The Week Ahead

Saturday 27th September until Sunday 5th October

General Events

The WOW weekend provided a very different weekend for the pupils last weekend. There are some images of the Lower Sixth trips on the intranet here. 

One of the ultimate boys' (or girls') toys dropped into Wellington this Wednesday - flown by an Old Wellingtonian. The Apache is currently a very important machine in  both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Saturday 27th September is the start of a Weekend Leave. We look forward to welcoming back your sons  and daughters  by 9:15 p.m. on Monday 29th September refreshed after a restful weekend.

The parents' prayer meeting  scheduled in the calendar for Monday 29th September in the Blucher private side will now be held between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Please note the changed times. All are welcome.

On Tuesday 30th September, Remus Azoitei (Violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music) will be visiting Wellington College to give five of our pupils a violin lesson and masterclass. The pupils participating are Jonny Leon (Bl), Possum Eckhardt (O), Ji Hyun Park (Ap), Lucinda Patrick-Patel (O) and Leesu Kim (Bl). The sessions will take place in the Lewis Room (1st floor of the Music School) from 11:00 a.m. until 12:45 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. until  2:15 p.m.

On Wednesday 1st October at 7:30 p.m.a Spanish Theatre company are coming to give a performance of 'El camino de Santiago' in the Theatre.  You don't need to speak much Spanish to understand what's going on as they use lots of visual effects. It will be a great show! Tickets cost £5 (students) and £7.50 (adults) andcan be ordered by email info@wellingtoncollege.org.uk. 

Chester Williams, ex-Springbok will be on campus for a week from Sunday evening. He will be working with a number of PE classes and rugby sides. Chester will also be speaking to pupils and other interested parties about his time as a Springbok, apartheid generally and its specific impact on team selection in South Africa during his time as an international player. His address will be from 6.00pm on Wednesday 1st October in the Driver Room.

On Thursday 2nd October a new business networking group called The Business Forum will be launched and will be based in the Wellesley dining room at Wellington College. Building a trusted network of business contacts is crucial for most businesses and The Business Forum will help to expand your network as well as provide a forum for discussion of some key business topics of relevance to all businesses. The launch event on Thursday 2 October, from 7:15 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. will have "Is your business recession proof? - a Barrow Boy's guide to surviving a recession" as the theme and a brief talk will be given by Paul Lower FCMA, who has over 20 years experience as Financial Director for several international entertainment, media and retail companies. He will the  lead a discussion based around the theme calling on attendees to put forward their own views or experiences. The Business Forum will meet once a month on the first Thursday of each month at 7:15 a.m.  finishing at 9:15 a.m. Each meeting will give attendees a chance to network, introduce themselves and participate in the forum. The cost, which includes a full English breakfast, is £18. More information and a booking form can be found on www.thebusinessforum.biz. or by contact Sue Heddon .

On Friday 3rd October Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer OBE (a Picton parent) will be coming in to talk to Politics students, and interested others, in the Driver Lecture Room at 6:00 p.m.  Tim will be talking about international relations, international security and foreign policy and basing much of his talk on personal experience - from active service in the Falklands to his current role as founder and chief executive of AEGIS, one of the largest international security and risk management companies in the world.  It promises to be a fascinating evening: please e-mail Nick Gallop if you are a parent who would like (free) seats reserved.

Also on Friday 3rd October, the Wellington College Orchestra under the baton of their conductor, Hilary Davan Wetton will be rehearsing from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. in the Old Gym. An 'Open Rehearsal' will then follow at 8:00 p.m. to which you are warmly invited. The calendared Orchestral Master class will be postponed until later in the term.

On Sunday 5th October, the Master will be leading a London Walk which will be a Dickens, Shakespeare, Fire of London and Royal walk, seven miles along the banks of the Thames starting at 10:25 a.m. at Waterloo and ending at Kensington Gardens at 5.30pm.   There is a bus leaving Wellington at 8:45 a.m. if you wantto start there. There will be readings from Wordsworth, Dickens, Ackroyd and many others, and all walkers will be given a booklet with maps and descriptions.  Spaces are limited to 20, and there will be a lunch in St Catherine's Dock by a waterside restaurant at midday.   Dogs are welcome, as long as they do not out-walk Toby, who is very sensitive..   To reserve a place, contact Liz Watters via tw@wellingtoncollege.org.uk.

On Sunday 5th October, there is a full school Eucharistat 8:00 p.m. at which the preacher is Mark Boobbyer, Housemaster of the Blucher. Blucher parents are warmly invited to attend.

All parents of pupils studying Latin, Greek or Classical Civilisation in the 4th form and 5th form and the top two sets in the 3rd form, should have received letters about the classics department trip to Italy next February, based in Rome and the Bay of Naples. Deposits need to be in by the end of September. If anyone has not received the letter please contact Mark Boobbyer .

