Campaign, which includes the building of a brand-new, 10 laboratory Science Centre embodies our STEAM agenda, which will not only transform our teaching and learning of Science, but also hugely upgrade our Art department.”