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A Celebration of 10 Years of Educational Achievement

13 Oct 2021

A Celebration of 10 Years of Educational Achievement

Interview with Julian Jeffrey Executive Master of Wellington College Tianjin

Wellington College Tianjin was the first Wellington College in China and celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. This is an important milestone for the College, especially during these challenging times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wellington College in Tianjin is part of Wellington College China, which has also opened international schools in Shanghai (2014) and Hangzhou (2018), and several bilingual schools in China in a market that has grown exponentially in recent years. These bilingual schools, which teach British and Chinese curriculums through the medium of both English and Mandarin, are known as Hiba schools. Wellington College Tianjin pupils are described as "inspired, Intellectual, Independent, Individual and Inclusive", and the school’s core values are Courage, Respect, Integrity, Kindness, and Responsibility.

The fusion of tradition with a deeply progressive, forward-thinking and outward-looking approach is one of the many factors that attract students to become part of the Wellington community, and drew Wellington College to expand its educational programmes in China with its first school in Tianjin.

We live in a time when international education and cooperation together with an open-minded approach has never been more needed, where we should be looking outwards and connecting with others to find the answers to existential issues ranging from COVID to climate change, from population growth to extreme poverty.

“A Proud Tradition. Educating for the Future” summarizes Wellington College Tianjin's long-term goals and commitment to serving current and future pupils well by equipping them with knowledge, skills and values fit for the future, rather than for the world as it used to be.

Wellington College Tianjin has organized Inspiring Learning conferences and workshops which have won the industry's praises, and every year, the College hosts the Festival of Education, a landmark event in the international education industry in China.

The College looks back over the past 10 years’ achievements with great pride and in the knowledge that they have only just embarked on the long and exciting journey of building the world's best educational facility in China.

On this special anniversary, we had the honour of talking to Julian Jeffrey, the Executive Master of Wellington College Tianjin, who told us more about this prestigious College as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

By way of introduction, Mr Jeffrey commented that he is pleased that the school is in such good health at this point, given the difficulties of the last two or three years across the world, and added that he and his colleagues are therefore determined to hold a big celebration of this important milestone to bring the Wellington community together. He told us that the events would include Teacher’s Day, focused on celebrating colleagues who have been at the College for 5 or 10 years, and also congratulating the children who have been there for 10 years.

After the dedication of the library to the founder, Joy Qiao, and a relaunch of the Nest, there will be events across the year celebrating the Wellington community, and then wider community engagement through service projects and charity work. Mr Jeffrey explained that this is all part of the school’s commitment to reaching out more to the people around the school in the Hongqiao district, but also in Tianjin. He said that he wants the community to remember this year as an important milestone for Wellington College Tianjin in becoming an established school with happy, settled pupils who achieve great results at all levels, and he would like parents to recognize that the school is a community organization.

Discussing his experience during the time he’s been at Wellington College Tianjin, Mr Jeffrey said that over the past seven years, quite a lot has changed, but he feels that he’s been simply building on the work of his predecessors. He explained that as a school, Wellington College Tianjin aims to provide opportunities for its pupils, and as it has grown and matured as an institution, it has offered ever greater opportunities for children, not only in terms of access to higher education facilities and getting great examination results, but also to live life in a more rounded way, recognizing their responsibilities to others in their community through service projects.

According to Mr Jeffrey, one of the biggest lessons he has learned from the past 10 years is that one needs patience to run a school. He commented that things don't change overnight as much as he’d like them to, and as much as some of the parents would like them to, and that change has to be positive, saying, “It has to have a momentum of its own, but you can't slow it down. In other words, I can't now stop and say, okay, the point we've reached now in 10 years is the point we're happy with. We're still working towards the next goal and the next improvement in our community.”

He added that because children get only one education, the school needs to get that education right. His ambition, therefore, is for the school to provide the best education possible in Tianjin, in China, and across the world, and he acknowledges that that means that they have to keep working hard, as it’s not something that they can finish now and say, “Well, we did it.” In his view, a school that thinks it has finished with its mission and can just rest is not a school that's going to be very successful, because the world moves on; expectations move on, opportunities move on, new chances appear, and when opportunities come along, it’s really important to take them.

Asked about the most important educational drivers during the past 10 years, Mr Jeffrey said that the College aimed to keep pace with trends in education that are positive and meaningful for the education of the children. He feels that the Nest, the bilingual early years centre, is now becoming a really fruitful and important part of their school. In addition, in his view, the facilities and the education that children get in the Nest is as good as any other in North China in a bilingual context, setting children up for life. When they emerge from that programme functionally bilingual and then go into the international school, it has a great impact, not only on exam results but in their lives. Being able to operate easily in two or more different languages is an invaluable gift.

