The Week Ahead

Friday 29th January until Sunday 7th February

If you get the chance do take a look at the exhibition of Art Scholars' work in the V & A. Below are three examples of the huge variety of exciting artwork there.

Whilst on the Arts theme, I must promote the RDFZ Performance Art Troupe visit to Wellington on Monday 8th February. As I said with more details below, it promises to be one of THE events of the Wellington year.

The Master's Voice

Home/school communication. This week, Edelman launched their annual ‘trust barometer’ for 2010, which shows, predictably, continuing low trust in politicians and business, though with significant signs of recovery in the latter.  One of the core findings is the importance of the leader being open and accessible to customers (in our case parents).  I know how much as parents you value being able to communicate with me (I deal with five or more parental emails, letters and phone calls a day, and try and seize every opportunity I can when you are in at matches, parents evenings house events, etc, to greet you personally).  To help my recognition of you all, I toyed with the idea of asking for parental photographs, but declined it on the grounds that it would be an administrative nightmare, and probably very unpopular with you!  The termly Parents’ Forum is a very good vehicle for scooping up parental concerns, and communicating back to parents.  I also find the WCA trips (Marrakesh and Amsterdam are the next two) a lovely way to get to know parents and communicate at more leisure.   A Head is obviously not the prime point of contact for routine matters, which are dealt with by housemasters and housemistresses or tutors, but I do hope you realise that I am always here on the end of a phone, or in front of a screen, if you have any matters that you wish to raise, or indeed to meet me in person.  A Head is pulled in many directions, but I put listening to parents (and indeed your children) very high on my list, and believe that Edelman is absolutely right in talking about the importance of this relationship.

Parents are advised that there is a site called chatroulette sweeping the school circuit currently that we feel is not ideal for your children to be viewing. It should be closed off from the school network now, although there has been a second address pop up to try and get around our filters. Clearly your sons and daughters on home computers can also access this site.

General Events

The Fifth Form Parents' Conference will be held on Friday 29th January in the Newsome Sports Hall. The event coincides with Weekend Leave. This is a chance for you to talk to those who teach your sons or daughters for their GCSE subjects, to get an update on their progress. It is also an opportunity, of course, to continue discussion about their IB/A level choices. The timings are as follows: 4:30 - 5:15 pmParents' Interviews; 5:15 - 5:30 pmAddress from the Master and Head of Year; 5:30 - 7:00 pmParents' Interviews. In the days leading up to the Conference, pupils will organise a series of appointment times with their teachers to last no more than 4 minutes. Tea and coffee will be served for the duration andCressida Henderson looks forward to catching up with many of you there. Any questions to Mrs Sally Yarnton, Senior Academic Administrator please.

A small number of LVIth parents were unable to make the November conference, and opted instead to meet teachers at this one. The Head of LVIth, Murray Fowler, would like to ask all those LVIth parents who intend to do this to contact him so that he can ensure that the relevant teachers are present.

The Weekend Leave starts for pupils after their last commitment on Friday 29th January- either at 4:15 pm or after the Conference depending upon which year group is involved. We look forward to welcoming back your sons and daughters by 9:15 pm on Sunday 31st January.

On Monday 1st February at 5:00 pm in Great School, Geoffrey Beedham is giving a talk on "Crime and Criminal Law" to all interested pupils and parents – no tickets or pre-booking required, just come along.

Unfortunately the calendar entry for the Master’s Lecture on Cosmology on Tuesday February 2nd on has been postponed.

On Wednesday 3rd February, you are all warmly invited to 'Animated Gallery', a celebration of the Arts at Wellington. The evening will include music, art, film, poetry and stories, drama and dance, most of it the pupils' own created work. Start time is 8:00 pm in Old Hall (note the change of venue); admission is free.

One of our mothers is helping to organise an event in London on Wednesday 3rd February to raise funds to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. There are details here in a pdf file here. If you want to know more please contact Nikki Leader.

The History Boys production dates have changed since the Calendar went to press last term. It was first scheduled for this week but the new dates of Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th and Friday 26th February, as published in this term's Arts Diary, are the correct ones. Tickets are now available from boxoffice@wellingtoncollege.org.uk..

The next meeting of the business networking group The Business Forum will be on Thursday 4th February at 7:15 am in the Wellesley Dining Room. The theme for the February event will be "Do your presentations achieve maximum impact? Learn the secrets and improve your effectiveness” and the talk will be given by Peter Francis, Director of On Your Feet. Many business presentations are poorly thought out and consequently under-deliver on expectations. The talk and subsequent discussion will outline the elements required to construct and deliver successful presentations. 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.

The House Singing Competition on Saturday 6th February (a closed Saturday night for the whole school as there is a chapel service for all bar day pupils on Sunday morning) has a limited number of tickets available to parents. Applications for those tickets should be made through the Music Department

10:00 pm on Sunday 7th February sees a Full School Mattins at which the preacher is Miss Naomi Pendle, who left the teaching staff here last term. Parents of pupils in the Hardinge are warmly invited to attend..

