The Week Ahead

Saturday 3rd October until Sunday 11th October

The WOW weekend provided the pupils with a wide ranging set of opportunities, images of some of which are below.The weather certainly helped! Not to be outdone the WCA's 'WOW' weekend was  the Waterloo '09 trip. Eighty parents attended, led by Richard Holmes and Dr Seldon and organised by Denise Cook; a truly memorable event, in spite of the Brussels one way system! For details of more trips, contact Denise Cook.  With St. Paul's the day before it was a busy week. Some images at the service at St. Paul's can be found below through the Newsletter.

The Master's Voice.

Wellington and history.  Wellington College is deeply imbued with the recent history of our nation, as three events in the last few days have reminded us yet again.  Last Thursday, the entire school travelled to St Paul's for our 150th anniversary service, together with the new Wellington Academy.  The Duke of Wellington is buried at St Paul's, and it is very much our spiritual home.  Over the weekend, 80 parents came with Denise Cook and me on the WCA trip to the battlefields of Waterloo, with Richard Holmes as our guest lecturer.  On Wednesday evening, Brigadier James Cowan, OW, spoke about his imminent deployment to Helmand province, where he will be engaged in leading vital counter-insurgency operations.  The service and sacrifice of Wellingtonians throughout the 150 years have helped make Britain what it is today.  The tradition of service runs deep in our blood stream.

General Events

The 150th Anniversary on line auction in aid of Hope and Homes for Children began to upload its first lots this Thursday 1st October. Can you think of something to donate? If everyone gets involved, then together we can raise a lot! Popular items, besides the highly desirable holiday homes, are work experience and professional advice, as well as skills, tickets meals and services. Importantly, both donors and bidders can remain anonymous if they wish. For more details, please contact Denise Cook  or go to the on line auction page on our  website.

Saturday 3rd October sees the start of a Leave Out weekend with pupils being free to go home after their sporting commitments. We welcome the boarders back on Monday 5th October at 9:15 pm.

A reminder from the Head of 5th Form and Head of Careers that next week the Fifth Form (and some new Lower 6th) will be doing their ISCO Futurewise profiling on the morning of Tuesday 6th October.  This is the beginning of the process that culminates in a full report and interview later in the term and helps inform subject choices for the sixth form, future university courses and highlights potential career areas.

There are three Masterclasses by eminent musicians this week. On Wednesday 7th October, we have the distinguished flautist Ian Clarke visiting Wellington College to work with flute players from 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm.  He will also be working with GCSE musicians at 4:30 pm. If you would like to hear his astounding playing (multi-phonics, flutter-tonguing etc.) then you can hear him perform some of his pieces at 5:30 pm in the Concert Room. More information about him can be found at www.ianclarke.net .

On Thursday 8th October, we welcome back the eminent baritone Roderick Williams  to work with some of our singers form 2:30 pm until  5:00 pm. Roderick performs all round the world, on radio and CD.  You cna found out more about him at www.ingpen.co.uk/artist_detail.php?aid=111

On Friday 9th October, we welcome the London Mozart Players to work with the orchestra in the afternoon.  The presentation concert starts at 7:30 pm in the Old Gym directed by Hilary Davan Wetton.  Wellington College has a special relationship with the LMP and the music department is looking forward to this event very much. For further information about any of these events, please make contact with Katrina Butt (Music Administrator) via phone (01344 444201) or email.

The evening of Saturday 10th October is a closed one for the Third, Fourth and Fifth forms as we are holding our annual "Rumble in the Jungle" - a fund raiser for our Round Square charities.

For those Lower Sixth parents who want to get to know other parents in their child's year group on Sunday 11th October, do come along for an informal WCA supper and a glass or two at the Lower 6th Parents' supper night at Wellington, from 7.30pm.  £12 per person.  For details of either (or both!) events, please contact Denise Cook .

Sunday 11th October sees a Full School Service of the Word in the Chapel at 8:00 pm to which the parents of the Hill are cordially invited. The preacher is the Reverend David Picken, the Diocese of Oxford Inter-faith officer.

A whole school photograph and the house photographs that were taken recently are now available to view and order on line  To  view and order your own copy of these  pictures, go to the web address www.tspc-shop.co.uk/groups and then you need the following usernames and passwords - for the whole school photograph the username is welling and the password is 2009school and for the house photographs the user name is welling and the password is house2009.  After you log-in to the whole school photograph, click the 'add photographs' button on the left of the screen to enter the username and password that you have also been given for your House photographs. This makes it easier for you to see all of your pictures on one screen. You can zoom-in to see a close up of your pictures and click on various frame styles to see how they look. All prices include free delivery to a UK address (overseas delivery is also available). If there is a problem viewing the site please contact the company and not me!

We are still looking for the best solution for sending out the Week Ahead. This week it will again 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.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported last Friday's Coffee Morning in aid of Macmillan - by providing the delicious cakes and goodies, helping on the stalls and generally supporting the event as well as making most generous donations. We are still collecting in but it looks as though we will be forwarding a donation of over £1,200 from the event. For those who still need to reclaim cake storage tins - they are in the entry lobby of the Bursar's office.