Our thanks to all parents who joined staff, friends, pupils today for the Macmillan Coffee Morning that launched the opening of the new social area, as well as those who provided many of the tempting and delicious goodies available.  Donations are still coming in but so far £860 has been raised which will be forwarded to Macmillan Support. The  V & A  is the name being given, for the moment, to the College new social area  It is in the heart of College and accessed either by coming along North Front and in through the Bicycle Gate ( towards Chapel) or from the Princes' Quad.  It will be opening for business properly on Tuesday 30th September. The V & A is open to all members of the College community, including parents ( although we recommend that you avoid morning break!) and from Monday to Friday it will be open from 9 :30 a.m. until 12:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. until 10 p.m. It will also be open on Saturday mornings. There will be a pizza service after Prep in the evenings and all items will be available for eat-in or take-away. Initially, payment needs to be by cash or credit/debit card  and the Grubbies accounts cannot be used in the V & A. We are exploring the introduction of a cashless or top-up type card system.  The uses for this new facility will develop but,primarily, it will provide somewhere for the pupils to socialise, particularly after Prep.

Recycling in the girls' houses is taking on a new dimension.  They are collecting 'old clean' bras for charity. For each kilo collected the Phyllis Tuckwell  Hospice in Farnham will receive £1. There are bra banks in each of the girl's houses and we would be grateful if you could donate any unwanted/old bras. Also there is a very good charity, the Ethiopia Tights Appeal. that is collecting old [but clean] pairs of tights to send to the Addis Ababa Fistula hospital where they are reincarnated as vital medical supplies. Your retired hosiery really could save lives by keeping post-op bandages in place.  Please contact Carole Blunden-Lee for further details.

On Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.  by appointment  there is the opportunity for consultations with the Educational Support Department regarding your child's specific educational needs. Please email Carole Blunden-Lee to make an appointment .

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

Sport

Saturday 27th September sees a rugby fixture with Sherborne and a hockey fixture with Bradfield.

Sunday 28th September sees an Interschools show-jumping competition at Wellington Stables near the Wellington memorial by Stratfield Saye. We have a team entered and the event starts at 9:00 a.m.

On Tuesday 30th September, the 2nd XI hockey travel to Charterhouse and the U15A travel to Kingston Grammar School. The golf team are at Worplesdon whilst the rackets team welcome Clifton.

Thursday 2nd October sees the golf team contiune thier travels with a match against Tonbridge, the squash team take on Winchester and the netball compete at St. Gabriel's.

On Saturday 4th October the rugby fixture is  with Oakham and  Bedford whilst the hockey teams  stay closer to home with fixtures against Lord Wandsworth and Sevenoaks. The golf team compete in a county U18 competition whilst the badminton team welcome Harrow.

Rugby and Hockey fixtures and results can be found on the Wellington College Intranet and the rugby results are on the internet as are those of hockey.

Further Ahead 

Tickets are now available for the Gordon Giltrap concert on Friday 10th October at 8:00 p.m.  Gordon is a world-renowned guitarist and he is very pleased to be making a return visit to Wellington - he will be working with young guitar players during the afternoon.  Tickets cost £10 (students: £2) and are available from Reception (01344 444000) or from the Music School (01344 444201).

Callum Oliver(S),  Rhys Howells(Hg ) and Henry Pinto(OW)  will all be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in October of this year with their respective fathers.  Climbing Kilimanjaro is an extreme challenge spread over an eight day period.  The team will walk from lush rain forest to mountain moorland, through  volcanic  desert to the snow and ice encrusted volcanic crater and the summit of 5895 metres,  where the  air is thin and conditions are arctic. This is a challenge not to be taken lightly and will take everyone to their  mental and physical limits.  Each will have to cope with  altitude and  camping in extreme weather conditions as well as the climb itself. The team aim to raise £50,000 for education and skills training in South Africa.  A justgiving web site has been set up if anyone would like to sponsor them http://www.justgiving.com/honey-badgers.

The ISSSC trip (Independent Ski and Snowboard Championships) is all set to go, departing on Monday 15th December and returning on Saturday 20th December. There are still places available on this trip and if your son/daughter is interested, please contact bct@wellingtoncollege.org.uk as soon as possible.The British Schoolboys' International Races will take place from the 25th to the 27th January 2009  in Meiringen, Switzerland. The British Schoolgirls' Races will take place on the same weekend in Flaine. The British Interschool's Ski Challenge, which is a mixed trip, is set for the 9th and 10th March 2009, in Chamonix, Les Houches, France. We are still awaiting booking details and prices for the British Schoolboys, British Schoolgirls and Interschool's Races. As soon as they become available we will contact pupils and parents and get the ball rolling. In each case, we will leave a couple of days before the races to allow for some coaching and training. The deadlines will be tight so put the dates in your diary and watch this space! We are also looking into pre-season race training on the dry slopes (possibly Aldershot and Milton Keynes) as well as fitness sessions. Trips to the dry ski slopes will be at extra cost and will also depend on the interest we generate. With your support and encouragement, we hope to really raise Wellington's profile in skiing. Further details regarding all the above, will follow on the intranet.

To finish with a review not a preview, this is a shot of a scene from the school's powerful production of Arthur Miller's  play "A View from the Bridge".