The Week Ahead
Saturday 1st May until Sunday 9th May
The Master's Voice
General elections and Wellingtonians. Before I say a word on this, can I say that my beginning of term letter, which is being posted to you, can be read by clicking here. The general election has caused considerable excitement in the school, and I have been delighted by how many have been following the television debates: I have just taken part in a heated discussion at breakfast with some students. The internal pupil election here is also generating some strong opinions, as is appropriate in a school to honour the memory of a man who was twice Prime Minister. Wellington College has produced many politicians, including the Labour minister Sir Harold Nicolson, who Her Majesty The Queen named the Modern Languages building after, all the way up to Lord Strathclyde, who will no doubt join Cabinet next weekend if the Tories are successful. James O�Shaughnessy is destined for Number 10 for a top policy position, and we offer our best wishes to those parents seeking election or re-election. It seems extraordinary that even our oldest pupils have no recollection of Tory Britain, as they were only five when Labour came to power. If the Tories do win with a majority which allows them to govern, we can anticipate the biggest shake up of education since the Second World War, with state schools becoming increasingly independent. Our pupils are lucky to be witnessing such an exciting election as the first that they have been fully able to enjoy. They will follow the events on Thursday night and Friday morning with keen interest, as I know will you.
General Events
On Saturday 1st May between 10:00 am and midday the Field Gun crews will be holding an open training session. Members of the Field Gun Associations, on their way to watch the Army v Navy Rugby at Twickenham, will be there so there will be a chance to talk to those who have run at the Royal Tournament. Parents are warmly welcome. Apologies for the photo - it was the only one I was given!
On Saturday 1st May, pupils have a weekend leave starting after their sporting commitments. We look forward to welcoming the boarders back by 9:15 pm on Monday 3rd May.
On Tuesday 4th May Professor Boris Rankov will be speaking at 6:00 pm in Great School on "Greek Triremes". Professor Rankov first made his name rowing in 6 winning Oxford boat race crews, and is now often heard umpiring the race. He is a specialist on Classical Greek naval warfare and served as �Rowing Master� on the project to reconstruct an Athenian trireme, the Olympias, which was used for promotion at the Athens Olympics, and for some experimental archaeology (�taking it for a spin!�). He is widely known as a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker. Parents are very welcome.
The Parent's Forum meets twice a year for an hour and a half in the Driver Rooms, and provides the opportunity for parents to filter questions via their year reps into the Master and his senior colleagues and for us to sound out parental views through the representatives. If you do have a general concern or question then please contact the relevant person from the list on the intranet here.(Please note this is on the password protected area of the website) Clicking on the red name will open an e-mail to the relevant person for you. The next meeting is on Monday 17th May but questions should be with Parent Reps by Wednesday 5th May.
The next meeting of the business networking group The Business Forum will be on Thursday 6th May and will be at 7:15 am in the Wellesley Dining Room. The theme for the May event will be "Using numbers to double the value of your business� and the talk will be given by Trevor Wilson of the FD Group. Many business owners find keeping their finances in order a bore. The very mention of accounts and systems makes their eyes glaze over. Trevor will show what can happen when things go wrong in the finance area, and explain how to hugely increase profit and add massive value to your business with a little more finance focus. The Business Forum combines a relaxed informal gathering for business networking with a forum for discussing key business topics. It meets once a month on the first Thursday of each month at 7.15am, finishing by 9.15am. The cost is �18 and includes a full English breakfast. For more information and a booking form please go to the website on www.thebusinessforum.biz or contact Sue Viney on sue@vineycommunications.co.uk or 07774 267280.
You are warmly welcomed to join us for our annual Summer Gala Concert, which takes place on Friday 7th May at 8:00 pm in the Old Gym. The Symphony Orchestra, Camerata, Chapel Choir and Sinfonia will perform an exciting programme of music, which will include Mozart�s Violin Concerto in G with soloist Leesu Kim, Bach�s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 and works by Elgar, Holst, Bizet, Dvor�k and Brahms. Entry is free and there will be refreshments served in the interval . We hope to see you there!
