Friday 23rd January until Sunday 1st February
The 150th celebrations have started!
On Tuesday 20th January, exactly 150 years after the first pupils arrived, we were honoured with a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Wellington, the Duke on the left seen talking to our Vice President and his wife.
The visit was an opportunity for the Duke to re-open the Wellesley - the girls' day house that has his family name as its name.
It was also a day for the pupils with a special meal in the evening as well as other events.
We hope that for all the community it will be a year that is remembered, whether for the various events that are being put on or because of the significant amount of money that we will have raised for the charity, Hope and Homes, by the end of the year
The Master's Voice
A gem for parents.
The death last week of Sir John Mortimer, who gave a sparkling, intimate and hysterical presentation to the WCA last year, reminds me again of what a wonderful resource the WCA is. Thanks to the work of Ian Botes and his parental committee, and Denise Cook at the College, the society offers an extraordinary array of activities and events. In this particularly historic week, can I draw attention to the Waterloo trip on 26th-27th September, Edward Chaplin's talk on "Dealing with Dictators" on 5th February, Lady Jane Wellesley's talk on her family on 9th March, and the wonderful trip to Monet's gardens at Giverney from 24th to 26th April?
For further details see "The List" or the WCA website.
General Events
The Fifth Form Parents Conference is on Friday 23rd January and the relevant parents should have received a letter about it - if not a copy can be found here.
The weekend is a weekend leave starting at 4:20 p.m. on Friday 23rd January for all pupils other than those involved in the Fifth Form conference. We look forward to welcoming back the boarding pupils by 9:15 p.m. on Sunday 25th January.
The second WCA event of the term is a Golf Morning on Saturday 24th January. Do come and join us for a relaxed and sociable morning. If you are interested please contact David Rennie.
Satuday 31st January is a closed Saturday night as we have the inter-house song competition. This is where all the houses get their chance to become a (large) boys or girls band!
Sunday 1st February sees a full school Mattins at 10:00 a.m. at which the preacher is Kevin Chaplin, managing director of the Amy Biehl Foundation. Parents of the Talbot are invited to this service. The boarders may go on Leave Out after this service.
Parents are most welcome to have a school lunch in the Main College Dining Room on Saturdays. Lunches will be available to parents between 12: 30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. and the cost is £2.50 per head ( cash please) for a two-course lunch. Even if you will not be staying for a match do come along, make yourself known to the Duty Catering Manager who will guide you through the system. It is not the formal occasion that it used to be!
On Saturdays in the V & A the counter is open for coffee, tea, milkshakes and goodies between 9.00am - 12.00 Noon Between 12.00 and 10.00 pm the catering department will provide flasks of coffee and tea in the V & A for people to assist themselves. If you have any queries concerning these arrangements do either e-mail the Bursar ( 01344 444020) or the Catering Manager, Phillip Stockwell.
We had problems with hotmail accounts last week and it seems that the Week Ahead e-mail was blocked or sent to junk folders. Adding my e-mail address to your contacts should help but if the Week Ahead has not got through to a hotmail account, please e-mail Nicole Hodge.
Letters Home
To try and 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 plan to use this section of 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 - details are further up in this Week Ahead. 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.
The Master wrote to all parents in the first week of term. If you have not received a copy, it can be found electronically here.
On Saturday 14th March, there is a Sports Dinner for the girls and their parents. Here is a copy of the invite with more details.
Sport
On Friday 23rd January the boys ski team departs for the boys' British inter schools race at Meiringen whilst on Saturday 24th January the girls ski race team departs for Flaine to compete in the girls' British inter schools races.
On Sunday 25th January the polo 1st team are playing Marlborough and Millfield 1st teams in a 3-way tournament at Druids Lodge Arena, 2:00 p.m. start.
On Tuesday 27th January, some of our hockey teams take on Eton, the lacrosse team travel to Heathfield St. Mary's and the squash teams to Cranleigh.
Thursday 29th January sees more of our hockey teams and the squash teams take on Eton , the netball players travelling to St. Gabriel's, the rackets team welcome St. Paul's, the shooting and fencing teams compete with Marlborough. Also on this day the polo 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams are playing against Harrow at West Wycombe Arena with a 3: 30 p.m. start.
Saturday 31st January is the turn of the netball and basketball teams to take on Pangbourne, the hockey players compete withLord Wandsworth and the footballers playTonbridge. in addition there are the Wellington College cross country relays on, the shooting team travel to RGS Guildford and the badminton team travel to Harrow.
Finally on Sunday 1st February, the colts hockey team compete in the U16 County hockey tournament.
Netball, hockey and football fixtures and results can be found on the Wellington College Intranet.
