The Week Ahead
Sunday 25th February until Sunday 4th March
General Events
With the second half of term so brief, and with such a long Master's letter covering all key areas that went out at the beginning of this term, the Master sees no need for a half term letter. He would, however, like to remind parents of the two major events next term: the St Paul's Service on 4th May, at 2;30 p.m., and Speech Day, on 26th May, at 9:00 a.m. He would very much like all parents to attend both events, and spaces are going very quickly indeed. Tickets are available by contacting Tarla Woolhouse (01344 444 4085). A full end of term letter will be sent out in four weeks.
Sunday 25th February sees a full School Service of The Word at 8:00 p.m. at which the preacher is the Revd. Lisa Cornwell, the vicar of St. John's Crowthorne. Parents of boys in the Hopetoun are warmly invited to attend.
On Monday 26th February Emily Winkworth will be performing her A level Recital programme (flute and voice) at 6:15 p.m. in the Concert Room, followed by the usual Monday Informal Concert (this week's performers will be Joey Nam, Harry Willis, Illias Thoms, Molly Gray, Tom Allison and James Robinson). It would be lovely to see more people at these Monday concerts so if you can come along at this time of day, the pupils would be very appreciative of your support.
On Tuesday 27th February, Christine Hamilton is talking to the pupils at 6:00 p.m. in Great School. She was very surprised to be invited to talk at a school. There will be nothing so formal as a "lecture". She describes herself and her husband as "double act". There is little doubt that the most exciting aspect of this event will be the question and answer session. The vague title Christine has given is "Life is what happens when you try to make plans". Therewill be a mixture of politics, the media, conspiracy and scandal. If you would like to attend please contact James Breen as we need to ensure that there will be space.
On Wednesday 28th February, the army school's liaison officer is visiting Wellington. If any parent wants their son or daughter to see him, please read this letter and they should e-mail Eddy Heddon.
Also on Wednesday 28th February in Great School at 8:00 p.m. Sir Martin Gilbert is giving a W.C.A. lecture entitled "History of the Somme". Sir Martin Gilbert is Winston Churchill's official biographer and a leading historian of the modern world. Author of 77 books, he is an Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College, Michigan and is an expert on the 2nd World War. This talk is essential for all who are fascinated by the First World War. Further information can be found here. It is not necessary to pre-book, but if you are intending to attend we would appreciate it if you could email Tarla Woolhouse, Events Organiser. A pay bar will be available from 7:30p.m. onwards and copies of his book should be available for signing by cash purchase.
Running from Wednesday 28th of February to Friday 2nd of March at 7:30 p.m. in the Theatre is a production of "The Talented Mr Ripley". Amoral, ruthless and utterly charming, Tom Ripley is one of life's great survivors and when a chance encounter with Wealth and Privilege shows him a world he could only have ever dreamt of he is willing to possess it at any costs. Yet he had never accounted for Love in his plans, and soon a bloody chain of death, deceit and destruction is unleashed. One of literature's enduring works, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley offers a captivating window into the darkest elements of the human psyche. Set in a sleepy Italy still ill-at-ease with itself in the immediate post-war years, this exciting student production explores just how far Tom Ripley is willing to go to claim his new identity and shows that the distinction between Love and Hate is not as clear-cut as we might hope.Tickets for this performance are free of charge and are available by emailing Rob White. Please state who the tickets are for and for which performance.
On Thursday 1st March at 6:00 p.m. George Galloway M.P. is addressing the Upper Sixth Form. He has been formally asked to Wellington to talk about Islamic Affairs. There are of course a whole host of other topics he could touch on: his astonishing performance before the US Congress; his appearance on Big Brother; his controversial political campaign in the last General Election; and many others. The question and answer session should provide the evening's fireworks. If any parent wishes to attend, please e-mail James Breen to ensure we have enough space.
Tickets are now available for the Jazz Concert on Friday 2nd March - parents, and particularly those of musicians in the Jazz Orchestra and Wind Band are encouraged to apply to Ros Dunmore in the Music School for their tickets now as this concert is very popular in the local community. Tickets cost £7.50 and all money raised goes to the Crowthorne Community Minibus fund. The concert is at 8:00 p.m. in the Old Gym. Cheques should be made payable to Wellington College.