Also on Sunday 7th February sixteen Music Scholars will be going to South Hill Park - the local Art's Centre - to perform a short recital at 3:00 pm . Tickets are available through South Hill Park 01344 484123 or southhillpark.org.uk

Don’t miss the WCA’s Wine Tasting and Diamonds evening at 7:30 pm on Sunday 7th February in the Monro Pavilion.Re-acquaint yourself with some old favourites while discovering new ones under the expert guidance of Laithwaite’s wine team – stock your cellar or just enjoy an evening of good wine tasting. Also a chance to browse look over a selection of fine diamond jewellery: any sales made on the night will be at 50% discount on the retail price – just in time for Valentine’s Day! Limited entry, £20 per head. Please book through Denise Cook .

On Sunday 17th January the school heard a Chapel presentation from Mrs. Fay Cox, Operations Director of Wind, Sand and Stars, concerning a trip to Cairo and the Sinai Desert to be hosted by the Senior Chaplain, Fr Tim Novis. This trip will occur during the October half-term break. If you and/or your son/daughter are interested, kindly return the information requested, found on this letter of invitation.

The college is taking an Expedition to the Namib Desert over the October half term 2010. It is only open to present 5th form and L6th students and a desire to explore the Wilderness and Africa’s Wild Life are essential prerequisites. If you are interested in sending your son/ daughter and have not yet replied to Brynn Bayman , please do so before half term. The trip will be led by the world famous National Geographic photographers, Peter and Beverly Pickford and will include nights in the desert and a visit to Etosha national park. This is an opportunity of a life time for any student with a sense of adventure and a desire to go to places of extreme natural beauty.

The Head of Educational Support is available for consultations on Saturdays from 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm.  Please contact Carole Blunden-Lee  if you would like to see her then.

Sport.

On Tuesday 2nd February, in a calendar addition, the Junior Colts rugby team  face Sherborne School (away) in Round 7 of the Daily Mail Cup, Kick off will be at 2.30pm. Also on that day, the lacrosse teams travel to Epsom, the rackets pairs welcome Haileybury and the polo team take on Stowe. Thursday 4th February sees the junior golfers take on Harrow.

Saturday 6th February has three block fixtures: netball with Cranleigh; hockey with Tonbridge; football with St. John's Leatherhead. Also the cross country team compete in the Wellington relays, the basketball teams travel to Bradfield and the badminton team to Abingdon.

Details of the matches can be found on the intranet.

Further Ahead

Wellington College is delighted to welcome the RDFZ Students’ Art Group on Monday 8th February. The High School Affiliated to Renmin University (RDFZ) Performance Art Troupe (37 students) will be performing martial arts, dance and singing in a 90 minute programme that will simply astound you! The RDFZ school with which we have many links is THE top scool in Bejing, if not the whole of China.The standard of these young people is simply breath taking and this is a rare opportunity to appreciate diversity of culture and art. For any one interested in music, dance, performance or China itself, it is an occasion not to be missed! Tickets are on sale from Wednesday 27th January (£10/£5 concession) and only 350 places are available. Don’t miss out! It will be one of the events of the Wellington year.

The Brass masterclass with James Watson on Monday 8th February has been postponed to next term, but the informal concert will still go ahead as planned for the same evening.

On Wednesday 10th February we welcome Lord Justice (Sir Alan Moses) to give a Master's Lecture entitled "Wiggery Pokery" in the Driver Lecture Room at 8:00 pm. He is the current Lord Justice of Appeal. Sir Alan Moses was QC for the prosecution in the notorious Matrix Churchill trial in 1992; In 2003 he was trial judge at the Old Bailey in the Soham case of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr in connection with the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Among the trials he has presided over as a judge at the prosecution of the MI5 officer David Shayler for passing classified information and documents to the press in breach of the Official Secrets Act. Sir Alan Moses has an artistic side and loves opera and choral singing. His favorite transport is a Harley Davidson motorcycle!

Also on Wednesday 10th February, from 5:00 pm until 6:00 pm, the Modern Foreign Languages Department has invited a (different to RDFZ!)  Chinese professional troupe, with acrobats, singers, martial arts masters and musicians, for a great show in the Theatre. It is free of charge and the objective is to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Third Form Parents’ Conference will be held on Friday 12th February in the Newsome (Sports) Hall. The event coincides with the start of Half Term. This is a chance for you to talk to those who teach your sons or daughters for their subjects, and to get an update on their progress. The Conference will also help with the MYP and GCSE decision-making process. Conference timings are as follows: 4.30 – 5.15pmParents’ Interviews; 5.15 – 5.30pmAddress from the Master and Head of Year; 5.30 – 7.00pmParents’ Interviews. In the days leading up to the Conference, pupils will organise a series of appointment times with their teachers, to last no more than 4 minutes, Tea and coffee will be served for the duration and we look forward to catching up with many of you there. For catering purposes please reply via email to Mrs Sally Yarnton, Senior Academic Administrator,by Friday 5th February.

