The Week Ahead

Saturday 19th September until Sunday 27th September

The coming week is one of the highlights of the year with a combination of the St. Paul's Service on Thursday and the WOW weekend. The combination of our St. Paul's Service and Battle of Britain Sunday last Sunday meant I could not resist using one of the great images of the 20th century. I am sorry that there is no space for parents in the St. Paul's Service and we should have communicated better with you the fact that this aspect of the service is different to the last service we held at St. Paul's. The term flies by!

The Master's Voice

"The pupils are fiercely loyal to Wellington".  This was the overwhelming conclusion of the first meeting of Wellington College fellows, who met on Tuesday, having interviewed in groups a total of some eighty girls and boys about their experiences at the school.  The fellows consist of former governors such as Sir David Scholey and Lady Alice Renton, OWs including Sir Nicholas Grimshaw the architect and President of the Royal Academy and James O'Shaughnessy Director of Research and Policy at the Conservative party, local 'great and good', such as Berkshire's Lord Lieutenant, and the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, and prominent national figures from the arts, sport, business, politics and the law.  The panel included two television inquisitors, Peter Snow and Robin Oakley, both OWs, and parliamentarians including Lord Strathclyde OW, Leader of the Conservatives in the House of Lords.  They found the pupils to be overwhelmingly positive about their teachers, the facilities, the activities on offer, the atmosphere (not a sniff of bullying) and even about school food.  The only question marks they had were over whether the arts will be ever as strong as sport, whether humanities rank higher than the sciences, and whether we can ever have a properly in touch environment when our children are closeted in 400 acres of such beautiful parkland.  The aim of the fellows is to provide another hard-edged focus to help to keep us up to the mark, as well as providing an opportunity for those with goodwill towards the College to visit it at least once a year, and take part in a series of searching interviews with our pupils.

General Events

The official start of the WCA year is the New Parents' Welcome Reception on Sunday 20th September, from 7:30 pm in Great School, but it's not just for new parents! Why not take the chance to turn the Sunday night drop off into something more exciting by coming along and meeting other parents for an informal chat over canapés and a glass (or two!) of wine - a great chance to get to know everyone, and get to know everyone better.  Please drop Denise Cook an email to register your interest.

On Sunday 20th September there is a Full School Eucharist at which the preacher is the Chaplain. Parents of the Orange are warmly invited.

On Monday  21st September at 12:00 pm the telephone system will be taken off line to enable an essential software upgrade. We expect the telephone system  to be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes while this takes place. Please try not to phone during this period.

On Monday 21st September there will be an Informal Concert in the Concert Room (6:15 pm to 7:00 pm) - everyone is most welcome to attend. 

The calendared talk by Ben Bradshaw on the NHS on Monday 21st September is no longer happening as he is no longer anything to do with the NHS but is Cultural Secretary. A second change to the calendar is that the Mark Lawson talk on Tuesday 22nd September scheduled for Great School is now a Fireside Talk for pupils only. Apologies for the changes.

With the significant improvement in academic results here at Wellington, we very much hope that we will be able to assist those who are applying to Oxford and Cambridge for University in the coming years to gain places. For Current Applicants: The deadline for all UCAS information and personal statements is Wednesday 23rd September. For all in the Lower 6th: There will be a meeting for any student who is considering applying to either Oxford or Cambridge next year on Wednesday 23rd September at 7:30 pm. Please contact James Thomas, if you have any queries. There is also excellent information available on the intranet.

Join us as part of The Biggest Coffee Morning in the World. Wellington will be participating in this national event in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief. The date is Friday 25th September and please come to the V & A any time between 9:00 am and 12:00  pm for coffee, delicious treats, a raffle, sale table and a chance to meet up with old friends and new parents.  Any offers of Home Baking for sale would be most welcome - please contact the Bursar, Susan Meikle, either by email  or telephone 01344 444020

The whole school will be taking part in the WOW weekend from lunch time on Friday 25th September. The details are managed by the Heads of Year who you should contact if you want further details. Some information can be found on the intranet.

The Third Form will be be away at Wellington on Friday night and out on the Saturday night.
The Fourth Form are involved with the CCF and will be away all weekend.
The Fifth Form CCF are also away whilst those not in the CCF will be involved during the days in a full programme.
The Lower Sixth are busy planning all aspects of their camping/ walking trips for the WOW Weekend and will be away all weekend. We have made it clear to the pupils that their accommodation options are either tents, or, if they fancy a hint of luxury, a Youth Hostel! Last year several groups made use of holiday homes and so on - please do not say yes to such requests this year!
The Upper Sixth have a one day leadership programme and sessions on the UCAS University application process. They will be free form 6:00 pm on Saturday.

Sunday 27th September sees a Full School Service of the Word in the Chapel at 8:00 pm to which the parents of the Stanley are cordially invited. The preacher is John Woodburn form Gideon's International.