On Saturday 3rd March, the Leave Out weekend starts. For those without a sporting fixture and not in the Fifth Form, the weekend starts at 9:55 a.m. For the Fifth Form there is the Parents' Conference and details can by found here. The Leave Out ends at 9:15 p.m. on Sunday 4th March.
A group of parents have become involved in setting up a charity to help a school in Kaduna, Nigeria. They are holding an Irish Night on Saturday 3rd March (with an Irish band and caller) in aid of the Angels Choir which is a children's choir from Kaduna, Nigeria whom we hope to bring over to sing for us in a Gala Evening to be held here in October. We are also holding a Dinner Dance on Friday 1st June. For anyone interested in attending either event please contact either Sara Blosse or Clare Walters for further details.
On Sunday 4th March from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Sports Hall, Wellington hosts its annual Gap Fair (organised by ISCO). Over 50% of Wellington leavers take a Gap Year and this free event is an ideal way to see what sorts of things are on offer and talk to representatives from Gap organisations. This event is open to all, but is aimed mainly at the Sixth Form pupils. Parents, we strongly encourage you to come along with your children as you return them from the Weekend Leave.
The Second Master would like to remind parents again that they should not book flights before the end of term or before the beginning of Exeat. Likewise, flights should not be booked so that pupils arrive after the start of term or after Exeat. To do so causes disruption to both the academic progress of individual pupils and to the overall lesson planning and scheduling that the academic staff put in place to ensure the best coverage of the syllabus possible. If a parent finds that a flight might conflict with the published term date, we would ask that you contact the Second Master, Robin Dyer, in advance of finalising the travel arrangements.
We would be very pleased to hear from any parent who may be able assist in the Charity Shop, in particular for the afternoon sessions. The Charity Shop operates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings (10.40 - 11.10am), Monday and Friday afternoons (4.15 - 5.30pm) and Wednesday afternoons (2.30 - 5.30pm in two shifts). It is run by Parent Volunteers who have a lot of fun working together. If you want to find our more please read this letter and e-mail Sally Yarnton.
Please could any more requests for the 3rd Form French Trip come in? We have spaces for nearly all the year in a youth hostel in St Malo in Brittany from Sunday 24th June to late Thursday 28th June. Activities will include town tours, coastal walks, beach games and mountain biking. We will also visit the Normandy beaches and possibly Mont St Michel. If you need more information please contact David Edwards.
We are pleased to be able to offer parents a great new way of encouraging their children to read. Some parents will have received the Junior School reading list last holidays. All the recommended books have now been uploaded to a new book website Lovereading4schools.co.uk - a site set up by an Old Wellingtonian. Here parents and pupils will find opening extracts of the books and will be able to purchase their selection - all from one convenient place. All books are sold at a 25% discount and, on top of this, for every £100 spent in total by all Wellington parents, the College will receive a £5 book voucher to go towards the Library. Click here to go to our online book list or type in the url http://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk/viewschool/982/favourite. You will then need to register with an email address and personal password. For subsequent visits to the site, you will find the booklists are password protected - the password is "grubbies". We are sure your child will find nothing better to do at Half Term than read a book!
Sport
On Tuesday 27th February, our rackets team play Tonbridge, our cross country runners compete in the Ardingly relays, our golf team take on Marlborough and the netball team travel to St. Mary's Ascot.
Thursday 1st March sees our rackets team play Eton, our squash and basketball teams take on Charterhouse, our golf team compete in the first round of the Independent Schools' Golf Association knockout, the shooting team take on Marlborough and the fencing team fence Eton. (N.B. Change of opposition)
On Saturday 3rd March, the netball teams take on both Cheltenham Ladies College and Marlborough whilst the cross country runners compete in the Densham Cup at Coulsdon. Also on this day the rugby 1st XV are playing in the semi-final of the Under 18 Daily Mail Cup against Barnard Castle School. The game is at Castlecroft Stadium in Wolverhampton and kicks off at 1:00 p.m.