Further Ahead
On Tuesday 3rd February from 7:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. in the Theatre there will be a talk on drugs and alcohol abuse amongst the young, open to all 4th and 5th form parents. After this there will be a chance for parents to talk further if they wish over a coffee or a glass of wine. A letter about this event can be found here. Some parents have had difficulties opening this - all we can think at this end is that the relevant computers do not have a recent copy of adobe on them. Click here to go to a site where you can download (free!) the latest version.
Tuesday 3rd February also provides an opportunity for parents to hear Patrick Mileham give a 150th Anniversary Lecture on "The College History". Patrick has just completed the latest college history and is giving a fascinating insight into the history of Wellington. The lecture is in Great School with a 7:30 p.m. for 8:00 p.m. start. Please contact Denise Cook if you wish to attend.
On Thursday 5th February in Great School we welcome Edward Chaplin CMG, OBE to give a lecture entitled "Dealing with Dictators". Currently he is Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Italian Republic and San Marino having taken up this appointment in October 2006. He is also an OW - Hopetoun 1964-68. He has dealt with a variety of dictatorial regimes during his career in the Diplomatic Service, including those of Robert Mugabe, Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein. As well as describing some of the success and failures of the past, he will reflect on how the international community might deal more effectively with dictators in the future. Please contact Tarla Woolhouse if you wish to attend.
On Monday 9th February in Great School we welcome Charles Crawford CMG to give a lecture entitled "Is Russia too big or too small?". Russia has had nearly eighteen years of its transition away from Soviet rule. How is it doing? Why does it matter? Is Russia doomed to be on the edge of Europe? Or is Europe doomed to be on the edge of Russia? From 1991-96 Charles Crawford served in the FCO and Moscow at the heart of the British policy response to the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is a leading international expert on the policy, practice and psychology of the 'transition' away from Communism in Europe. Please contact Tarla Woolhouse> if you wish to attend.
As part of our 150th celebrations we are trying to raise £150,000 for Hope and Homes - a charity that helps children whose lives have been ruined by war. We hope that one component of this will be an on-line auction. In particular this summer, inspired by an idea from the pupils, a group of pupils and staff are swimming the Channel in aid of Hope and Homes for Children and Berkshire Air Ambulance. To help raise money for such worthy charities, Eunice Gillan and Kitty Jack are organising a Promise Auction on Thursday 19th March at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Hall. Your help would be greatly appreciated by all! If you have a promise that could be auctioned that evening please contact Eunice Gillan. Many thanks for your help in advance! Tickets for the event will be available from the beginning of March - more details to follow.
Places on the WCA trips to Paris (24th to 26th April), the Trenches (15th to 17th May) and Waterloo (September 26th to 27th) are filling up fast. Contact Denise Cook to reserve your place.
There is a diving trip being run to the Red Sea between 26th June and 3rd July of this year. Currently there are twelve places left of this 'live-aboard' diving expedition out of Hurghada which is open to both parents and pupils. Interested parties should contact Eddy Heddon for further details. Dive qualification training will take place on Wednesday afternoons in the summer term. To get some idea of what the trip involves please view http://www.blueotwo.com/red_seaitineraries.cfm?itid=6
If any parent is interested in becoming involved with the Wellingtonian sailing trip between Cannes and Elba in early July to celebrate the 150th anniversary, raise funds for Hopes and homes and retrace Napoleons Bonaparte's return from exile plea e-mail Ian Frayne.
This is a final call for all 4th, 5th and L6th form Geographers who are interested in this unique 10-day tour of Japan. By now, parents should have received details of the trip by post - thank you to all those who have replied so far. We still have a limited number of places on the trip so if your son or daughter is interested in joining us on this high-tech, high speed geographical extravaganza, please contact me as soon as possible! If you want more details they can be found here.
From the 150th Anniversary Archive Collection
Sporting photos from the archives always have a curious feel.
It seems grossly unfair for those armed with only boxing gloves to be taking on a sabre. Or worse bare-handed for the boy sitting in the middle. Was there an old version of the pentathlon involving boxing and fencing?
As for the image on the right, sporting action shots are all too rare. This photo was taken during what is now called the Kingsley races when the boys still ran through the River Blackwater - several times I'm led to believe. This particular shot was taken in 1932.
Hockey being the main boys' sport of the term, below are three photos of the First Eleven. The top two are neither named nor dated so any help on that would be hugely appreciated. Do please contact me if you know! The images are small below , the original files can be found here and here. They will be considerably larger and clearer.
The one at the bottom was taken in 1978 and we do have the names. I know one of the team was involved in a Wellington story still talked about involving a local pub, a (stuffed) crocodile from the Biology department and a housemaster's rug. Many I suspect no longer have the same amount of hair!
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