Saturday 8th May is a closed weekend for the whole school as we have a full school morning service on Sunday 9th May followed by the Wellington College Sports Day. The parents of the Apsley are warmly invited to the service at which the preacher is Father Nick King. All are invited to the Sports Day, which starts on Rockies at 11:00 pm. (Clicking on the image for Sport's Day should open it in a separate window and make it bigger.)
The Summer edition of the WCA List is out now. Click on this link to browse this term�s exciting programme of events.
We are always looking for volunteer's to help in the charity shop. Some information about what that involves can be found here.
We are pleased to be able to offer you the opportunity to join Wellington College Golf Club. Until now, all play on the golf course has been for pupil and staff golf members, and their introduced guests. Recently, it has become possible to extend membership to selected members of the College Community, which we have wanted to do for many years. There will only be two categories of membership other than current pupils and staff: Current parents and Old Wellingtonians (initially offered to members of OWGS). More details can be found here. Following the success of the Marrakesh Trip, the WCA are now taking bookings for the Amsterdam Trip from 14th May until 16th May. For more details and to reserve places please contact Denise Cook.
These are the last couple of weeks to be collecting school vouchers from Tesco and Sainsbury�s, for shopping and petrol. Please don�t say no to vouchers � they are going to a very good cause. We will be using then to purchase equipment to be shipped out to the Marol Academy in South Sudan. Get your family involved and please make these last two weeks count. Hand them on to the Wellesley to make this excellent use of them.
The Wellington College Parent Portal is up and running and all current parents should now have accounts. This means that parents can log on to our website from anywhere in the world and view their child�s reports, internal and external exam timetables, results and other relevant information. Besides being more convenient for parents it will, in the long term, allow us to cut down on the amount of printing we do - all part of our sustainability drive. Follow the instructions you have received and you should have access straight away. There is some information about the Portal here.
Sport.
Saturday 1st May is the chance for our cricketers to beat Harrow, our athletes compete in the Copenhagen Shield and the girls tennis play Hurstpierpoint.
Thursday 6th May sees the girls' cricket in action against against Pangbourne, the boys' tennis teams compete with Eton and the sailors take on Canford.
Saturday 8th May is a busy sporting day with cricket fixtures against Radley, girls' tennis against St Mary's Ascot, (and Pangbourne in a tournament) and the boys' tennis competing in the Independent Schools' League.
Further Ahead
The WCA Book Club meets for its inaugural session on Tuesday 11th May at 7:30pm in the Auchinleck Room. We will be discussing Stieg Larsson�s dark and compelling thriller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in an informal armchair session. Next half term�s title will be decided at the first session, where drinks will be served. Do join us. Any questions, please email Denise Cook.
We are now taking bookings for the WCA trip to Rome over a long weekend of September 30th to October 3rd. The trip will only run if there is sufficient early take up so please email Denise Cook or Mark Boobbyer by Friday May14th to express your interest.
The first Master's Lecture of the term is entitled "Russia" and is delivered by Sir Roderic Lyne, British Ambassador to the Russia Federation between 2000 and 2004 on Thursday 13th May at 8:00pm in the Driver Lecture Room. Sir Roderic Lyne is Deputy Chairman of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation, a member of the Board of Governors of Kingston University and a non-executive director of Petropavlovsk. He is currently a member of the Chilcot inquiry into circumstances leading up to the war in Iraq in 2003 and its aftermath, having been appointed to the Privy Council in 2009.
On Friday 14th May at 7:45 pm in the Old Gym, we have the Montgomery Competition to look forward to. Finalists Gudjon Bodvarsson, Emma Buckley, Alex Goodwin, Leesu Kim, Jonny Leon, Ji Hyun Park, Lucinda Patrick-Patel and Trishan Vaikunthanathan compete for Wellington College�s most prestigious music prize � please come along and share the tension at this highlighted event.
Another Master's Lecture is on Wednesday 19th May at 8:00pm in the Driver Lecture Room and Lieutenant-General Jonathon Riley CB DSO PhD MA is talking on "Napoleon as a General".
Do you want to know more about how parents can further their own well-being as well as that of their children? On Thursday 20th May, WCA is hosting a lecture by Yasmine Diba on �Emotional Intelligence� at 8:00pm in the Driver Lecture Room. Numbers are limited so please contact Denise Cook to register your interest by May 5th. For more details see the List.
