The Week Ahead
Sunday 9th September until Sunday 16th September
General Events
Saturday 8th September is a closed evening for the Third Form and the Lower Sixth with events laid on for them. For the Lower Sixth this is a dinner dance and so do please get your son to bring back a Dinner Jacket or Suit and your daughter the equivalent. On Sunday 9th September, we are organising a walk from Stratfield Saye - the seat of the Duke of Wellington - to Wellington for our new Lower Sixth Form pupils. If any parents would like to join us in a very rural 12 mile walk , please contact me.
Sunday 9th September sees the first Full School Eucharist of the year to which parents of the Hill are warmly invited. The preacher is the Master.
The Music School is looking forward to an exciting term of events and would like to invite you all to the first concert in our newly refurbished concert room on Monday 10th September at 6.15 p.m. when our Head of Jazz Studies, Michael Roberts, will perform with some of our visiting instrumental teachers - Pete Cook on saxophone, Ray Smith on percussion and Dave Harvey on bass guitar. Please try to come along as they are all fantastic musicians and it should be a really exciting session.
The first Round Square Committee meeting of the term will be on Wednesday 12th September at 7.30pm in the Driver Lecture Room. Any parents interested in attending should contact Graham Nurser.
From September 2008 Wellington will offer the International Baccalaureate as a choice alongside A Levels. This is an exciting step forward for the College and a superb opportunity for our 6th Form pupils. As part of our preparations, representatives from IB Organisation will be coming to accredit the College on Thursday, 13 September. They would like to meet with any parents interested in the IB, partly to hear their views on Wellington but also to answer questions about the diploma programme. We are looking for about eight families to attend, particularly from the 5th and 4th Forms. If you would like to join the meeting, which will take place in our new IB Offices at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, then please contact Dr David James, Director of IB (+44(0)1344 444193).
On Friday 14th September, Simon Williamson (Director of Music) and Oliver King (College Organist) will perform an organ recital - which they have entitled "Some French music, a dance and a trifle"...for further explanation please try to go along! It will be in the Chapel at 8 p.m.
On Sunday 16th September there is a Full School Service of the Word to which parents of the Hopetoun are warmly invited. The preacher is the Chaplain.
In trying to improve communication between home and school, you can now access the school intranet from outside school. Its address is https://intranet.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/. Note the S in https ! This is a SECURE website, because you may be logging on or filling in forms. To begin with, you will only see 'public' pages. You should see a LOGIN link near the top of the screen. By clicking it, the computer will check who you are and will try to give you access to more pages - ones which are password protected. Because you are at home, the computer cannot check who you are, therefore it will ask you for your details. Staff and pupils at Wellington should use their own college username and password. We have supplied a username and password for parents. The username is Victoria and the password is the name of the person on the plaque outside the RITS. You have to type this name in CAPITALS. Your son or daughter will be able to find out this name if they don't know but if we gave it out in this newsletter, then it would not be secure! When you click on the login button, you will be challenged for a username and password. If you see two boxes, please type COLLEGE and a back slash prior to your user name. If you see three boxes, please type COLLEGE into the third (Domain) box instead. This information will go on the intranet as a reminder, on this page. One of the pages just put up that you will need to log on to is a page of letters home. It now includes the end of term material. There is also a draft version of the school calendar available here.
Sport
Saturday 8th September sees our first rugby block fixture and it is against Whitgift College. On this day the girls will be having their hockey trials.
On Sunday 9th September, our Junior Colts team are entering the South Coast King's Rugby Tournament.
Tuesday 11th September sees the start of the rackets season with a fixture against Harrow and the Golf team compete in the H.M.C. Foursomes at Ardingly on that day too.
Thursday 13th September is the turn of the squash team playing K.C.S. Wimbledon and the golf team are in action against Radley.
The girls hockey season starts on Saturday 15th September with a block fixture against Pangbourne and the rugby teams take on Dulwich and Shiplake on the same day. To finish a busy week, the badminton team play the Oratory.
All of our Rugby and Girls' hockey results will be on the schools sport website again this year.
Further Ahead
A date for the diaries of new parents is Sunday 23rd September with the Wellington College Association Drinks and Canapés Party for New Parents from 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for the Wellington College Association to welcome new parents to Wellington, and for new parents to meet and get to know the W.C.A. Committee members and Common Room staff over an informal drink in one of Wellington's most historic rooms - Great School. To assist us with numbers please email Tarla Woolhouse with "W.C.A. Drinks and Canapés" in the subject box.
Looking further ahead from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th November, Ian Botes, a Wellington parent and member of the W.C.A. committee, is leading a pre-Christmas trip to Vienna for 30-40 parents, staff and friends of Wellington College. If you are interested please contact Tarla Woolhouse (+44 (0)1344 444085) or Ian Botes for further details. The cost for the inclusive break is £475 per person with a single supplement of £65. The programme is outlined on the college website. To book contact Kevin Collins or Suzanne Wade at Weekend a la Carte (01722 744695) The deadline is the 30th September.
Towards the end of term we have two closed weekends for a year group when we are running two trips aimed at our boarders to the West End to see a "big" show. The dates are Saturday 1st December for the Fifth Form and Saturday 8th December for the Third Form. The pupils have certainly enjoyed these trips in the past and are being asked now if they wish to go as we need to book tickets as soon as possible. The cost will be in the region of £50 per head. If for any reason you do not wish your son or daughter to go on one of these trips, please e-mail John Arton-Powell.