The Week Ahead 27 August 2021

Dear parents

It has been so good to see your children back in school after the long summer break. The emphasis across the school has been to settle pupils into the routines and rhythms of the new school year. In this way, all pupils, whether new to the school or returning, can assimilate as quickly as possible into a familiar pattern of purposeful learning, developing friendships and embracing the opportunities the school offers.

No doubt by now your child will have reported back on their new teachers, classrooms, the library or the indoor and outdoor Nest facilities. As a result of the current Covid-related access restrictions to the site, it is such a shame that we are prevented from showing off the school more fully to our parent body. You can be assured, though, that, as soon as the measures are eased, parents will be welcomed in to tour the new facilities and meet their child's teachers.

Long-standing parents will know that the school is committed to open, timely and constructive communication between home and school. As a vital first step, I would urge all parents to sign up to your child's class or House T-Chat platform; it is the fastest and most convenient way to establish a dialogue with the members of staff who deal most directly with your child. The school also uses e-mail as a major communication tool. This is used to disseminate whole-school messages and other items of news and information that we consider to be of general interest to families. E-mail is equally helpful as a quick way of sending a message to one of the school's senior leaders. Key e-mail addresses are published in the term diary, so if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to the school.

Meeting with parents remains one of the great pleasures of my role. Direct engagement of this sort helps the school solve potential problems quickly, clarifies school policies and procedures, and raises awareness of forthcoming events. Whilst physical access to the school remains limited for parents, sessions such as those for Meet the Master will be online via Teams (details below). Please do consider joining these; translation is available, and you will have the chance to meet a number of senior colleagues, as well as hear first-hand about the exciting opportunities open to pupils and parents in the coming months.

I look forward to meeting you all at some stage over the course of the year. The strength of our home-school partnership is a source of great dynamism in our community, and I anticipate another year of positive, proactive engagement from all stakeholders.

Best wishes

Julian Jeffrey
MASTER

1400hrs-1500hrs, Thursday
2nd September

This week's Meet the Master slot is an online meeting open to parents of pupils in the Nest and Junior School. Please confirm via e-mail with Ms Emma Shi (emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn) by Wednesday, 1st September if you would like to attend. You will be sent the link for the Teams meeting once you have registered.

Reminder for school entrance every Monday

Every Monday, both green Health Code and Travel Code in e-copies or hardcopies (updated on Sunday or Monday morning) will be checked at the gate or bus stop. Please prepare these documents in advance for your child to ensure an efficient and speedy entrance to the school or school bus. If a pupil's travel code indicates that they have travelled to a city with a medium to high-risk area, please provide a negative nucleic acid report on entry to the school.

All people entering and exiting the campus need to wear a mask. All bus pupils and staff need to wear a mask on the bus.

Reminder for parents at pick-up times

Parents are not permitted to enter the school, according to the latest government policy. As a result, we will temporarily stop offering basement parking to parents.

The pick-up procedure will be similar to last term for the Nest and Senior School, although without entrance to the campus.

Junior School parents will pick up pupils outside the Wellington Arch. Besides checking the green code and travel code for all parents who need to enter the campus, we also need to check the vaccination gold shield on your Health Code or the vaccination certificate, as per the new government policy.

Catering Top-up Service

Compass (the school catering provider) has developed a WeChat Mini-Programme for parents to manage their child's account by supporting credit top-ups, check transactions and view the weekly menu. A daily sample picture will be uploaded to this mini-programme by catering as well. Each child has an individual QR Code for parents to link the account. School catering will send the QR code and guidebook to you by e-mail at a later time. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ms Amber Guo amber.guo@wellingtoncollege.cn or me lisa.liu@wellingtoncollege.cn.

Wellington Food Committees

Our Wellington Food Committees have run smoothly over the past three years. Thank you for all the parental support, especially to the food committee members who have dedicated their time and have been deeply involved in the catering meetings. As a result, we have seen continuous improvement in catering services throughout this time. 

At the beginning of each academic year, we would like to update the food committee member list. As usual, the school will hold termly Food Committee meetings separately for Nest and Main Building. 

If you are interested in joining us in the Food Committee as parent representatives, please send an e-mail to Ms Amber Guo amber.guo@wellingtoncollege.cn with your child's full name and year group, nationality and a brief outline of your experience with nutrition or catering. We would like all responses by Wednesday 8th September 2021. Many thanks for your support.