Learning and Teaching
The ideal lesson at Wellington is focused, paced, varied and engaging. We appreciate the value of many traditional teaching methods and we employ them with skill and enthusiasm, but we also believe that lessons are best when pupils are actively involved in a dynamic process of thinking and discovering understanding for themselves. The way pupils learn is as important as the way teachers teach, and we therefore place increasing emphasis on interactive and co-operative learning and on devising lessons that draw on the different knowledge, aptitudes and learning styles of individual pupils.
All teachers at Wellington are highly qualified subject specialists who work together to convey their knowledge and passion to their pupils. Each department is led by an expert head who sets high standards and clear targets and who draws the team together regularly to review the curriculum, monitor progress and develop new teaching and learning techniques. The College's appraisal system and continuing professional development programme ensure that teaching is up-to-date and that teachers, like their pupils, remain continuous learners.
Lessons are sixty minutes long and are arranged across a two week timetable cycle designed to accommodate our broad curriculum and flexible subject choice. Pupils in the lower school are set prep on a timetabled basis each night and pupils in the upper school have weekly preps in each subject. In the lower school, we try to limit class sizes to twenty-four and they are often smaller. In the Sixth Forms, class sizes vary according to demand for each subject but they rarely exceed sixteen and are usually smaller.
All lessons take place in well-furnished classrooms equipped with a wide range of traditional and modern learning resources, including computers, data projectors, interactive whiteboards, extensive book stocks, artistic materials and scientific and technical apparatus. We also have a number of specialist teaching facilities, including IT suites, music technology studios, music practice rooms, concert halls, lecture rooms, an enviable sports centre and gym, a theatre, dance studios, and outstanding art, textiles and design and technology centres.