Sunday 24th June until Friday 29th June
General Events
The last Week Ahead of the year - your inbox will breathe a sigh of relief!
The majority of the Third Form depart to France on Sunday 24th June, returning on Thursday 28th June.
If you didn't have time to visit the Art School Exhibition on Speech Day, the Art School will be open with a Graduating VI Form Exhibition on Thursday 28th June from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and on Friday 29th June from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m.
On Friday 29th June, for the Upper Sixth form parents and pupils, we are holding a Graduation event that comprises a service, a graduation ceremony, a champagne reception with HMs, a dinner and a ball. The event will start at 2:00 p.m. and will end at midnight. All Upper Sixth Form parents have received full details; if you want another copy, click here for the file. Tickets for the champagne reception, dinner and ball for your son or daughter and yourselves will be ready for collection after the Graduation Chapel Service.
Although not a Wellington event, Sunday 24th June sees the fourth AXLR8 Wellington Triathlon. It is run by Wellington parents and uses the Wellington campus and indeed there have been a number of parents at the pre-event trainings. More details of the event can be found here whilst entry and sponsorship forms can be found here. £24,077 has been raised for Cancer Research and Naomi House to date and the target this year is £15,000.
The unveiling of the new crest on Speech Day received widespread acclaim. We are reverting to the original crest and motto that you can see carved over the College, North and South, and Great School. We are not, of course, abandoning "Heroum Filii" , which will continue to be important to the school, although the message about Wellington primarily being for sons of the fallen heroes is thankfully now rarely appropriate.
Paul Hucklesby is stepping down after over ten years as Director of Studies at the end of this academic year. He will return more to the classroom and also act as Wellington College's lead person on the project to sponsor an Academy in Wiltshire. Taking over as Director of Studies is Dr Justin Garrick, the current Head of English. Would you please now contact Dr Garrick regarding any academic matters and he will deal with them with expediency.
Can I put in a plea from the Librarian to help her find and return some library books? If you see any of the books stamped with Wellington College Library around your house, please return them to her via your son or daughter.
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.
The Medical Centre require 'drivers' to drive pupils to and from appointments. The Medical Centre regularly organises referrals for specialist appointments including orthodontic appointments. We also on occasions send pupils to A&E with sports related injuries. We have a system whereby parents, and partners of academic staff who work in the school, drive pupils to and from appointments. This is to accommodate those parents who live too far away to take their children to appointments. The driver is paid for their efforts. Should anybody be interested in joining our driving team, please contact the Personnel Department on 01344 444042 for an application form.
The Wellingtonian aims to carry a limited amount of advertising in its end of year Review. This will provide a forum for members of the Wellingtonian community to advertise goods and services such as holiday lets to each other and will help us to meet printing costs. Please support this initiative by the pupil magazine. For further details, contact Denise Cook .
For many of you, your son's or daughter's time at Wellington is drawing to a close. We hope that you won't think of that as the end of your connection with Wellington and indeed would hope that you continue to visit us. If you would like to continue to receive the Week Ahead to help you keep abreast of what is going on, please just click here and send me a message.
The Music School thanks all parents for their support at concerts over the past year. If parents of leavers would like to continue to receive the termly Arts Diary, please email Ros Dunmore.
Sport
Saturday 23rd June is the big block cricket fixture with Radley, the athletes (U19/U17 boys and U15 girls) compete in the Marlborough Shield Match, the girls' tennis play Cranleigh and the boys' tennis take on Epsom.
On Sunday 24th June, W.C.C.C. play Grey High School,Port Elizabeth whilst the 2nd XI play Melbourne Grammar School and the polo team compete in the National U16 Tournament.
On Monday 25th June, the W.C.C.C. play Melbourne Grammar School and on Wednesday 27th June play Wynberg Boys' High School, Cape Town. Also on Wednesday 27th June our tennis teams - boys and girls - play Gordonstoun.
To finish a hectic end of term for the 1st XI, on Thursday 28th June, W.C.C.C. play St. Peter's Adelaide.
