7 - 16 Mar
The Week Ahead
Friday 7th March until Sunday 16th March
General Events
All 3rd form parents should have received a copy of the Joining the Middle School booklet detailing the procedures for GCSE choices. The deadline for pupils to tell their tutors of their choices is Friday 14th March. The Third Form Parents Conference is on Friday 7th March and is starting at 3:30 p.m. We look forward to seeing you in the Chapel then. Whilst on the subject of the Third Form, please do continue to send in the replies expressing interest in the summer trip to Brittany.
Friday 7th March also sees the start of the Weekend Leave. This experiment of a Weekend Leave going from Friday afternoon through to Sunday night (not Monday whatever your son or daughter might say!) arises from parental suggestions. We hope it works well and would welcome any comments.
On Sunday March 9th in the Sports Hall from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. there is the GAP Fair. We encourage LVIth and UVIth Form pupils to come along with parents as they return from the weekend leave. Also siblings and friends from outside Wellington are most welcome. For details of exhibitors please click here.
Also on that Sunday evening there is the Orange House Entertainment Event in the Old Gym at 7:00 p.m. to raise funds for the Nabukenya Primary school in Uganda. The Orange parents have all been invited but any other interested parents are welcome to attend.
On Wednesday 12th March Tom Lowe will present an Organ Recital at 8:00 p.m. in College chapel. He will be playing music by Buxtehude, Bach and Mendelssohn, Franck, Langlais and Sark. Tom has won an organ scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford for September 08 so his recital will be well worth hearing.
The Picton will be performing their House Play on Thursday 13th March and Friday 14th March at 7.30pm. A one-act burst of intense energy, Twelve Angry Men represents the trial of a young delinquent boy accused of murdering his aggressive and abusive father. The twelve angry men are the jurors of a murder case. Eleven of the men believe the boy to be guilty; only one has doubts. Can he manage to convince the others? Please come to the Theatre to support this ambitious endeavour. Tickets on the door (£3) or book in advance from ndg@wellingtoncollege.org.uk
Tickets are now available for the "Jazz" concert on Friday 14th March in the Old Gym at 8:00 p.m. - an annual event to raise money for the Crowthorne Community Minibus. Performers will include the College Concert Band , the Clarinet Choir, Saxophone Quintet, all conducted by Jeff Oakes and the Wellington Big Band and small jazz ensembles directed by Ben Greenslade-Stanton, our current musician-in-residence. There will also be some solo items. It promises to a most entertaining line-up - tickets cost £7.50 and are available from the Music School and from Reception (cheques payable to Wellington College) - all proceeds go to the Crowthorne Community Minibus fund. There will be a licensed bar.
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.
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.
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
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
Saturday 8th March sees our U18 rugby side in the semi-final of the Daily Mail Rugby Cup. The match against Warwick School starts at 11:00 am at Banbury Rugby Club.
Saturday 8th March also sees Wellington cross country entered in the Ranelagh Trophy.
Three novice teams are competing in the National Novice Arena Polo Tournament at Longdole Polo Club on Sunday 9th March.
On Tuesday 11th March, there are hockey fixtures with Reed's School and Portsmouth Grammar School whilst on Thursday 13th March there are more hockey fixtures, this time against Kingston Grammar School. Also on that day, the netball teams take on Bradfield, the basketball team travel to Winchester, the rackets team are at home to Harrow and the fencers compete with RGS High Wycombe.
Tuesday 11th March and Wednesday 12th March sees the Rosslyn Park Sevens tournament for the U18 side whilst the U16 Tournament runs on Wednesday 16th March and Thursday 17th March.
The Daily Mail Rugby U15 Semi Final against Oundle is at 11 a.m. at Broadstreet RFC on Saturday 15th March.
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.
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
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!
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. 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 OW's 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.