The Week Ahead 21 September 2018

Dear Parents I was lucky enough to spend the past week attending the opening of six new sister schools across China and Thailand. It was a privilege to witness so many pupils and teachers coming together to celebrate the launch of both international and bilingual schools committed to the five Wellington values and identities. Part of the week was spent in discussions with other senior leaders from across the family of schools. These discussions centred on exploring the links between us, further increasing the bonds that make Wellington such a unique presence on the international schools’ scene. One area of significant development is in establishing a shared commitment to growing the independence of our young people in terms of their learning. This is a determination to afford our pupils a carefully structured programme, developed from their time in the Nest and Junior School, which fosters in them a more profound understanding of how they learn and how they can cope when faced with challenges in their schooling. As with any undertaking in our teaching and learning programmes, the work will be rooted in evidence-based research, ensuring the robustness of the initiatives. In this way, we seek to increase the likelihood of our graduating pupils achieving excellent results whilst still at school, as well as providing them with the tools to succeed at university and beyond. Of course, Old Wellingtonians aged 28, 38 or 48 are just as important a part of our educational philosophy as those aged 18, and our commitment to independent learning will help to ensure that our graduates are well equipped to meet the challenges of life beyond school. You will hear far more about the drive to independence in learning across the year, but I wanted to flag it up at this stage as I know it will resonate with our pupils and parents.   Julian Jeffrey MASTER MEET THE MASTER AND BURSAR Duke of York Room 1400hrs-1515hrs Thursday 27th September This week, the Meet the Master and Bursar slot is aimed at parents of pupils in all year groups. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email with Ms. Emma Shi  (emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn) by Wednesday 26th September. FROM THE BURSAR Pork served in Compass Canteens: Statement In light of a number of cases of African swine fever reported in a few provinces in China, and to reflect our commitment to providing only the safest ingredients to our community, please see below for a statement from Compass China. From school point of view, we will keep a close eye on its status. [From Compass China HSE Department] After the first case of African swine fever was reported in Shenyang, cases of African swine fever broke out in Zhengzhou, Lianyungang and Wenzhou in recent days. At present, the epidemic has been effectively controlled. African swine fever is not a zoonosis, the virus will not infect humans. We will continuously pay attention to supply chain management and our daily operations to minimize risks to ensure that our supply of pork products safety.

• We ask pork suppliers to self-check the product source again, double checked all pork were from local safe regions.
• We continued to ask our pork suppliers to strengthen control of upstream suppliers to ensure the pork products are safe with the letter of quality guarantee from pork supplier.
• DC and units will strengthen the quarantine certificate inspection of each products during receiving to ensure that all the related products are safe.

