The week Ahead
Sunday 4th March until Sunday 11th March
General Events
First of all - an apology. I think two of the links were set up poorly last week and as a consequence did not work. If I find this out, I do try to update the version on the web and so you should be able to still use them. If not, it means I haven't spotted it and so do please contact me to tell me!
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.
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. This link takes you to a list of the exhibitors.
On Monday 5th March Toby Ranger will perform his A level recital programme in the Concert Room at 6:15 p.m. Toby will play the clarinet and also sing - it is sure to be an entertaining recital, so please try to come along. There will also be performances by Poppy Deakin, Harry Willis, Katie Booth, James Lyne - and Amy Tress will give us a preview of the Mendelssohn Violin concerto, 1st movement, which she will be playing in full with a professional orchestra on Sunday 18th March.
Ensembles Galore in the concert in the Old Gym on Friday 9th March at 8:00 p.m. This is a concert to highlight the work of the many ensembles of the Music School - Concert Band, Junior and Senior Percussion Ensembles, Clarinet Choir, Junior Brass, Camerata, Junior Woodwind Ensemble, Saxophone Octet, Senior Brass Quintet, Chamber Choir. All these groups rehearse weekly to be able to present this programme of music ranging from Handel and Sibelius to Joplin and Ellington. It certainly should have something to please everyone.
Saturday 10th March is a closed evening for the whole of the Lower Sixth Form as a dinner has been organised for them.
Sunday 11th March sees a full School Eucharist at 8:00 p.m. at which the preacher is the Revd. Dr. Adrian Chatfield, Tutor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Parents of boys in the Lynedoch are warmly invited to attend.
Also on Sunday 11th March, Leesu Kim (violin), Trishan Vaikunthanathan (clarinet), Claire Sledd (violin), William Wei (piano) and Amy Tress (violin) will be participating in the Reading Symphony Orchestra 2007 Young Musician Competition. This will take place at Bradfield College in Berkshire, starting from 12:30 p m and the winner will be announced around 5:30 p.m. Please come and support them in their quest as they represent Wellington College.
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
For those who get this email in time, parents and Wellingtonians would be welcome to come and support the OWRFC in their key top-of-the-table Surrey League 1 match against the ambitious London South Africa on Saturday 3 March. The game is at OWRFC's 'home' ground at Old Haileyburian RFC, 27 Ruxley Lane, Ewell, Surrey KT19 0JB. This is just off the A3 so parents taking their children back to London on Weekend Leave will be passing right by at just the right time! Kick off is at 2:30 p.m. For those who miss the game, you will find the result here next week. As evidence of the strength of O.W. rugby, several are playing the sport professionally - this link takes you to an article about the latest one.
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.
On Tuesday 6th March the rackets team make the journey to Cheltenham whilst the netball teams are closer to home at St. Mary's Ascot.
On Thursday 8th March, the netball teams travel to Lord Wandsworth, some football teams and basketball teams play Harrow, the squash and golf teams play Winchester and the shooting team compete with Charterhouse.
From Thursday 8th March to Sunday 11th March , two teams of cadets are heading off to Aviemore in Scotland to compete in Operation Snow Lion. This is the annual Army skiing competition which, for cadets, consists of the Giant Slalom only. Each team has 4 member, the best 3 count towards the team score. This is the first time Wellington College has entered this competition and, despite losing our top skiers to the Inter-Schools tournament in Les Houches, we hope to bring back some silverware
On Friday 9th March another small group of skiers leave for Les Contamines, near Chamonix, where they are staying with the Hopkinsons in their chalet. They are training and then taking part in the British inter-schools ski challenge at les Houches on the 12th and 13th March; if anyone's in the area, the race office is at the Etoile des Nieges. Wellington did well in the Christmas races in les Deux Alpes - this will be altogether a tougher competition.
Saturday 10th March sees the hockey and football teams playing Radley, the netball teams playing Hurstpierpoint and Epsom, the badminton team competing in a pentagonal (?!) match and the cross-country team running in the Brunivels Trophy. Finally the basketball team plays the O.W.s in the Newsome Hall.
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
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.
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. Tickets are going very well and most have gone but there are still a few available. Details can be found here and an booking form is here. For further details contact Reena Price or phone 01628 622355.