Saturday 6th June until Sunday 14th June

I hope that you enjoyed Speech Day - the weather was very kind this year - and had a break over the Bank Holiday weekend. Exams are in full session at present and so things are a little quieter than usual at Wellington this week. That said the late addition of a session with Adam Boulton on Wednesday makes a fascinating addition as will Richard Holmes' lecture on Wellington on Waterloo Day. Details are below.

STOP PRESS

"Close Up To Barack and Blair: an audience with Sky TV's Adam Boulton" is an exciting calendar addition Wednesday 10th June at 8pm in the Theatre. The Master and the WCA are delighted to announce that Sky TV's Political Editor Adam Boulton, author of "Tony's Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration'" who has been in the US for the last six months following Obama for Sky, will be coming to speak next week. Entry is free but please contact Denise Cook to reserve your place as demand will be high. Don't miss what promises to be a highly topical and informative interview!

The Master's Voice

Speech Day. It was a magnificent Wellington day on 23rd May, and thank you to parents for turning up in such very large numbers. Thank you also for all the words and messages of thanks. The day seems to have been widely enjoyed by all, and I would like to publicly praise the pupils who were on such fine form throughout. His Royal Highness asked me to convey his appreciation and thanks. Two aspects for next year to improve are the length of the second prize giving in the Sports Hall for 6th formers and parents. The first event lasted 60 minutes precisely, exactly as planned. The second lasted for 90 minutes, and it is a puzzle to know why it took half an hour longer - HRH spoke, which he didn't in the first, and there were more prizes. I apologise for the length and next year I promise to get it down to 60 minutes also. Second, the seating for the pageant. The raised seating last year proved to be monstrously expensive, so we reverted to the usual pattern of all parents standing (but with pupils sitting, hoping that all would thus be able to see. For 2010 we will organise it so that all parents can both sit and see. Again, my apologies for those who couldn't see at the pageant this year. Finally, I spoke about our ambitions to be the greenest boarding school in Britain within five years. Here is a link to an article from Lord Rees, the Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, called "We Are All In This Together", from The Times. Do please read it, and send it on to others if you think it is appropriate. Greta Scacchi, who is speaking at the Arts Festival on 24th June, is very keen also that parents and pupils should know about a film, "End of the Line", which she is supporting. Do look out for it in the cinemas.

General Events

WCA 4th form parents' supper night is on Sunday 7th June in the V&A from 7:30pm to 9:30pm - there are still a few places left! £10 per head includes food and wine, pay on the door, or free to badge holders. Contact Denise Cook to reserve your place.

On Sunday 7th June, we are delighted to host 22 Prep Schools for our annual 6-a-side Cricket tournament. Turf will be overflowing with talented young cricketers as 6 pitches will be prepared on our main cricketing field. Matches begin at 9:30am and the final is scheduled to begin at 5:15pm. Details are on the cricket intranet site.

Also on Sunday 7th June there is a full school Service of the Word at which the preacher is Ms. Anita Edgar from Child Rescue in Goa. Parents of the Combermere are warmly invited.

The end of L6 AS study leave is marked by a two day Academic Trips Circus on Monday 8th June and Tuesday 9th June, as in the calendar, with visits to Parliament, the Mini factory in Oxford, London Zoo, the Law Courts, and Boulogne amongst others. Pupils have been notified of which trips they are on, but parents of day pupils in particular should note that there are some early morning start times for some of these trips.

There are still some tickets for the RSC's "As you like it" in Stratford on Saturday 13th June. We leave Wellington by minibus at 4:00pm, arriving in time for a pre-theatre supper and stroll along the banks for the Avon and return after the play. The cost is £50 per person, to include ticket and minibus. Contact Denise Cook for details.

Sunday 14th June sees an 8:00pm full school Eucharist at which the preacher is the Bishop of Grimsby. Although it is the "turn" of the Lynedoch parents in Chapel, with study leave there will be many gaps and all parents are invited to come and hear the Bishop preach if they so wish.

Please be reassured that we are maintaining a close watch on developments with swine flu and our policy is available on the intranet. Should you have any concerns, do please contact the medical centre.

All Lower Sixth parents should have received a detailed e-mail from Murray Fowler about the forthcoming Ridgeway Challenge on Sunday 14th June. If not, do please contact Murray. The event is a repeat of last year's successful inaugural one, and sees all Lower Sixth pupils walking through the night along a section of the Ridgeway National Trail, for a distance almost exactly double that of the 150th College Walk. Vital pieces of kit are comfortable trainers or walking boots, decent socks, a warm 'hoody' (or a sweatshirt and a woolly hat), a torch and a water bottle. The Challenge starts late on the evening of Sunday 14th June, and finishes by lunchtime Monday, with the rest of the day off to recover! If pupils wish to seek sponsorship for this, the 150th charity Hope and Homes is a logical focus for that.