Sunday 4th March sees the start of the rugby 7s with tournaments for the colts and yearlings as well as the National Schools' Girls Polo Tournament and the squash 1st V schools' competition at Roehampton.
This link will take you to the Wellington intranet where details of hockey sports' fixtures (team lists, pitch details, etc) can be found. For netball click here for basketball click here and for football click here. To keep overall track on how the teams are doing click here for hockey, here for football and here for girls' netball.
Further Ahead
There will be an opportunity to hear many of the Music School ensembles at a concert on Friday 9th March in the Old Gym at 8 p.m. - wind, brass, string, percussion - admission is free.
Tickets are now available for the Drama Department's production of Little Shop of Horrors. The musical is a comic parody of 1950's B-Movies and features a fantastic cast and some great songs. The show is being performed on the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th March at 7:30pm. Tickets are free of charge and are available by emailing Rob White in the Theatre Box Office. Please note that seating is reserved, so book early.
On Wednesday 14th March at 7.45 p.m. the Round Square Committee will be hosting a World Café discussion event: 'Towards A Green Wellington'. This will be an opportunity for all interested members of the Wellington community to join in a structured sequence of discussion groups whose purpose is to pool ideas for an environmentally friendly school. You can learn more about the 'World Café' format here. Places in the Café will be allocated on a 'first come first served' basis so if you have expertise, ideas, or are just plain interested please email Ant Peter, our 'Green Czar' .
Buy your tickets now for the Choral Concert on Sunday 18th March to celebrate Elgar's 150th anniversary. The concert is at 7.30 p.m. in the Sports Hall and tickets cost £10 (students / young people: £1). Wellington College singers, parents and staff join with Crowthorne Choral Society and West Forest Sinfonia to perform Elgar's stirring Coronation Ode, as well as Give unto the Lord and the poignant For the Fallen. Soloists include George Humphreys (OW) and two of our singing teachers, Andrew Yeats and Elisabeth Toye. A particular highlight of the concert will be the performance by Amy Tress (Orange) of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64.
Please send a cheque payable to Wellington College to Ros Dunmore at the Music School, or, if more convenient, you can also obtain tickets from College Reception.
The orchestra of Westminster School, South Australia will be touring in the UK in April this year and will be visiting Wellington from Wednesday 25 April to Saturday 28 April. These school trips of course can only take place if the pupils are accommodated by host schools and whilst we have been able to find some places on site for the 33 pupils concerned, we are still short of beds. The Music School would be very grateful if any parents, and in particular parents of Wellington musicians, could offer accommodation. Many offers of accommodation for the visitors have been gratefully received - but we still need a few more beds so please get in touch with Ros Dunmore if you live nearby and are able to help. Dates are Wednesday 25th to Saturday 28th April - 3 nights bed & breakfast - or just the bed! The group will arrive at about 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday 25th and will depart after breakfast on Saturday 28th. Most meals could be taken in College so the demands would not be too great. The pupils would need to be delivered to College in the mornings and picked up from College on the Thursday and Friday evenings after their concerts (approximately 9:45 p.m.).
From the 11th May to the 13th May the W.C.A. are running a trenches trip. We've had a great response to this and it is nearly full. An application form went out with the Master's beginning of term letter or you can e-mail Bill Price for one. At present there are only four places still available on the trip (2 couples or 4 singles) and we have to finalise bookings with the hotels in the next week. Applications will be dealt with on a first-come-first-served basis or by ballot if necessary.
Further ahead there is the Summer Ball on Friday 25th May. The sale of tickets are going very well and most have gone but there are still a few tickets available. Please send in your forms and cheques to avoid disappointment. PLEASE, PLEASE, COMPLETE THE BOOKING FORM IN BLOCK CAPITALS WITH THE FULL NAMES OF GUESTS, THE HOUSE NAME, AND PLEASE SEND AN S.A.E. SO WE CAN SEND YOU YOUR TICKETS. This event, like any others take up a lot of time and effort in terms of organisation and doing the above would be very much appreciated and help us hugely. Tickets are £90 each. For further details contact Reena Price or phone 01628 622355.