General Events

Wellington College's inaugural Model United Nations conference (WellMUN) will be hosted by the school on Saturday 15th March.  Over 150 students, from a variety of schools, will be participating in this simulation of the United Nations.  Parents are more than welcome to look in on debates and speeches, held at various locations around the school.  For further details, please contact  Naomi Pendle. 

On Saturday 15th March, events are organised for the evening for the 3rd, 4th and 5th form and so it is  a closed Saturday night for them.

Sunday 16th March sees a morning Service of the Word for 3rd, 4th and 5th Form to which all parents are invited. The preacher is Mark Boobbyer, HM of the Blucher.

Please  get your tickets for what is going to be a stunning Choral Concert on Sunday 16th March in the Sports Hall (7.30 p.m. start).  Wellington College Chorus (including pupils, staff and parents) will join with Crowthorne Choral Society to sing the Mozart Requiem and the programme also includes Claire Sledd, a fantastic VIth form music scholar, playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor with the Chameleon Arts Orchestra. Simon Williamson.(fresh from directing the music for Les Miserables) says that this will be an amazing concert.  Not only will the choral singing be of a high quality but Claire, who has won a place to study violin next year at the Royal Academy of Music, is playing to an exceptionally high standard. Tickets for this concert are £10 (£2 for students)  - available from Reception and the Music School.

On Monday 17th March in the Driver Lecture Room at 7:30p.m. for 8:00 pm, Wellington Parent, Philip Stevens will present an introduction to the Battle of Verdun.    The greatest French battlefield since Waterloo, the scene that shaped French history from the middle of the First World War up to and beyond the Second World War.  It influenced the entire course of the war throughout 1916 and 1917, including the 'British' battles of The Somme and Passchendaele (3rd Battle of Ypres), and was a direct cause of the French mutinies of 1917.   A talk not to be missed! There is a pay bar available prior to the talk.  If you are intending to attend we would appreciate it if you could email Tarla Woolhouse so we can ensure we have the correct venue.

The term ends at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday 20th March and we look forward to welcoming the boarders back at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday 13th April and the day pupils back at 8:15 a.m. on Monday 14th April.

Thanks for all your support through the year to date and we hope that you and your family manage a restful Easter.

Increasingly we are putting information for parents on the school intranet set. In particular the handbook for pupils with information for both pupils and parents is now electronic and can be found under the section of the intranet called info@community. Some parents have had problems logging on to the intranet. You do need to click on the log -in link at the top right of the page. The general parents' username is COLLEGE\victoria (if you are offered three boxes COLLEGE is the domain and victoria is the username). The general parents' password is the name of the O.W. on the plaque by the Round Square noticeboard at Queen's Court and must be entered in capitals. Hopefully your son or daughter can supply that information. If not, then ask me! There is information on the intranet to help you and this can be found at http://intranet.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/login_help.htm

We are in the process of switching databases and for next term we will be using the new database to produce our mailing list. If you stop receiving the Week Ahead next term then please do contact me and I'll will try to sort it out. apologies if this does happen - the whole process is quite a complex one!

Next term's calendar has been finalised but unfortunately it looks unlikely that it will be printed in time for the end of term. Copies will therefore be with parents at the start of next term. All the current information on the dates can be found here.

Sport

The Daily Mail Rugby U15 Semi Final against Oundle is at 11 a.m. at  Broadstreet RFC on Saturday 15th March. We are hoping that they will join the seniors in reaching the final on Wednesday 2nd April against St. Benedict's at Twickenham at 3:30 p.m. Full details will appear on the website but tickets can be obtained from the R.F.U. on 020 8831 6668.

On Saturday 15th March, the big hockey and netball  fixtures are against Cheltenham College whilst the footballers take on Epsom and the cross-country team are at the Highgate School competition.

On Sunday 16th March, our polo team competes in the National School Championship with the  Xan Bryant,  Andreas Papoyans and Garvy Beh playing in the top division.