The Master has made repeated statements about sensible use of social time on the weekends particularly advising careful use of alcohol at parties. This issue is perhaps even more crucial as we move into the 18th birthday party season clashing with the exam period. Clearly we want the students enjoying themselves at social occasions but it is essential that they return to school after the weekend refreshed and ready for the pressures of revision and exams. This point is even more compelling with the recent tragedy involving school students in Oxford when it seems that the combination of alcohol, parties and cars ended up in tragedy. The Second master wishes to reiterate the college policy that permission to drive cars to and from Wellington will only be given when there is evidence of necessity - convenience he is afraid will not be a sufficient reason.

Parents are invited to bring uniform that has been outgrown into the College Shop for re-sale. There will be regular Nearly New Uniform Sale Days ( to be advised) following which payments will be made in respect of items that are sold. The system will be as follows:

• Items for sale must be clean and in good repair and must be current uniform
• Each item should be labelled with your name and a brief description, such as ' Boy's Jacket 34"' but not priced
• All items will be sold at half the current average purchase price for the same garment, if new. When sold, 50% will go to the parent selling the item and 50% to the College Shop
• If any item remains unsold after 12 months it can either be collected by the parent donor or it will become the property of the College.

Parents may not be aware that the College Shop ( Grubbies) received a makeover during the Easter Holidays. It is now run by the College, with the assistance of Lester Bowden Ltd and is much brighter and more welcoming. The opening hours have been standardised to 9:00 am and 5:45 pm, Monday to Friday inclusive and between11.00 am and 5:00 pm on Saturdays. The range of sportswear and sports equipment has been increased and will continue to be extended. We intend that the College Shop should become the local Sports Shop for the local as well as for the Wellington community. The College Shop continues to offer tuck, drinks, toiletries, stationery and uniform for both Wellington College and Eagle House School. If there are items that you consider we should be offering, do speak to either Sue Roy ( Manager) or Gill Sherwood ( Assistant Manager) who will be delighted to welcome you.

In order to commemorate the 150th anniversary of College, the Old Wellingtonian Cricket Club has commissioned the internationally renowned cricketing artist Jocelyn Galsworthy to paint the scene of the 150th Speech Day on Turf against the classic and beautiful backdrop of the College buildings and pavilion. Jocelyn has painted cricket grounds around the world as well as a number of school and club grounds, and she will be seen later this summer at Lord's and other test venues painting the Ashes series. Those of you who strolled around Turf on Speech Day may well have seen her at work, and she returns again in late June to complete the painting. The painting will hang in the Bigside pavilion at its opening and the OWCC has further commissioned a limited edition of 250 prints of the painting each of which will be signed by the artist. The signed prints will be on sale for £100. All profits from the sale of these prints will go towards the funding of cricket equipment at the new Wellington Academy. Jocelyn's presence on Speech Day has resulted in a substantial amount of interest, and a number of prints have already been sold. If you would like to reserve a print please e-mail Mark Milliken-Smith, Chairman of OWCC, as soon as possible - apologies to those who tried the link last week and it failed to work.

Whilst on the theme of prints, an OW is selling two framed prints of Wellington from drawings by John Western, each numbered 75 out of a limited edition of 650. These were promoted by the school in the early 1980s and are in elegant gilt frames. They measure respectively 65cm x 42cm (North Front) and 79cm x 41cm (an elongated full view of South Front with the chapel as can be seen to the right) If anyone is interested please contact Chris Potter in the OW office.

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 June 6th sees our athletes in action in the Homfray-Davies Shield with Brighton College whilst the cricketers take on Tonbridge and the girls' tennis players compete with Bradfield. On a busy day, the swimmers travel to Cranleigh and the sailors travel to Datchet to compete with Harrow.

Tuesday 9th June sees our U15 golfers in action against Whitgift and on Thursday 11 June the sailors compete with Eton.

The sporting week ends on Saturday 13th June with cricket fixtures with Charterhouse, tennis matches against Cranleigh, the shooting team taking on the OWs and the sailing team travelling to Poole to compete with Sherborne.

Details of all fixtures and results can be found on the Wellington College Intranet.

Further Ahead

Letters have been sent home to Third Form parents regarding the trip to Wales between the 15th and the 19th June. Any outstanding Parent Consent Forms and Codes of Conduct need to be returned to Mrs Sally Yarnton as soon as possible. A copy of the kit list can also be found here.

On Waterloo Day, Thursday 18th June, WCA is proud to be hosting a lecture entitled "Wellington - The Iron Duke" by the celebrated military historian and television presenter Richard Holmes, best known for his BBC Series War Walks and The Western Front. Educated at Cambridge (scholar of Emmanuel College), Northern Illinois and Reading Universities (PhD 1975), he then taught at RMA Sandhurst and has worked for Cranfield University since 1986, setting up the Security Studies Institute and now serving as co-director of the Security and Resilience Group. Professor Holmes is President of the British Commission for Military History and the Battlefields Trust; Patron of the Guild of Battlefield Guides; Chairman of Project Hougoumont; Member of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Armouries; Vice President, UK National Defence Association and was a Colonel of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment between 1999 and 2007. If you would like to attend this lecture please email Tarla Woolhouse .