Another aspect that Mr Jeffrey is pleased about is that Wellington College Tianjin exams are tied to UK standards such as the IGCSE and A-level, as this gives it a prestige amongst universities around the world, as there are renowned, externally moderated and evaluated exams. This allows Wellington College Tianjin pupils to go to the finest universities in almost any country.

Asked in what respects he thinks Wellington College Tianjin has reached an outstanding level during these past 10 years, Mr Jeffrey said that to be genuinely outstanding is a journey, not a destination in itself. He feels that Wellington College Tianjin is working towards outstanding in several respects: They are good at bilingual education, at fostering student wellbeing and happiness, and at producing confident, well-rounded individuals who have universal values that they take into their adult lives. He also thinks the College is good at handling university admissions and has an amazingly talented staff body. However, he emphasized that if they thought that they were outstanding and therefore wanted to rest on the current reputation, it was definitely not going to happen: “The journey isn't stopping; we just keep building onto that.”

Regarding the contribution of parents, Mr Jeffrey said that they are absolutely central to the partnership. He remarked that he is always very pleased when parents come to enrol their children because it's a symptom of the trust they have in the school to look after their child. He feels that there are not many things in life more precious than entrusting one’s child to a school for their education.

Mr Jeffrey further pointed out that it's difficult for many parents, as they come from different educational backgrounds to the British one that Wellington offers, so it's a double leap of faith for them. Not only are they sending their child to an international school, but the curriculum is different, the expectations are different, the way they do things is different, the teaching is different––and so for them to trust the school with their child is a real privilege. The more that the College can engage with parents, the better it is for them as a school. It’s been Mr Jeffrey’s experience that Wellington has a very active parent body; they're very enthusiastic about coming into school, talking to him and talking to the staff. Furthermore, he writes to parents almost every week and tells them that he wants to hear more from them.

Also concerning this aspect, Mr Jeffrey believes that e-learning has helped because parents often stayed at home with their children during the break in physical schooling and saw how the learning was done. Thus, although the online context is rather artificial compared to being in school, parents saw and understood more about how teachers and pupils interact. He added that a benefit of this was that made them a more connected community.

On the other hand, e-learning can also be a challenge, but Mr Jeffrey explained that Wellington College Tianjin was lucky in the sense that they achieved the Microsoft Showcase School status in December 2019, so all their teachers were trained on Microsoft Teams and the various platforms that could be used, and when the shutdown came in February 2020, they were immediately able to access online live lessons across the school, from the youngest to the oldest.

Despite concerns around the effects on children of not being in school and not interacting with teachers and pupils, the academic results at the end of the COVID year were amazing. The College had some of their best public exam results, and equally, pupils in the younger sections of the school achieved great results in progress and attainment.

Describing the plans and goals that he hopes to achieve for Wellington College Tianjin by its 20th anniversary, Mr Jeffrey said these include consolidating the school’s position in the market in Tianjin. Its reputation needs to be as strong as he can make it. He also regards it as part of his responsibility to keep pushing the message that a Wellington education in Tianjin is accessible through the College’s boarding house and that children who previously had limited options therefore now have the option to have an education at Wellington.

He is also keen to expand the scholarship programme. The College has very strong academic scholarships through programmes like the Shuping Scholarship, which they are very privileged to be able to offer to academic high flyers. In addition, teacher training is really important to them; they offer teacher training to their staff, but also to external colleagues. Also important is engagement with the world of education and learning, and he would like the College to become known as a school that is responsive to its community and responsible towards its community. Service-learning is therefore another aspect that he thinks is going to be a big part of the next ten or twenty years.

Asked about challenges, Mr Jeffrey answered that the single most important challenge is to keep pushing for pupils to get the best all-round education so that they emerge not only as happy and successful learners, but as happy and successful young people who understand where they are in the world, who they are, why they matter, and why the people around them matter too.

Discussing support received from the Wellington College group in the UK, Mr Jeffrey highlighted the close nature of the relationship between England's Wellington College and China's Wellington Colleges, mentioning things like governance, where representatives from Wellington serve on the governing body. They also have links with teaching staff and engage in teacher exchanges, so the ideas, the values, the ethos becomes shared and integrated across the group. Once COVID restrictions are lifted, pupils will also be able to visit the school in the UK. Mr Jeffrey expressed his gratitude for the support he gets from the Wellington College group of schools. As a practical example, he described how colleagues across other Wellington Colleges in England and Shanghai offered to do online practice interviews with his pupils. This was an invaluable offer because they have lots of experience and they have lots of teachers who can ask challenging interview questions. It’s excellent preparation, and a big factor in the students’ success in getting into Oxford and Cambridge and the Ivy League universities.