Third Form Grandparents Day is on Sunday 23rd May. We are fully aware of the role grandparents play in the life of our students and the importance of the extended family and would like to take this opportunity to invite grandparents of our Third Formers to visit Wellington College, have a tour and see some of what their grandchildren do here. A letter with more detail can be found here - you should have had a copy in the End of Term booklet. If you would like to come, please contact Mrs Sally Yarnton by Friday 7th May.
A diary date for all Upper VI pupils and parents is the Leavers� Service, Graduation Ceremony and Ball on Friday 2nd July. This event runs from 1:30 pm onwards with two graduation ceremonies an breaks for tea, followed by a champagne reception in houses and dinner and ball in the marquee. For those parents who will only be able to attend the Graduation Ceremony in Chapel (i.e. between3:00pm to 6:15pm), the occasion will be free of charge, and there is no need to apply for tickets. For those pupils and parents attending the whole event, the charge will be �80 per person for the dinner and ball to include half a bottle of wine per person. Please note, leavers will only be able to apply for dinner and ball tickets if their parents are attending or with a nominated guardian from the pupil�s house. Details and booking forms should be with you but a copy of some information can be found here. If you have any queries please contact Tarla Woolhouse, Event Organiser on 01344 444085.
Last Sunday The Sunday Times launched the inaugural Festival of Education, to be held here at Wellington on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th July of this year. This Festival will be featuring a series of keynote speakers, panel discussions, debates and seminars on the widest range of issues, including Higher Education and admissions, creativity in the curriculum, the need for greater school choice, preparing a 21st century workforce and how the latest neuroscience can inform learning in the classroom. Speakers include Lord Puttnam, the Rt Hon David Blunkett, Fi Glover, Sir Dexter Hutt, Sir Anthony Cleaver, Professor Guy Claxton, Toby Young and the Rt Hon David Willetts MP. In addition Intelligence2 will be hosting its third debate with us entitled 'You don't need a good education to lead the good life'. Germaine Greer and Kelvin Mackenzie will be amongst those debating the motion. It will be a wonderful, fun weekend of lively debate and is being launched this weekend in The Sunday Times. The Festival has its own website www.festivalofeducation.org.uk . Click here for a copy of the article from The Sunday Times. We hope that you can support this great event - tickets are now on sale!
From the Archives : Our most famous Old Wellingtonian?
We have just found a photo of the Blucher in 1917, which shows Eric Blair, aka George Orwell - the small boy seated on the ground on the left as you look at the group photograph to the right and enlarged on the left. He is probably the best known writer of the 20th Century, notably of Homage to Catalonia, A Clergyman�s Daughter, Animal Farm, The Road to Wigan Pier and Nineteen eighty four.
Little is known of his stay in the Blucher, apart from the fact that 1917 was probably the most dismal year of the College�s history, being so bound up by association with the course of the Great War. Wartime austerities must have been keenly felt. Could some of the material for Nineteen eighty four have come from the Wellington experience of 1917, one wonders.
Later that year, young Eric was awarded a scholarship to Eton - a good school where our own Duke also spent his youth. There he was friend of Bobby Longden, later Master of Wellington. The rest is literature, biography and history.
With thanks to Patrick Mileham for the material.
Letters Home
To try to cut down on the amount of paper we send out and to try and not bombard parents with large numbers of posting, e-mails and information generally, we try to use the Week Ahead to include letters we would normally send out - either electronically or by post. If there are parents who would still rather receive everything on paper, please e-mail the College Secretary. We still anticipate sending out paper copies of reports, bills and the Master's letters. To open some of these letters you will need to log on to the intranet as the page they are saved on is only viewable to those in the Wellington community. Do contact me if you need the password.. All letters home of this sort are stored here. If for any reason you want to see a back copy of the Week Ahead they are all available on the internet here.
Contact us
This newsletter and past editions are on the Wellington College website as is a version of the school calendar with details of all activities going on at Wellington for the rest of this term.
If you do not wish to receive further copies of this weekly newsletter, please accept our apologies for sending it to you unsolicited and press here to unsubscribe. If you want it sent to another e-mail address or you know someone wants a copy of it but is not receiving it at present then please click here. If you have any comments about the newsletter please click here.