Wellington Squared is a partnership between Wellington College and Intelligence Squared, the world's leading forum for debate. Last November 1600 people came to hear Richard Dawkins and other panelists battle it out over whether atheism is the new fundamentalism. Our next debate is "The prophets of global warming are guilty of scaremongering" in the Chapel on Sunday 21st February. Doors open at 6pm. The debate will start at 7pm. First we had the debunking of many of the claims made by Al Gore in his film “An Inconvenient Truth”; more recently there’ve been accusations that leaked emails exchanged by scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit show they colluded to manipulate the data on climate change; and now we have “glaciergate” –the revelation that the latest report on global warming by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contained exaggerated claims about the melting of Himalayan glaciers. Are these events just blips and blunders that distract from the real and urgent need to tackle climate change, or have the  “experts” been culpably alarmist in order to draw attention to their cause?  Speakers for the motion are David Davis, Conservative MP for for Haltemprice & Howden and Philip Stott, Professor Emeritus of Biogeography at SOAS. Speakers against the motion are David Aaronovitch, Author and columnist on The Times and Mark Lynas, Environmentalist and campaigner and author of "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet". The debate will be chaired by the Master. Ticket details will be announced on www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk and www.intelligencesquared.com soon. For further details please contact: Dr David James.

On Monday 22nd February there will be a Well-being session for parents, which looks at the issue of drug abuse. Elizabeth Burton-Phillips will tell the story of how her twin sons became addicted to heroin and the effects it had on her family life. Whilst drug misuse is on the decline amongst teenagers and drug addiction is still relatively rare, it is important to remind ourselves of the dangers of drug abuse and how easy it can be for some young people to fall into the trap of addiction. You can find out information ahead of time by going to: www.twentyquid.com. The talk begins at 8:00 pm, in the Theatre and will last for approximately one hour. If you would like to reserve a place, please contact Tarla Woolhouse.

Wednesday 24th February sees a Master's Lecture delivered by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (OW) entitled "My Life and Work" in the Driver Lecture Room at 8:00 pm.  He graduated with Honours from the Architectural Association in 1965 and immediately started his own practice. His buildings of the 60s and 70s gained recognition for their innovative approach to construction and detailing. Grimshaw was formed in 1980 and over time has cemented a reputation for rational building that draws on rigorous engineering combined with the fundamental principles of architecture and a profound understanding of the materials. He has lectured in 21 countries worldwide. He is a registered architect in England, France, Germany, Spain and New York. Sir Nicholas Grimshaw was elected a Royal Academician in 1994 and President of the Royal Academy in 2004. He is also an Honorary fellow of the AIA. He was knighted in 2002 and continues to actively lead his practice as Chairman of the Board.

"If you can go there with your mind you can go there with your body ". Uri Geller will be part of a double bill of an inspirational management conference at Eagle House School on Tuesday 9th March and you are cordially invited to attend. Although the morning session is about education methods, Russell Prue, the IT evangelist, is renowned for his presentations in the commercial world. Details of the conference can be found at http://www.dcbeagle.com/smtconf.htm or contact Douglas Buchanan at douglas@dcbeagle.com.

On Thursday 11th March at 8:00 pm we welcome Professor Howard Gardner who is giving a lecture entitled "Five Minds – How to Function Successfully in the 21st Century", Eminent psychologist Howard Gardner's theory on multiple intelligences has set the agenda in the psychology and educational theory communities for twenty five years. Now Gardner discusses the five cognitive abilities (the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind and the ethical mind) which equip a person to deal with what is expected in the future, as well as what cannot be anticipated.5 Minds for the Future inspires lifelong learning and provides valuable insights for developing leaders - today and tomorrow, skills that will be sought and cultivated by leaders in the years ahead. The venue is the Theatre and tickets cost £20 per person (£10 for students) For bookings you download the booking form at www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/eventsandlectures or reserve tickets by contacting Reception on 01344 444000 – quoting Ref: X43333. You are also able to purchase a copy of 5 Minds for the Future for £15 + £2.50 (p&p).

Wellington is organising a joint staff and pupil leadership conference on Tuesday 16th March. If any parents are willing to present on the importance of service leadership in business for this conference, please would they get in touch with Katy Granville-Chapman ?

The Choral Society and Choral Concert will be on Sunday 21st March. Parents and friends are warmly invited to join the 'Wellington Chorus' to sing Karl Jenkins' Requiem. Copies of music are provided, and there are no auditions! Rehearsals begin on 18th January from 8:00 pm until10:00pm. Please contact the Music Department if you would like to be involved.

The summer PHAB course at Wellington is modeled on the very successful courses running at Westminster and Merchant Taylors. It will run from Tuesday to Sunday and involves both disabled guests and volunteer student hosts from Wellington's Lower Sixth year group. The students will be the guests' carers for the week as well as work with them on a variety of tasks and challenges. The emphasis of the week is fun for all within a structured programme of workshops and activities. There is a huge shortage of such courses in the UK. The opportunity will present the guests and student hosts with an unforgettable experience while also giving the families a break from the 24/7 job of caring for a disabled relative.

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.
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