The week ahead
Saturday 12th May until Sunday 20th May
General Events
On Sunday 13th May, there is a full school Service of the Word at which the preacher is the Chaplain. Parents of the Talbot are warmly invited. The Talbot, which is on duty in Chapel from Sunday, have chosen to support as their charity The Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
On Wednesday 16th May, the Schools' Liaison Officer for the Army is visiting Wellington. Further details can be found here and anyone who is interested in their son or daughter meeting him is asked to e-mail Eddy Heddon.
On Thursday 17th May there is a Master's Lecture at 8:00 p.m. in the Driver Lecture Rooms given by Michael Gove entitled "What a difference a Dave makes - what's happened to the Conservative Party under David Cameron". Michael is the Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath and Shadow Minister for Housing. He is also a leader writer for the Times, a reporter and a regular broadcaster - for example he is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze and BBC2's Newsnight Review. Michael ran an anti-street crime campaign in the Times with Frances Lawrence, wife of murdered headmaster, Philip Lawrence, which succeeded in establishing awards for good citizenship among the young and securing a ban on combat knives. He was chairman of the Policy Exchange from 2002 until 2005, a centre-right think tank responsible for innovative policies on policing, housing, local government, school choice and fighting terror. He also won the Charles Douglas-Home Prize for his guide to the Northern Ireland Peace Process and has published a biography of former Defence Secretary, Michael Portillo. All parents are warmly invited to this lecture - please e-mail Tarla Woolhouse if you are planning to attend.
The Lower Sixth will be out of school after lessons on Saturday 19th May and return to teaching on Monday 11th June whilst they sit their AS levels. The Fifth Form will be out of school after lessons on Friday 25th May attending Speech Day the day thereafter and will be on study leave for the rest of this term. The Upper Sixth will be on study leave after lessons on Saturday 9th June. For all year groups, pupils are expected to remain at Wellington for study leave as their teachers and the full academic facilities will be available for them to take advantage of during their final stages of revision and preparation for these important exams.
Wellington College's Social Entrepreneurship group, along with HopeHIV, would like to encourage you to enter our David Beckham Raffle. A group of ten Third Form pupils are currently hard at work selling £1 raffle tickets in aid of orphans in Africa. All profits from the raffle go directly towards the HopeHIV organisation which does such remarkable work within Africa helping those who have lost their parents due to the HIV virus. Tickets are just £1 with the prize of an authentic David Beckham signed England football jersey for the winner. If you would like to support our young businessmen and women, as well as give yourself a chance of winning a very valuable piece of memorabilia, please email Peter Murison before Saturday 19th May.
On Sunday 20th May, there is a full school Service of the Word at which the preacher is the Master. Parents of the Apsley are warmly invited.
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.
Sport
On Saturday 12th May, the cricket sides play Harrow, the athletics teams compete at Eton, the senior tennis team play in the Public Schools league whilst the other tennis teams take on Winchester as do the swimmers. Finally the sailing team take on the might of the O.W.s and the C.C.F. has entered the Windsor Horse Show Jumping competition. The Master is away for much of the weekend on the W.C.A. Trenches visit but is leaving Ypres to come back for the O.W. Gaudy on Saturday afternoon and will also be at the match teas which are in the Lodge. The laburnum walk on the college side of the Lodge garden is particularly impressive at the present and he recommends all who can on Saturday to walk it!
On Sunday 13th May the C.C.F. competes in the Cadet Target Rifle Competition at the Ash Ranges.
Tuesday 15th May sees our girls' tennis teams take on St. George's Ascot whilst the junior golfers compete with Winchester. Thursday 17th May is also a busy sporting day with the cricketers playing Winchester, the girls' cricket team playing Charterhouse, the athletics and golf teams competing at Radley, the sailing team competing with Eton and the swimming teams travelling to Harrow.
To end the sporting week, on Saturday 19th May, the cricketers play Cranleigh, the athletics team compete in the Duke's Trophy Triathlon, the girls' tennis teams play Sevenoaks whilst the boys' tennis teams play a variety of schools, the swimming team swim against Cranleigh, the shooters take part in the Sawyer Cup and the sailing team compete in the Southern Regatta.
This link will take you to the Wellington intranet where details of cricket sports' fixtures (team lists, pitch details, etc) can be found. For other sports click here and select sports from the menu at the top of the page. This then offers you the choice of sports available. To keep overall track on how the teams are doing click here for cricket.
Further Ahead
Friday 25th May sees the "Eve of Speech Day" jazz concert in the Combermere Quad at 7:30 p.m. The Big Band and jazz ensembles play under Michael Roberts' direction as does the Concert Band under Jeff Oakes. Fish and chips are available as is a bar.
There is also the Summer Ball on Friday 25th May. There are still a few tickets available. Details can be found here and a booking form is here. For further details contact Reena Price or phone 01628 622355.
Speech Day is on Saturday 26th May and tickets are now over subscribed. Those people who have already applied and have not yet heard back will be notified of the allocation by the middle of next week. Parents are reminded that picnic spots can only be reserved by the pupils after 7:00 a.m on the day itself. It is always a shame that we cannot accommodate all those who would like to attend the speeches but we do feel the the process of sending out the Master's letters with details of how to apply for tickets and then allocating them on a first come first served basis is the fairest way to deal with the problem. Apologies if you have not got a ticket for this year but we hope you will be reading the future letters with an eagle eye!
On Sunday June 10th, we are organising a "London Walk". The route will start at Waterloo Station at 10:30 a.m. and will go along the South Bank to Tower Bridge and then cut up into the city past the Tower. We then work westwards, past Covent Garden to Apsley House, finishing by walking through the parliament area back to Waterloo. The routes is almost 12 miles long and should take four hours of actual walking. We will use the 9:17 a.m train from Martin's Heron to go up to and return from London. Any London based parents who want to take part can meet up along the way. Hopefully it will provide an occasion to get to know some other parents as well as seeing some of the corners of London that have perhaps passed us by. Next week I will post a proforma on this page asking for some details if you wish to come along. Anyone wishing to know more could contact me.
The Wellington College Summer Proms (formerly know as the Summer Music and Fireworks Spectacular) will take place in college on Saturday 16th June. A flyer with details of the evening was sent to all parents at the end of last term - tickets are now on sale. Please support this as we hope to raise a large sum of money for both local and national charities. Further details available by phoning 01344 751751, visiting www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/events or directly from Eddy Heddon.
On Friday 29th June, for the Upper Sixth form parents and pupils, we are planning a Graduation event that comprises a service, a graduation ceremony, drinks with HMs,a dinner and a ball. The event is likely to start at 2:00 p.m. and will end at midnight. All Upper Sixth Form parents should now have received full details. If you want another copy, click here for the file. Some clarification - you will need to buy a ticket for the dinner and ball for your son or daughter and there is a maximum of three tickets per family. Also I would remind you that a parent or guardian has to accompany any leaver who wishes to attend the dinner and ball.
Towards the end of the term, the GCSE candidates finish their exams before the end of term. An electronic copy of what is possible is available here. Thanks for the many replies from parents - we are now past the deadline to reply. To help us get on with planning, unless we hear by Wednesday 16th May, we shall assume you will be taking your son home after his last exam. If you do want him to do something different please contact me. Parents are reminded that we do expect pupils in the Fifth Form to honour any sporting commitments that they might have in the closing stages of the term.