The Week Ahead
Saturday 24th April until Sunday 2nd May
Commiserations to all those involved with the volcanic ash cloud! As ever it has been a busy holidays with eleven residential trips taking away over 200 Wellingtonians. Some images from those trips can be seen below.
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The Master's Voice
A hospitable school. We take great pride at Wellington in being exceptionally hospitable to our guests and visitors. Match days are a particular opportunity for us to shine. Match Teas all this summer term will be at the Lodge in the Master�s garden (and drawing room) from 3:00pm until 5:30pm. You are very welcome indeed to come along for as long as you like. Do please make a feature of inviting spectators and guests from schools we are playing against. I myself am usually there between 4:00pm and 5:00pm, otherwise engaged in attempting the almost impossible feat of seeing all the girls� and boys� matches and events. In previous summer terms, our visitors have often not known where to go (let us try and change that from now on, even if it means they are asked five times!).
General Events
Sunday 25th April sees our first Full School Eucharist of the term with the preacher being Mark Boobbyer. Parents of the Blucher are warmly invited.
Our first Informal Concert of the term will take place at 6.15pm on Monday 26th April in the Concert Room � all are welcome to come along and support the Wellington College musicians.
On Tuesday 27th April from 1:00pm to 3.15pm in the Lewis Room (upstairs in the music department) William Bruce will be taking a �Cello Masterclass. This will include solo performances from Anton Crayton (R) and Eleanor Carolides (Hn). From 3.30 � 4.45pm in the Concert Room, there will be a �cello ensemble. The event is free � please feel free to pop in and support it.
The Fourth Form Conference is on Tuesday 27th April. Details were sent out in the End of Term booklet - a copy of which can be found here.
For our Prep Schools� Choral Day on Thursday 29th April, we look forward to welcoming the charismatic vocal trainer Ben Parry, who will lead a large gathering of young prep school pupils in a day of music making. There will be a short concert at 5.30pm in the Chapel to conclude the day, which anyone is welcome to attend.
On Thursday 29th April, the Creative Writing Group will be reading from their poetry and short story extracts from 9:15pm until 10:00pm in the Library. This is a very informal event, free of charge, to which pupils, staff and parents are warmly invited. Come and listen to some of Wellington�s original and creative minds at work!
We apologise but the Fifth Form parents should know that the Parents� Seminar scheduled for Thursday 29th April has had to be cancelled because the presenter is unable to get a flight from Australia in time.
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.
The Summer edition of the WCA List is out now. Click on this link or the picture to browse this term�s exciting programme of events.
The Parent's Forum meets twice a year for an hour and a half in the Master's Study, 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 personfrom 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.
We are always looking for volunteer's to help in the charity shop. Some information about what that involves can be found here.
Over the next few weeks and months, the Wellesley are collecting school vouchers in order to help purchase items for Marol Academy in South Sudan. So, if you�re at the supermarket, pick up as many school vouchers as you can and send them in to the Wellesley or leave them at Porters Lodge and help a great cause! Why don�t you get your family involved too!
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.
The Wellington College Parent Portal is up and running and all current parents should now have accounts. This means that parentscan 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 24th April sees our cricket and girls' tennisteams take to the field against Marlborough, (the calendared cricketYearlings 5th XI will become a joint Junior Colts / Yearlings 5th XI fixture away at Marlborough) our boys' tennis and athletic teams compete with Charterhouse, the girl athletes have trials here with some girls from Bradfield, the shooting team compete in the Clayton Challenge and the girls' sailing team take on St Helen and St Katherine's.
Also over the weekend the golf team defend their National Championship title at Oulton Hall in Leeds. The A team, who won the event last year, are joined by the B team, who have also qualified.
On Sunday 25th April the cricket 1st XI play the Free Foresters on Truf.
The girls' cricket team have their first match of the season against Cranleigh on Tuesday 27th April and on the same day the golf team also take on Cranleigh, the swimmers race Winchester, the sailors compete with Eton and the polo team have a competitive chukka with Cheltenham College.
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.
Further Ahead
This Summer for the first time we are running the whole of the inter-house athletics competition on a Sunday, Sunday 9th May. The weekend will be a closed one but parents are warmly invited to attend the event. More details can be seen on the poster to the right - if you can't read it click on the image and it should open larger and in a separate window.
Looking ahead to May, we have our Summer Gala Concert on Friday 7th May at 8.00pm and Montgomery Competition on Friday 14th May at 7.45pm, both held in the Old Gym. The Summer Gala Concert will see performances by the Orchestra, Camerata and Chapel Choir; and talented Winchester College Finalists compete for Wellington College�s most prestigious music prize in the Montgomery Competition � we hope you will be able to join us for these exciting events!
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.
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.
Another Master's Lec ture is on Wednesday 19th May at 8:00pm in thwe 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 Cookto 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 foundhere - 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 will be sent out shorlty but a copy of some informaton can be found here. If you have any queries please contact Tarla Woolhouse, Event Organiser on 01344 444085.
Together with The Sunday Times we are launching 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, which goes live this weekend, www.festivalofeducation.org.uk . We hope that you can support this great event!
Although it might seem a long way off, Friday 24th September sees a "Wellington at Wentworth" Golf Day. A rare chance to take your own 4 ball team onto the exclusive Edinburgh course at Wentworth, followed by gala dinner with guest speaker. Ideal for corporate entertainment or just a world class day out for serious golfers. Click here for details.
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 to express your interest.
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.
