The Week Ahead 30 September 2021

Dear parents

A glance at the Week Ahead will give you an important insight into the ways the school is working to support your child’s wellbeing and mental health. You may well have read Mr Roundell’s recent articles on managing your child’s online presence. This week, he provides some initial feedback on the current ‘How are you?’ surveys we have been running for pupils in the Junior and Senior Schools. You will be given further details after the national holiday break but, as you can see from his comments (below), the headline findings report that pupils are happy, feel settled and engaged in their learning. 

Schools across the world are increasingly aware of the need to embed wellbeing and mental health provisions in the education they offer. Wellington College in England led the way in this field, launching wellbeing lessons and mindfulness training to pupils 15 years ago. The school is still a pioneer in pupil welfare, and Tianjin and the other schools in the Wellington College group are all determined to provide our pupils with similar levels of care. Children and young people lead increasingly complicated, high-pressure lives, and I am sure that all parents are aware of the threat of mental illness at an early age. The consequences of a childhood blighted by loneliness, bullying or depression can be lifelong.

I wanted to outline in brief the main ways in which the school seeks to help your child lead a happy, productive life. There are weekly wellbeing lessons in the Nest and the Junior School, focused on assisting children in articulating their feelings, understanding more about friendships, their place in the world and how to resolve conflict. The Nest has its own Leuven scale, assessing pupils' wellbeing and involvement from Eaglets to year 1, measured through a world-leading research project. In the Senior School, wellbeing is delivered through the tutorial programme, in Houses, assemblies and lessons. The trusted adult scheme we have allows pupils to meet 1-1 with an adult they know will allow them to speak openly about concerns they may have. Ms Rogic, Ms Chu, Mr Roundell and Mrs Ryan all offer specific help to individual pupils who report a need to talk, but in reality, every member of staff is ready and willing to support our children.  

These are not new measures, of course, but they work in conjunction with our regular surveys of pupils to gauge their wellbeing levels. The current ‘How are you?’ survey will be repeated later this term and then again later in the year, allowing us to assess the impact of our programmes. PASS testing, measuring pupil attitudes to school and self, has been running in our school since 2017, and we have gathered an invaluable bank of data to help identify pupils who are struggling. PASS material is more than a diagnostic tool. The reports are used to create bespoke, individualised interventions for pupils with the greatest need: those who lack confidence in their ability to learn or whose intrinsic motivation is low. Surveys and data such as those generated by the PASS tests mean that the school can provide proactive support to our pupils, ensuring that our community remains as happy and engaged as possible throughout the school year.

If you would like to know more about the school’s wellbeing programmes, or the PASS tests, or indeed any of the school’s intervention programmes, please do not hesitate to contact us. Mrs Zelda Ryan (zelda.ryan@wellingtoncollege.cn) can deal with queries on wellbeing, and Toby Roundell (toby.roundell@wellingtoncollege.cn) has further details on PASS and other surveys.

Best wishes

Julian Jeffrey
EXECUTIVE MASTER

PASS Survey Week and Key Findings from October’s How Are You Survey

After the October break, we will be administering the PASS survey for all pupils in the Senior School and Year 5 and 6 pupils in the Junior School. This essential annual survey measures pupils’ attitudes towards self, study and school and provides concrete standardised data comparable to other schools throughout the world. Furthermore, it enables the College to identify and support the social and emotional development of individuals who are perhaps reluctant learners. Critically, we can amalgamate PASS data with aptitude data (CAT4) to better understand the roots of learning challenges and thus set up targeted interventions where needed. I will write more about PASS and its relationship with pupil wellbeing, progress and attainment in the coming weeks and share the main findings of the survey in November.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, pupils have been completing the “How Are You” Survey, which measures general wellbeing and how well pupils have settled into the new academic year. The Senior School’s results are in, and I am happy to report the key findings:

1. Pupils feel very positively about their friendship groups across all year groups

2. Levels of motivation for learning are high across all year groups and especially so in years that will be taking public examinations in 2022 (Y11, 12 and 13)

3. Happiness levels are high, with most pupils reporting that they are feeling cheerful most of the time.

We had some pupils who requested an opportunity to talk with a teacher about their feelings, which is fantastic and much encouraged. Housemasters have followed up and arranged appointments with an appropriate teacher for all those who submitted a request. Areas where we are exploring various strategies and interventions to support pupils in response to the overall data of the survey include nutrition and exercise, managing stress and building self-confidence.

The Junior School’s How Are You Survey is not entirely completed yet as we had a shorter week last week due to the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, a cursory glance over the data received thus far suggests that pupils feel a real sense of belonging, that their opinions are listened to, that they are challenged in their learning, and that the majority feel their school life is interesting.

Senior School Sports Day

Tuesday, 12th October

Senior School Sports Day is on Tuesday 12th October. All events will start from Period 3. Only those students who take part in field events and long distance races are to come out on to the field at that time.  The remaining pupils will stay in their timetabled lessons. Teachers and pupils are invited to support during the afternoon session. There are no lessons, ASA or prep that day. Parents are also invited to watch the afternoon events.

Pink Day (Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness day)
Friday, 15th October

Wellington pupils, parents and staff will celebrate Pink Day on Friday 15th October. We would like to invite our pupils to show their support for the Tianjin Cancer Hospital Prevention Centre by wearing an item of pink clothing on that day and donate 10RMB per item of pinkness. Member of Student Council will prepare some exciting activities to help us raise money. 

It has become a tradition to bring together members of our community for a good cause, and this year will not be any different. We would like to organise another 'pink' event. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Maja Rogic at maja.rogic@wellingtoncollege.cn for more information.

All funds raised across the ISCOT schools will be donated to the TICC's charity campaign – a hugely worthy cause.

Year 1 and 2 Chinese Reading Competition: ‘Reading by Heart’
12th-14th October

Nest children started the guided Chinese book reading last year, and we received excellent feedback from the parents. This year, we will hold the first Chinese reading competition - Reading by Heart for year 1 and 2 children from 12th - 14th October 2021. We hope to encourage more children to learn and use Mandarin, enhance their confidence and enjoy the fun of reading in Mandarin through this event,

Nest Parent Meetings
1530hrs-1700hrs, Tuesday and Thursday
12th and 14th October

Your child’s teachers will be contacting you to make an appointment to meet with them on either Tuesday 12th or Thursday 14th October. These meetings are to discuss how your child has settled into their new year group and share any information between home and school. These can be face to face meetings and will take place between 1530hrs and 1700hrs on these two days. You will need to bring your parent card and show your health code in security. Once we know who is coming into school, we will provide a list of names to security so they know to expect you. If you cannot come into school to attend the parent meeting, the staff will facilitate a discussion via Teams. These may be on alternative days and be fitted around teaching time.

To allow the teachers to hold these parent meetings, there will be NO ASAs on these days that are usually delivered by teachers. If your child usually attends any of the Tuesday ASAs - Colour your world, Puppet and story club or Dough Disco or Thursday ASAs – Chinese Idiom Stories, Bilingual stories or Papercraft club- please note, these will not run and will be cancelled for this week. Please arrange to collect your child at the end of the school day on Tuesday and Thursday (timings like Wednesday and Friday)

If your child takes the school bus home on Tuesday and Thursday, we will make arrangements for them to be supervised until the bus leaves.

ASAs delivered by external vendors such as boxing, fun gym, golf, football, judo, Orff music, Chinese characters- these will continue as usual as no teachers are involved.

Please look out for communication from the teachers regarding arranging an appointment.