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Wellington College has taken the ‘Boarding Initiative of the Year’ award at the prestigious 2015 TES Independent School Awards.
The College has always attracted large audiences for events with an academic theme, most notably through its vibrant Conference programme, its work as a Teaching School, and through the annual Festival of Education.
Mrs Delyth Lynch, Deputy Head in charge of Pastoral and Wellbeing, wanted to find a similar method of engaging with parents regarding the pastoral life of the College. She therefore sought to discover a way to improve parental engagement in the pastoral understanding and development of their children, educate them in the key issues affecting adolescents and highlight what it was doing to support them.
Research was carried out to establish the best weekly time for a meeting while parents’ advice was sought on the topics on which they felt they needed more information. As a result, Wellington has introduced a series of weekly parental “masterclasses” on late Saturday morning, with lunch included, which has been attended by a majority of parents. Topics this term have included Digital Media, Coaching, Resilience, Teenage Eating and Food Choices.
The panel said it was “a simple yet effective way to engage parents in a key area of the school’s responsibilities”.
Julian Thomas, Master of Wellington College commented, “I am absolutely thrilled that Wellington has been awarded this prestigious accolade, and my thanks go particularly to our brilliant Deputy Head, Mrs Lynch, who has pioneered the parental masterclasses with such passion and success. The College has rightly won a reputation for outstanding provision of pastoral care, as evidenced in inspection reports, parental feedback, and pupils surveys. But we are truly committed to raising even further the quality of our pastoral provision through proactive parental engagement, and to have this commitment affirmed by this prestigious award is wonderful.”
Mrs Lynch picked up the award at a black-tie event in at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, hosted by Michael Portillo, where over 400 attendees celebrated all that is outstanding in independent schools across the UK.