Regarding university entrance, Mr Jeffrey said that the top academic students from Wellington College Tianjin go on to the best universities around the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, Cornell, UPenn, Imperial College, and the London School of Economics. Moreover, some amazing students go on to other colleges; for example, they do courses at art and design universities around the world, which are the best in their field for art, design, architecture and fashion design. Although these are often perceived to be not as high-profile as the top-level universities, it's just as difficult to get into their courses because they're so prestigious and few in number.

Regarding his achievements, Mr Jeffrey feels that working in Tianjin has been the pinnacle of his professional career. He wanted to make a big difference in Tianjin. The school wasn't a big school when he started, and he has always felt that he and his colleagues wanted to push what they could do in Tianjin, make it better and make it more welcoming to families and children.

STUDENTS' VOICE

We also had the opportunity to talk to some students of Wellington College Tianjin, and get to hear from these main actors about the success of the school during the 10 years since its foundation.

In our chat with Nicole, she told us that it was her parents’ choice to send her to Wellington College Tianjin, along with her sisters Amy and Ally, back in 2011. Her mother knew of the Wellington College in Berkshire and had learned about its profound history and heritage. When Nicole’s parents heard that Wellington College would open their first international school, they chose the school, believing that Wellington College Tianjin could deliver the very best of both British and International experience.

Nicole feels that the standard of education at Wellington College Tianjin has far surpassed her expectations. She said that although 10 years might not be a long period, she is proud to have witnessed the learning journey they have been through as a school during that time. This year, the school managed to outperform both the Wellington College in the UK and the Wellington College Shanghai in the public examination results. Moreover, students from the Tianjin school have received offers from the top universities in the world, such as Oxbridge, Imperial, Edinburgh, U Penn and Peking, and it was inspiring for Nicole to see them thrive, hoping that she could also get there after her time at Wellington.

Asked what she was most proud of regarding her education during the past 10 years, Nicole said that she was particularly pleased with her outstanding results in the recent 2021 A-Level examinations, an achievement that she feels was made possible through the motivation and experience she gained while going through her IGCSEs. In her view, the quality of teaching at Wellington was by no means reduced during the pandemic, and she told us that with the school’s quick response and adaptation to the online learning environment, she felt that she was fully supported by her teachers and that the lessons were delivered in the best way possible. She feels that through her experience at Wellington College Tianjin, she has been able to become a capable, independent learner with a strong sense of self-motivation.

Amy chose Wellington because it was a British school, and she thought that she would be able to learn better English. A source of pride for Amy is that although she was not really interested in maths before coming to Wellington, through her education at the school, she now enjoys solving maths problems, and received full marks in the IGCSE Extended Mathematics, which she did this year as a fast-track course. She feels that being at Wellington helps one find one’s interest in academics and other areas.

Amy told us that when she first came to Wellington, everything was new and exciting, but within those memories, the most remarkable moment for her was watching the school’s first musical; she said she will never forget the amazing songs, dances, and stage lighting.

Regarding other school activities, Amy said that in Wellington College Tianjin, she was able to experience not only academics, but also sports events, and through participating in those different areas, she feels she has become more cooperative and positive in outlook.

Mimi is of the opinion that the standard of education at Wellington has become more and more advanced as time has passed, with the staff population increasing. In her opinion, Wellington has given her a lot of chances and opportunities to shine; for example, when she was four and had been at Wellington for only a year, she got the opportunity to perform in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Thereafter, she was able to perform in many concerts, and these performances helped her to build up her skills, confidence, responsibility and courage.

We also talked with the mother of Mimi, one of the most talented pupils of Wellington College Tianjin, to find out what convinced her to enrol her daughter in the school, and also to learn more about her experience.

It was chance that led Mimi’s parents to choose Wellington College Tianjin. After learning about Wellington College through a local magazine advertisement featuring the Queen of England and Joy Qiao, Mimi and her mother visited the school. Because Mimi was less than 4 years old at that time, her parents were very careful to choose the right private school for her. Mimi’s mother explained that since Mimi is a very special child, they wanted to look for a school that would foster her nature talent.

Mimi is now 14 years old, and her father and mother describe their daughter as a girl with love in her heart and light in her eyes, and they are very proud of this. They told us that Mimi has developed in an all-round way at Wellington, doing well in music, art, sports and other aspects, while at the same time developing the positive values of kindness, self-confidence and respect. They appreciate how Wellington fosters a student's linguistic ability, self-awareness and interpersonal communication, encouraging more all-round development through its teaching philosophy, evaluation system and curriculum, core factors that support a child's academic achievements.

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