The Week ahead
Tuesday 5th June until Sunday 10th June
General Events
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. A proforma can be found here and anyone who is interested in joining the walk should fill it in and return it to me. Unfortunately the Master himself is unable to attend this time but, as a consequence, we will be organising another walk early in the Michalemas term.
On Sunday 10th June, there is a full school Eucharist at which the preacher is the Canon Martyn Griffiths, the rector of Henley-on-Thames. Parents of the Benson are warmly invited.
On Monday 11th June at 1 p.m. two of our music scholars will be giving lunchtime recitals at the Church of St Mary Le Bow in London. Claire Sledd will be performing on the violin and Trishan Vaikunthanathan on the clarinet, both accompanied by Chris Warner. It would be wonderful if any parents working in London or able to visit London on that day could attend - Claire and Trishan would both be very appreciative of your support. St Mary le Bow Church is on Cheapside (nearest tube stations are Mansion House, Bank and St Paul's).
Also on Monday 11th June the Informal Concert at 6:15 p.m. will feature Ollie Ralph, George Quaile, Matt Clemens, Illias Thoms, James Heaford and Katie Trewhella.
An event Elaine Hood has arranged for Tuesday 12th June is a talk from Raleigh International about Gap Year possibilities. Jonathan Douglas (OW) and Madoc Threipland are coming to present this. It is in Great School from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and is aimed mainly at the L6th, but others, including parents, are welcome to attend.
The Music School is looking forward to another visit from the renowned baritone, Roderick Williams, who is taking time out of his busy performance schedule to work with our singing pupils in a masterclass on Wednesday 13th June from 2:00 p.m. in the Concert Room. Pupils taking part are: James Bourne, Claire Sledd, Toby Ranger (2 - 2.40 p.m.); Liliane Nguyen, Georgie Colling and Richard Bignall (3.10 - 3.40) and Gudjon Bodvarsson, Dougie Chung, Molly Critchley and Ollie Ralph (from 4.10 - 4.55 p.m.) Parents are most welcome to come to the Masterclass sessions. It is very interesting to observe how Roderick inspires young singers. There will be also be a chance to hear some of them in a concert at 6 p.m. in the Concert Room.
Wednesday 13th June sees the Fourth Form conference. Details can be found here.
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.
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 push them back to her with 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. In the future, letters home should be posted there so if you have lost one it gives you the chance of easily getting a copy.
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 by where 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 year. 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 .
Sport
Sunday 10th June sees our Girls polo team enter the National Schools Girls Polo Tournament at Millfield School.
On Tuesday 12th June, W.C.C.C. play St.Benedict's School from Ealing in the last 16 of the National Twenty/20 tournament at Wellington starting at 1:30 p.m. whilst our polo team take on Stowe and the girl's tennis and rounders travel to St.Mary's Ascot.
Thursday 14th June sees our girls cricket side play Pangbourne and the swimming teams race Charterhouse
Saturday 16th June is dominated by a big cricket fixture with Charterhouse whilst the athletes also compete at Charterhouse, the girls tennis teams take on Pangbourne, the boys take on Eton and the shooting team competes with the O.W. team.
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
On Monday 18 June our 6.15 p.m. concert will feature soloists from the 3rd and 4th forms and many Junior ensembles including Junior Woodwind, Junior Brass, 3rd form Saxophone Quartet, 3F1 Wind Ensemble, Junior String Quartet, Girls' Choir - more details will follow. Please come and encourage them if you can.
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. If you have not yet purchased a ticket, please make your booking as soon as possible to guarantee a ticket. Some clarification - you will need to buy a ticket for the champagne reception, 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 nominated adult has to accompany any leaver who wishes to attend the dinner and ball should parents or guardians not be able to attend.
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.