The Week Ahead 22 February 2019

Dear parents I am sure that you will all be aware of the success enjoyed by Wellingtonians at the USAP and USAD competitions in Chengdu. In our first year of entry, almost 50 pupils from across the Senior School competed against students from the finest schools across China, and I am delighted to report that we won a series of medals at all levels in both competitions. One of our USAP Year 7 teams ended up in second place overall, out of a field of 135 schools; a remarkable achievement. You will hear more of the exploits of the USAP and USAD teams in the coming days, but the hard work, commitment and shared success of our pupils reminded me of the academic progress being made by young people across the school. Our aim has always been to educate children in a safe and nurturing environment, providing them with the opportunities to develop as genuinely scholarly pupils. Our IGCSE candidates in Years 10 and 11 are likely to achieve our best ever results in August, and at the top end of the school, offers from the world’s leading universities for our Year 13 pupils continue to arrive each week. The UK and US are popular with our graduates this year, and the indications are that they will move on at the end of the year with outstanding A Level results and gain admissions to top-ranked universities and colleges. It is never too young to start thinking about higher education courses, and as Mrs Sabio’s regular briefings and newsletters indicate, the path to successful preparation is a long and involved one. We are looking for fresh opportunities for our pupils all the time, and I wanted to give you a flavour of what is coming up over the coming months: 1. We have more national and international academic competitions on the horizon, perhaps not on the epic scale of USAP/USAD, but nevertheless retaining the key element of rewarding elite performance at each event. 2. University visits. Mrs Sabio and members of her team will once again go to visit some of the top Korean universities in March. These links have created strong networks between our school and Korea, as well as firmly putting the name of the school on the map for admissions’ officers. I am lucky enough to have been invited to tour three of Hong Kong’s top universities, again in March; you will hear more about these trips before the end of term. We also have Johns Hopkins University (QS world ranked 21st) and UCL (QS ranked 10th) visiting us next March. 3. Scholars’ visits: we are going to publish dates of all next year’s school trips in a couple of weeks, to help parents plan ahead, but I wanted to flag up that, aside from our usual trips to Wellington and Europe, we will be offering a small-scale tour for scholars to Oxford and Cambridge. Further details will be sent out later this term, but pupils from Years 7-12 will have the chance to tour the universities and visit Wellington College early in the new academic year. The goal is to give our young prospects (and their parents) a chance to see the colleges first-hand, talk to admissions’ tutors and begin to plan an application process. It is an exciting development for us, helping to focus attention on the opportunities open to Wellingtonians, and we will be able to create a bespoke tour to maximise impact. I very much hope to follow that up with a similar tour to the US in 2020/21. We are a school determined to forge multi-layered pathways for our pupils to be able to graduate from Wellington and join the universities best suited to fostering their talent further. Oxbridge and the Ivy League destinations are a central part of this plan, offering an education which rivals that of any school in the region and beyond. Best wishes Julian Jeffrey MASTER MEET THE MASTER Duke of York’s Room 1400hrs - 1515hrs Thursday 28th February This week, the Meet the Master slot is aimed at parents of pupils in Years 12 and 13. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email with Ms. Emma Shi (emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn) by Wednesday 27th February. PARENTS BRIEFING: INTRODUCING COMMUNICATION APPS FOR THE SCHOOL  Common Room 0900hrs - 1015hrs Wednesday 27th February Every Wednesday morning from 0900hrs -1015hrs, parents will have the chance to engage with the school in sessions that cover all aspects of your child’s education, from the Early Years to A Levels and university admissions. The venue will vary according to the anticipated audience, and for this week's meeting, Mrs Dragana Popovic, the Head of Senior School, Bursar Mrs Julia Ji and the Academy programme manager Mr Eelco van Kuilenburg will be providing information about the apps available for parents to ease communication with the school. They will present the School Buddy app for selecting the ASAs and booking appointments for parents' evenings), Parent Portal app and the Bus service app. FROM THE HEAD OF THE SENIOR SCHOOL Senior School Parents' Evenings Years 12 and 13 Dining Hall 1700hrs - 1830hrs, Tuesday  26th February   Year 11 Dining Hall 1700hrs - 1830hrs, Thursday 28th February There are two Parents' Evenings next week. Parents' evening for pupils in Years 12 and 13 will be on Tuesday 26th February and for Year 11 will be on Thursday 28th February. Both evenings run from 1700hrs to 1830hrs in the Dining Hall. Parents will have an opportunity to talk to their child's teachers about their performance in mock examinations held at the beginning of this term and discuss next steps when it comes to the preparation for IGCSE or A level exams in May/June series. Parents are encouraged to bring a copy of the reports with them to the meetings. Members of the Senior Management team will be present to address questions that parents might have. FROM MRS CHERUKARA MUN Trip: Qingdao 28th February - 2nd March Fifteen delegates from our school are busy preparing to attend the Eleventh Annual Conference of Model United Nations of International School Consortium (MUNiSC) in Qingdao that will be held from February 28th to March 2nd, 2019. For this conference, the team has selected issues in compliance with the theme of ‘Making Inroads into Poverty’. Poverty is a problem that has existed for centuries, but has never been resolved. During the conference, delegates will be able to make great strides in ‘making inroads into poverty’ theme. We believe that the conference will be an eye-opener for delegates as every participant gets a chance to better understand the complexity of this problem in our world. The delegates will be traveling to Qingdao by 1400hrs on 27th February and we will be back on 2nd March. They will represent different countries in 8 different UN committees along with 350 delegates from over 25 schools this year. FROM THE HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL PE Junior School House Badminton Week  This week sees the annual Junior School Badminton Inter-House Competition. Pupils from Years 2 to 6 will compete in small teams in a bid to secure the coveted badminton trophy for their House. I wish all of our pupils the very best of luck for their matches over the coming week.