Please be assured that we are taking the matter very seriously and have been keeping the issue in view very closely.   Catering In cooperation with our catering company, Compass, we pursue continuous improvement in our food service. This term, we have had food committee meetings for the Main building and the Nest, as well as a catering feedback meeting for representatives of the Student Council. Detailed meeting minutes of the food committees will be disclosed in the next Bursarial communication letter, published next week. If you would like to raise any concern or question regarding catering, please send email to foodcomm.tianjin@wellingtoncollege.cn. We will reply to you in a timely manner.   New Running Track Test Report As the final step of the contract, we have got the test report of the running track sample from National Testing Centre for Building Materials. This indicates final test result are fully qualified. FROM THE HEAD OF EARLY YEARS Nest Parents’ Briefing Positive Behaviour Management Nest Playroom N106 1000hrs-1100hrs Wednesday 26th September In the Nest, there is an emphasis on creating an environment where children are praised for demonstrating positive behaviours. We would like to share this behaviour management strategy with our parents on Wednesday, 26th September at 1000hrs in the Nest playroom N106. Please join us! Baseline report Early Years’ pupils will have their Baseline report available on Tapestry on Friday 28th September. We will then follow up with parents’ evenings on 9th and 11th October to discuss the results in detail. Should you have immediate any concerns, please feel free to contact your class teacher to schedule an earlier appointment. FROM THE SCHOOL NURSE Teaching children the importance of oral hygiene should begin at a young age as this will help develop healthy practices that will later on result in fewer dental problems. At the beginning of each academic year, Nest children undergo routine medical checks of their eyes and teeth. Tianjin Xin Ai Chi Dental Clinic visited the school on Monday, 17th September and conducted a dental check. Parents were then sent individual feedback from the clinic and important information on how to keep children's teeth healthy. For further information, please contact the school nurse. FROM MS KRISTY DINGLI As an extension of their learning about 'Healthy Eating', the Reception children will go on their first trip of the academic year on Tuesday, 25th September, to visit Raffles Medical Clinic in Tianjin. Medical professionals will discuss the human body and how eating nutritious food and maintaining an active lifestyle is necessary for a healthy body and wellbeing. FROM THE HEAD OF SIXTH FORM University Fair Black Box and Foyer 1300hrs-1800hrs Wednesday 26th September Our fifth Annual International University Fair takes place on Wednesday 26th September from 1300hrs-1800hrs and promises to be the biggest ever. With just one week to go, we have over 50 universities, art schools, liberal arts colleges and hospitality management schools confirmed to attend. We have made great efforts this year to have a more balanced mix of UK/US universities, as well as representatives from Australia, Canada, Europe and Asia. Though many parents and pupils will be able to have a conversation with one of their top choice universities, the number of admissions officers and representatives means that there is access to advice from a huge range of experts on the application process. As last year, a number of admissions’ officers from around the world will give presentations, tips and Q&A sessions to discuss the similarities and differences between the application process for different countries. We have speakers from Nottingham university and the university of East Anglia, for example, who will be talking about the application process to the UK; our own university guidance counsellor, Ms Luyi Feng, will be giving a presentation on how to apply to Canadian Universities; and a representative from the university of Queensland will be giving advice on how to apply to Australian universities. Rochester Institute of Technology will be on hand to offer insight into how to apply to American universities. Parents of pupils in all year groups are most welcome to attend and there will be some translation support available for those parents who do not speak English. The Fair will take place in the Black Box, Common Room and the area outside the Black Box. FROM THE DEPUTY HEAD OF SIXTH FORM Englong Education Visit Common Room 1530hrs-1630hrs Tuesday 25th September The school has a highly experienced team working with your children to support their journey to top universities throughout the world and we have an extensive network of connections and contacts in admissions offices in the UK, the US, Australia & Canada. In addition to our in-house provision, we appreciate that some parents will still opt for a second opinion from an independent advisor or agent and with this in mind, we will be hosting a presentation from Englong Education on the 25th September at 1530hrs. Englong have considerable experience in working with Chinese families to ensure a smooth transition to UK universities. Individual consultancy sessions will be available from 1630hrs to 1730hrs. FROM THE ACADEMIC ASSISTANT (SENIOR SCHOOL) The first reporting cycle for this academic year is about to begin and I wanted to draw your attention to some changes. In line with our introduction of Age-Related Expectations (ARE), Key Stage 3 pupils’ Attainment and Target grades will be reported as a word rather than a number. Please see the chart below. These grades will change each academic year, so these should no longer be read as end of Key Stage Targets as they were in previous years, but rather end of year targets. As a result of changes in the UK to the GCSE grading system, at Key Stage 4, some subjects will be reported as a number from 9-1. These are DT, Art, French, Spanish and Science in Year 10 only. All other subjects at Key Stage 4 and 5 will continue to be reported in letters (A*, A, B, C etc.). Please see the conversion chart below. In this reporting cycle full written reports will be produced for Years 11,12 and 13, and Interim reports will be available for Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and Year 11 A Level Induction year. All reports will be published on the Parent Portal on Friday, 26th October. If you have any questions about how we report your child’s progress in light of these changes, please contact Mrs Jane Arden (jane.arden@wellingtoncollege.cn) or Mrs Dragana Popovic (dragana.popovic@wellingtoncollege.cn). FROM THE HEAD OF MANDARIN Chinese Culture Week 25th - 28th September To celebrate the mid-Autumn festival, the Mandarin department has prepared a range of traditional activities around Junior and Senior School this week. Please find the following event arrangement below:   Tuesday 25th September Chinese traditional games (whole school)   Wednesday 26th September   Junior School Assembly / Traditional Dress Day (Junior school)   Thursday 27th September  Chinese traditional games (Junior School)/ Traditional Dress Day (Senior School)   Chinese Drama: Hometown Theatre 1600hrs - 1700hrs Thursday 27th September There will be a Chinese drama – Hometown, directed and performed by Year 11 (A Level Induction group) pupils. Parents of pupils in all year groups are most welcome to attend. FROM THE HEAD OF MUSIC DEPARTMENT Lunch Time Recital Black Box 1325hrs-1355hrs Friday 28th September Friday 28th will feature our first lunchtime concert of the academic year. This concert will take place between 1330-1400hrs in the Black Box theatre. This concert will feature instrumental and vocal performances. All parents are warmly invited to attend; please be seated by 1325hrs. FROM THE HEAD OF ART Open Exhibition Next week sees the opening of our very first Open Exhibition. This gives our pupils a chance to display any piece of creative endeavour which they have chosen to make in their own time. It promises to be a fascinating insight into the interests of our young people. The exhibition will celebrate a wide range of talent and skill including photography, observational drawing and digital compositions. The work will be on show from Tuesday. Everyone from the community is welcome - please follow directions from the atrium! Steinway Musicians Concert Series Black Box  1400hrs Saturday 29th September In order to enrich the pupil experience, we’ll be inviting a series of world famous Steinway pianists to perform here at Wellington College in Tianjin, and deliver master-classes to our students over the next few months. This first of these exciting events will begin on the 29th of September at 1400hrs. We welcome all our friends and families from the Wellington community to enjoy this special series of concerts and master-classes. Next week we will have Mr. Lance Wiseman who has graduated from the world renowned Julliard school of music. He has performed a large repertoire of recitals and solo concertos all over the world and has gained an international reputation as an ambassador of piano music with performances in Greece, Switzerland, Berlin, London, France, Russia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, United States, among many others. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email by Thursday 27th September. Admission free for the Wellington Community. events.tianjin@wellingtoncollege.cn