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
This is a message from three Wellingtonians: "In a year of first steps for the College in a number of directions, happiness and co-education to name a couple, the distance athletes of the college have become hooked on a new sport. Triathlon. This being so, back in the depths of winter two members of the LVI Lynedoch, Ben Gateley and Tom Gibson, entered in the Michelob Ultra Olympic Triathlon onth 5th August. We were joined last month by Tristan Garton of the Benson. Thus the first Wellington College Olympic Triathlon team was formed and now we need your help. We have each chosen a charity which we will raise money for and also each have a set target which we need to reach, £500. We are trying to raise this through donations from people in and around the college to try and raise awareness of the charities and of the event itself. It is a 1.5km swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run in the centre of London, the biggest triathlon in the world and we are the first pupils ever to compete in it whilst still at the college. Any donation would be very welcome to support us in our venture. Our charities are as follows:Ben Gateley - Leukaemia Research www.justgiving.com/bengateley; Tom Gibson - British Red Cross www.justgiving/gibbojunior and Tristan Garton - The Dogs Trust ". Please contact Tom if you want to help.
AS & A2 results will be available on Thursday 16th August and this link takes you to a document that explains the various ways that pupils can obtain these results. In addition this link explains what you should do if your son or daughter wants to consider a re-mark, obtain a copy of their scripts or to query the result. GCSE results will be available on Thursday 23rd August and this link takes you to a document that explains how pupils can obtain their results. This link above should be used to find out about the procedures for re-marking exams. This information is also available on the intranet site.
On Monday 3rd September at 6:30 p.m. the Garden Opera Company will present Puccini's La Boheme, sung in English, in the Common Room Garden. It promises to be a fantastic evening. Whether or not you are a traditional opera lover you will enjoy Garden Opera's entertaining, intimate and approachable production of one of the most popular operas. Tickets will be £55 a head and this includes drinks served at 6:00 p.m. and a buffet supper served during the first interval. September 3rd is the day that boys and girls return to school, so it is a perfect opportunity to combine attending an event at College with dropping children off. Please contact the Campaign Office on 01344 444023 to reserve tickets.
On Sunday 9th September, we are planning to organise 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 15 mile walk , please contact me.
Following the success of the W.C.A. Trenches Trips in 2006 and May 2007, the W.C.A. announces another visit to the Verdun Battlefields of The First World War from Friday 6th to Sunday 9th September. This trip will involve visiting the greatest French battlefield of the last 200 years, the scene of the events that shaped French history from the middle of the First World War up to and beyond the Second World War. Highlights to name a few will include: the opening of the battle and the infantry battle, the greatest fortress in France, Douaumont - given up without a struggle, 100,000 casualties in its recapture; the Fort de Vaux - the gateway to Verdun; the Villages Detruits - nine villages never rebuilt after the war; the National War Memorial and Ossuary; the French and German trench system and fortifications; the American victory at St Mihiel and the US National Memorial and the trenches system at St Mihiel and the Tranchée de Soif. The party will stay at: Chateau des Monthairons, about 12 miles south of Verdun . Costs are indicated to be about £370 per person plus between £65 to £100 per room, per night with single or double occupancy. This will include all main expenses apart from wines at dinner in the hotel. The trip will be led by Philip Stevens, Wellington parent. Interested parties should e-mail in the first instance to innings@aol.com with the title "W.C.A .Verdun Booking" or fax to 0207567 8455 marked for Philip Stevens attention. Any queries please telephone Tarla Woolhouse on 01344 444085:
On Saturday 15th September, Rory Bremner (Hn 74-79) will be hosting the Bigside Ball on Turf. This is to raise funds for the construction of the new Bigside Rugby Pavilion. It promises to be a great occasion and we are hoping you will support it. To reserve your ticket or table, please contact the Campaign Office on 01344 444023.
We are taking bookings now for a ski trip which will take place 14th-19th December. This involves race training followed by competitions against other schools covering slalom, grand slalom and parallel slalom. There will be a separate programme for boarders. Further information can be found on the skiing pages. Parents can fill in the paperwork provided on that page, and send in a deposit of £200 to secure a place, the balance being paid in September.