All week our rackets players are entered in the Public Schools' Doubles Championship at Queen's Club, London. Details can be obtained form Charles Oliphant-Callum. 

On Tuesday 18th March as well as the Kingsley races - the slightly bizarre race that ends up with the competitors crossing Swan Lake - the golf team are playing in the ISGA competition.

Also an exhibition squash match will be taking place on Tuesday 18th March between S. Meads (Best World Ranking 11th) and D. Lau (Hong Kong #1) at 3:30pm. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served. Contact  Brynn Bayman for further details.

On Wednesday 19th March, the hockey 1st XI end their season with a match at 4:15 p.m. against Portsmouth Grammar School.

All results can be found on the internet: Hockey; Netball; Football.

The Director of Sport would like to reiterate that pupils having a ticket for the Six Nations is not a reason for missing Saturday matches and indeed that the only valid reason to miss a match is for an important family commitment. In this instance three weeks' notice should be given. It is unfair on other pupils in the team if the teams are constantly in a state of flux.

Further Ahead

This talk will make a great precursor to the Parents Battlefield Trip to Verdun (with gastronomy) running from Thursday 8th May to Sunday 11th May. Philip will be leading this trip and if you are interested please contact  Philip on 0207 567 5698 or 01252 843397 or innings@aol.com 

From Friday 9th May to Sunday 11th May we are also running a WCA  Trenches Trip to First World War sites. Dennis Silk, former warden of Radley and President of the MCC,  an old friend, will be accompanying the Master on this tour, and will be talking in particular about the literary aspects of the First World War.  Dennis was an old friend of Siegfried Sassoon, and knows much about the poetry and prose of the war, and where it was written.  Also accompanying him will be Gerry Long, Adjutant - Wellington College, who has done much research in OW soldiering in the First World War -and will be pointing out various battlefield cemeteries and memorials where Old Wellingtonians fought.   Parents, staff, friends of Wellington and OWs are welcome to join this trip. Places still available. For details please contact Tarla Woolhouse, Events Organiser for details:  Tel: 01344 444085 or email: tw@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

On Friday 23rd May - the Eve of Speech Day - from 7:30pm - 1:00am is one of the social events of the year not to be missed - the WCA Summer Ball. Following the tremendous success of previous years' Summer Balls, the WCA is once again organising a Summer Ball  This is a superb evening, an event not to be missed before Speech Day, for parents, friends and OWs to enjoy excellent food and wine, first class musical entertainment, guest speaker, a busy bar and vibrant DJ music until a late hour.  Individual tickets cost £98.00. Tables of 10 or 12.  Parents are invited to put a table together, if you are not able to get a table together, do not be put off.  We can assure you of a warm welcome and a great night. Booking form and further details from: Reena Price, Tel: 01628 622355 Mobile: 07778 205 112 Email: reena_price@hotmail.com or Tarla Woolhouse at the College, Tel: 01344 444085 or tw@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Parents of pupils in the Lower Sixth should note that the Parents' Conference on Thursday 24th  April  will begin at 5:30 p.m. This will follow the new, more compact format adopted for these events, beginning with a central meeting in the Chapel at 5:30 p.m., followed by appointments with teachers, all of whom will be based in either the Old Gym or the Maths classrooms in Wellesley Quad. Please direct any queries to the Head of the LVIth, Murray Fowler.

There will be a Roman Catholic Confirmation in Crowthorne on Friday 6th June 2008 at 8:00 p.m.  and classes will start in March. If you wish your child to be confirmed please e mail Dr Boscher. Bishop Crispian, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth has agreed to celebrate Confirmation here at Wellington.

The Geography Department is running its 15th annual LVIth Field Trip to Serre Chevalier in the French Alps in the summer, from the 29th June to the 4th July. Please could parents of LVIth Geographers send back the relevant forms to Murray Fowler as soon as possible.