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.

Do you know any bright, well-organised graduates who would be available for some work experience at Wellington?   The Master is currently looking for two recent graduates to work together on a research project for a major activity in 2010, starting immediately for about a month.  Although it is unpaid, it will be an excellent addition to a CV. The graduates will need to be able to come daily to College by car or train. A particular interest in the media and publishing is desirable. Please call Dr David James on 01344 444193, or email daj@wellingtoncollege.org.uk for more information.

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

Saturday 3rd October sees a big hockey fixture with Sevenoaks and a rugby block fixture with Sherborne, as well as a few additional rugby games with Berkhamstead and Abingdon.

On Tuesday 6th October a hockey team welcomes Sevenoaks, the squash team welcome Harrow and the golf teams travel to both Tonbridge and Charterhouse.

Thursday 8th October sees the rackets team travel to St. Paul's, the golf team to Marlborough and the HMC golf foursomes take on Reading Blue Coat school.

The rugby block fixture on Saturday 10th October is with Cheltenham whilst the hockey fixture is with Dauntsey's. In addition the golf team compete with Berks, Bucks and Oxon U18 team and the badminton team take on our own WCSSC.

The Director of Sport sent out a letter to all parents recently. A copy can be found here.

Details of the matches can be found on the intranet.

Further Ahead

Here is a head's up for the fourth Form and their parents! The deadline for handing in your Master's Prize project is on Monday 12th October at 6:00 pm. The Exhibition will be held in Great School on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th October from 6:00 pm until 10:00 pm for all to see the exhibits. There will be more than 160 projects on show and it promises to be another fantastic array of diverse ideas and creations. The Head of Fourth Form would like to invite all parents to view the projects on Thursday and Friday during the opening times along with a glass of wine. Please contact Jonathan White  if there are any issues.

On Sunday 11th October in the WCA List we had the Master's London Walk with a chance to join Dr Seldon on a walking tour through London's literary and historical heartland, with lunch at St Katherine's Dock. For a variety of reasons and people this date has proved problematic and so it has been postponed until Sunday 15th November. Apologies for the change.

Wellington College Theatre announces a special premiere of "Boney and the Billy Ruffians". Adapted by Dr Hetty Clews fromThe Poor Gentleman by George Colman and Raising the Wind by James Kenney as performed in front of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Midshipmen and Ladies of HMS Bellerophon on the occasion of his being transported from France to Britain before his exile in St Helena. Performances will be held in The Theatre at 7:30 pm on Wednesday 14th October, Thursday 15th October and Friday 16th October. Tickets are available at £5 for adults and £3 for students from BoxOffice@wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Tuesday 13th October is the Upper Sixth Parents' conference. Detials about it can be found here.

The Music school would like to draw your attention to the following dates later in this term: Wednesday 14th October, 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Chapel Choir sings Evensong; Thursday 15th October - Prep Schools' Orchestral Day at Wellington College
For further information about the Music Department or music events, please make contact with Katrina Butt (Music Administrator) via phone (01344 444201) or email.

Wellington College is hosting a Conference on Social Enterprise on Thursday 15th October. The key note speaker, Tim Smit of the Eden Project, is an inspirational leader and Phil Wall (HopeHIV) is a charismatic speaker and together they promises to make for a vibrant and memorable conference. The conference is open to all parents and senior students with an interest in the values of Enterprise and Leadership. For further details or to book your place contact Brynn Bayman .

As for Master's Lectures later this term on Friday 6th November we welcome Robert Hardman (OW) Journalist and Author , who is talking to "Modern Monarchy in the Media Age" and then on Thursday 19th November we have "An Evening with Iain Duncan Smith, MP".

Baroness Cox of Queensbury will present 'The Story of South Sudan' at a lecture to parents on Monday 9th November.  She is also hoping to thank and inspire Wellington further in its support for building a school in South Sudan.  To reserve a seat or for further information please e-mail Naomi Pendle.

Wellington Squared is a new partnership between Wellington College and Intelligence Squared, the world's leading forum for debate. We'll be bringing the greatest authorities to Wellington to battle it out over the crucial issues of the day and you'll get the chance to cast your vote at the end of the evening. Our first debate is'Atheism is the new fundamentalism' on Sunday 29th November.  Doors open at 6:00 pm and the debate will start at 7:00 pm. Does God exist? Has atheism replaced religion as the faith of the secular age? Are the new atheists as blinkered and dogmatic as they claim religious believers to be?

Speakers for the motion are Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford (and OW!), and Charles Moore, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. Speakers against the motion are Richard Dawkins, Professor Emeritus at Oxford University and best-selling author of 'The God Delusion' and A C Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at the University of London. The debate will be chaired by the Master. Detials of how you may obtain tickets will be announced nearer the time.

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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