The Careers Group at the University of London are running a course for parents of future HE applicants called "Choosing a University Course During a Recession: A Guide for Parents" on Thursday 11th June between 8:30 and 11:30am and Friday 12th June between 10:00am and 1:00 pm at their headquarters in London. (The Careers Group, University of London, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DN.) The cost is £70. This is a quote about the course: "Big Choices, Challenging Times: Graduate labour market information to support your child's future choice of Higher Education. An insight into the current and changing graduate labour market by careers professionals working within The Careers Group, University of London." Parents who are interested can find more information and details of how to book at this link. The Careers Group also organises the London Taster Course programme, which is designed for L6th pupils. Our L6th pupils were emailed information about these last term. There are some courses still available. See this link if interested.

In order to help our current Lower Sixth students choose their Universities and courses, Matt Oakman has organised to host a Universities Fair evening on Friday 19th June as advertised in the summer term calendar. An email has been sent to all these parents formally inviting them to this event in the hope that it will help them, together with their sons and daughters, to begin the process of selecting the institutions that they want to attend after leaving Wellington. It will provide at 6:00 pm all the information on the UCAS application procedure, with a panel session where pressing questions can be put to the Directors of Admissions at some leading Universities (including a representative of the American Universities) and at 7:00 pm an opportunity to visit the University stands afterwards. All of the leading Universities will be represented by either a member of their admissions department or an Old Wellingtonian who is currently studying at that institution. The Lower Sixth will have started the UCAS process during that week and it will be of particular relevance to them at this time. Finally at 8:30 pm there is a buffet supper for all in Dining Hall.

Also on Friday 19th June three Lower Sixth music scholars will perform at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London as part of their lunchtime recital series. The performers are Jonny Leon (Bl) - Violin, Trishan Vaikunthanathan (Hl) - Clarinet and Anton Crayton (Wn) - 'Cello. The recital starts at 1:00pm and will last approximately 45 minutes. Your support at this concert would be most welcome and appreciated. For more information please use the following link

On Saturday 20th June parents are warmly invited to attend IB pupils performing their Group 4 project presentations.

The group 4 project is a collaborative activity where students from different group 4 subjects work together on a scientific or technological topic, allowing for concepts and perceptions from across the disciplines to be shared. The group 4 project allows students to appreciate the environmental, social and ethical implications of science and technology. It may also allow them to understand the limitations of scientific study. The emphasis is on interdisciplinary cooperation and the processes involved in scientific investigation. Displays will on show to parents and pupils will be presenting their work from 9.30am onwards. Further details can be obtained from the Director of Science

The Wellington College ArtsFest 2009 is on from Sunday 21st June to Thursday 25th June. Once again we have a glittering array of exhibitions, performances and speakers, including the London Mozart Players on the Sunday evening, Wellington's first opera, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Monday and Tuesday evening), the Wellington College Fashion Show (Wednesday), featuring pupils' work from the year, and actress Greta Scacchi (White Mischief, Brideshead Revisited, Defence of the Realm - Wednesday). All this and more!! Details and ticket information will soon be on its way. Unfortunately actor Matthew Macfadyen (Spooks, Pride and Prejudice, Frost/Nixon) now has shooting commitments and will not be there - he hopes to come in the Spring of 2010.

Another part of our fund raising for Hope and Homes is a Charity Cycle Ride from Calais to Cannes via Waterloo and following the Napoleon route.This is scheduled for the first fortnight of the summer holidays. Effectively the route skirts the eastern edge of France via Lille and then Dijon before cutting to Grenoble and finally Cannes. If anyone has accommodation - whether a field to camp in or a house to stay in - on this route and would be prepared for the cycle team to stay there for one night, please contact David Walker.

Is your son or daughter in a band, or have aspirations in the music business? Then the following courses, being held at Wellington in the second half of July, may be of interest. "Rock School" is run by Mike Hurst, producer of countless hit singles and platinum albums, credited with 'discovering' Cat Stevens and Marc Bolan of T-Rex. Mike has been to Wellington several times in recent years to give a hugely informative and very accomplished performance talk on the History of Popular Music, to great acclaim. A copy of the booking form is here. For further information, visit http://rockmasters.co.uk/

This year's Wellington College Leadership Course running from Tuesday 28th July to Thursday 30th July will be a stimulating balance of practical activities, theory and discussion. Over the week, students will experience the challenges and rewards of leading a team and gain an understanding of leadership across a broad range of contexts. Participants will produce a personal leadership development plan, tailored to their strengths, weaker areas and leadership style. This course will be ideal for students aged 15-18 years, who are keen to develop their leadership potential. It will provide an excellent opportunity for development of leadership attributes and build confidence in a structured, encouraging and enjoyable environment. Last year's students on the course said: "The course is one of the best experiences I've ever had...there are so many things that I can take from this course into later life"; "The facts I will take away from this course are GOLD!"; "I learnt more than I thought I could".For more information, please contact Gareth Pearson or Katy Granville-Chapman . Alternatively, please visit: www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/leadership .