Last week it proved problematic sending out the Week Ahead. This week it will go out as a link to the internet page whilst we try and resolve the issues. One thing you can do is to ensure that my address, rca@wellingtoncollege.org.uk is in your list of contacts if it is not already.

The Panorama programme on 16th September talked about the vaccine for swine flu. The vaccine is not yet available to the public; it has not been fully tested and it has not yet been decided whether it should be offered as two jabs, three weeks apart, or just one jab, which ought to offer enough immunity. Once this has been agreed, and the government confirm who is to be given the vaccine, we will be able to ask for parental consent to give the vaccine to those under 16. Those over 16 are allowed to give consent themselves although we will seek to get parental consent for them too.

A polite request: could parents keep their dogs on leads and under control, throughout the College campus?  Many schools have banned dogs from games areas and we do not want to have to go this far and hope that we will not have to.

Two course Saturday Lunches for £5!? Parents and their children are most welcome to have lunch in the main College Dining Room on Saturdays, Perhaps this provides a good opportunity to meet up in the warm with other families before going out to support the afternoon matches.? Do come any time between 12:45 pm and 1:30 pm. Please make yourself known to the Duty Manager who will ask for your payment and explain the servery lay out and menus to you. (It is probably best to avoid Saturday 19th September and Saturday 10th October as these are terribly busy Visitors' days)

Likewise, parents are welcome to use the V & A café.  This is very much a facility for use by all members of the College community. The opening hours for the purchase of hot and cold drinks and snacks are Monday to Friday between 9:00am and 11:45 am and between 2:30 pm and 10:00 pm. It is also open on Saturday mornings between 9:00 am and 12:00 pm. It is advisable to avoid the morning break rush, 10:40 to 11:10. At lunchtime, 12:00 and 1:45, counter service is suspended for sales as this becomes an alternative to the Main Dining Hall for pupil and staff lunches. On Saturday afternoons and on Sundays, there is no counter service but the V & A is still open with flasks of tea and coffee available, free of charge.

For parents who had children at Wellington during the years 2001 - 2006 and these children are currently in High Education,  I remind you that applications for grants, for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies are welcomed by the Schools Competition Act Settlement Trust. Please refer to their website  for more information and for applications forms.

For parents who subscribe to the Schools' Fees Protection Insurance Scheme, offered through HBSC, we have recently been advised that in light of the current swine flu epidemic, with effect from 1 January 2010, there will be a 7 day excess applied to all claims for school closure. We certainly hope that our contingency plans will mean that we are not required to close, but we have been asked to draw this to parents' attention.

We produce a list of contacts for parents of other parents in your son or daughters year group and put it up on the intranet under a password that is only given out to those parents of the relevant year group.. The list includes a phone number, home town and e-mail addresses. We assume that everyone is happy to be included on this list unless they contact us so if you do not  wish your details to be put on this, please e-mail Nicole Hodge saying so. We shall assume, unless you tell us otherwise, that any parent who requested not to be on the list last year will remain off the list.

WANTED: Dynamic, friendly approachable and hard-working people to help advance the work and play of the WCA.  Duties include acting as a point of contact in your child's House, supporting school events as a WCA representative, communicating effectively with other parents and joining in the general frivolity of WCA life at Welly.
You need an excellent sense of humour, a desire for fun and a commitment to hard work and to Wellington.  For more information, contact Denise Cook, the WCA Chairman.

The Head of Educational Support is available for consultations on Saturdays from 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm.  Please contact  Carole Blunden-Lee by e-mail if you would like to see her then.

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.

Sport

The block fixture on Saturday 19th September is rugby against Dulwich, with extra fixtures with Tonbridge, the golfers take on Millfield and the badminton players welcome the Oratory.

Tuesday 22nd September sees a big hockey fixture with Pangbourne and Bradfield whilst the lacrosse teams take on Haileybury and the rackets team welcome Malvern.

With St. Paul's on Thursday and the WOW weekend on Saturday there are no more sport's fixtures in the week.

Detailsof the matches can be found on the intranet.

Further Ahead

For further information about the Music Department or music events, please make contact with Katrina Butt (Music Administrator) via phone (01344 444201) or email.
The Music school would like to draw your attention to the following dates later in this term:
7th October, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm  - Ian Clarke (flautist) visit to Wellington College
8th October, 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm  - Roderick Williams (baritone) visit to Wellington College
9th October, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm - London Mozart Players visit to Wellington College
14th October, 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Chapel Choir sings Evensong
15th October - Prep Schools' Orchestral Day at Wellington College

For the Archive perhaps?

Contact us

This newsletter and past editions are on the Wellington College website as is a version of the school calendar with details of all activities going on at Wellington for the rest of this term.
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