Dear Parents I am very pleased to announce the completion of the first stage of our review of the school’s five core values of respect, courage, kindness, responsibility and integrity. You will recall from earlier communications with parents that one of my key aims for the year was to bring clarity and consistency to our understanding of these values, and more importantly, how they would look in practice across our community. Every successful institution places values at the heart of its being. Core values bring a shared sense of identity and purpose to the organisation, and as such provide an invaluable unifying force for all the component parts. For many businesses, the values they espouse are limited to their employees, but for us the aim was far more ambitious: to build a recognition of our values, and from them, establish an agreed set of behaviours for all our community – pupils, staff and parents. In itself, this was a challenge, but with the additional linguistic and cultural differences to overcome, it has become a more complex and interesting project. The working group on the values has now produced its recommendations. These seek to give clarity to the types of behaviours we expect to see associated with the individual values. The draft proposals are accessible on the school’s website, *( see below) and I would urge parents and friends of the school to spend a few minutes in reading them. At present, they are only in English, but once the framework has been adopted and any amendments made, they will be published in English, Chinese and Korean. The aim is to reinforce the behaviours we would love to see (those exceptional ones that go above and beyond the everyday conduct we hold ourselves to); those we expect to see (in other words, the basic levels of conduct we want to see from all our community); and a third group of behaviours, deemed incompatible with Wellington’s values and expectations. Parental engagement with this project has already been strong, but for this process to really gain traction and become embedded within the shared society we seek to build here, I would love to have further feedback. The launch of our new ‘living values’ project is January 2018, and there will be opportunities for parents to come in to school and engage with our staff and pupils in making this initiative a reality for all of us. Each and every member of the Wellington community here in Tianjin is warmly invited to participate and let their voices be heard. Best wishes Julian Jeffrey Master *https://www.wellingtoncollege.cn/docs/wccti/STATEMENT_OF_LIVING_VALUES.pdf MEET THE MASTER Master’s Office 1400hrs-1515hrs Thursday 9th November This week, the Meet the Master slot is aimed at parents of pupils in Years 7-11. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email with Ms. Emma Shi (emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn) by Wednesday 8th November. Black Box 1400hrs-1500hrs Monday 6th November Meet the Bursar will be on Monday 6th November, we will have the new Bursar Mrs Julia Ji and new Facility Manager Mr Charles Han to give a previous actions review of the college. Please send Ms Lisa Liu (lisa.liu@wellingtoncollege.cn) a message if you are planning to attend and any specific topics you would like to raise. This will help us to ensure we have enough space and refreshments. REPORTING IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL Black Box 0900hrs-1000hrs Wednesday 8th November Every Wednesday morning from 0900hrs, 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 next week’s meeting, Mrs Yynda Thomas, the Head of Junior School, will give a presentation on the reporting in the Junior School.   Years 8 & 10 Parents' Evening Dining Hall 1700hrs-1830hrs Tuesday 7th November Parents' Evening for the parents of the pupils in Years 8 and 10 will be organized on Tuesday, 7th November from 1700-1830hrs in the Dining Hall. Pupils should make appointments with their teachers in advance to ease the queues that can form at such events. Parents will have an opportunity to talk about their child’s progress and areas for improvement with the subject teachers. Members of the Senior Management Team will also be present on both evenings to address any enquiries parents might have. Anti-Bullying Week ‘Bullying is a behaviour against a person that is hurtful, repetitive, intentional and intends to control another person.’ Anti-Bullying Week starts on 6th November across the whole school. During the week, we aim to raise awareness and educate the children about an issue that we take very seriously here in Wellington. The children will have opportunities to do some writing about bullying, listen to break-time workshops, enter competitions and experience many other activities in class and tutorial time. The student council leaders and the House Captains in the Junior School have combined with Year 9 pupils, Senior prefects and the school safeguarding team to plan some engaging and exciting learning opportunities. Celia (Head of College) will also be launching the pupil made “Honour Code” in the Senior School. All these activities are following on from two recent successful and informative anti-bullying events, the Parent workshop on anti-bullying and the school survey for pupils in Years 4 to 13. We have work to do in addressing concerns that have been raised and this will be done, but what we do know is that bullying can only be addressed, reduced and ultimately eliminated if the whole community makes the commitment to change. Our week is titled “STOP IT and LIVE IT!” Stop the behaviours of bullying and live the Wellington values every day. If you would like further information please contact Mr Lewis at jonathan.lewis@wellingtoncollege.cn. If you are concerned about bullying involving your child please talk to your child’s Tutor or Teacher.   Shakespeare ASA Performance - "Twelfth Night" Seldon Theatre 1400hrs-1515hrs Thursday 9th November On the 9th November pupils from the Junior Shakespeare Drama Club will perform “Twelfth Night”, one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s comedies. We will be taken to the coast of Illyria, to watch a tale of unrequited love and mistaken identity, a story that is full of humour and unexpected twists. This production is an example of a great cooperation between the Junior and Senior School. Young performers have been led and supported by Year 13 pupils. Senior School Europe Trip 10th-19th November Friday 10th November will see a very early and chilly start for 20 of our pupils and 4 staff who will be setting off for what we hope will be a truly enlightening trip to Europe. A jam-packed schedule will include a wide variety of activities, tours and visits across three beautiful cities in Europe, Berlin, Prague and Krakow. Pupils will visit many places of historical interest: Wannsee House – the place in which the fate of the Jewish community in Europe was sealed, the Jewish cemetery in Prague and the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Krakow. Interspersed between these experiences will be a variety of cultural and social attractions. Finally, it wouldn’t be Christmas in Europe without a visit to at least one Christmas Market for a mulled wine and some stollen cake. We look forward to sharing our adventures with the school after our return on Sunday 19th November. Global Social Leaders Programme Following an initial pilot programme last December and a whole school assembly by the CEO of Global Social Leaders (GSL) last week, we would like to gather any expressions of interest in participation from our pupils and parents. This will help to decide how we proceed, and whether we host a 5-day Global Social Leaders Catalyst course at our school this summer in Tianjin, or send a group to the UK or Shanghai for programmes at our Wellington family schools. I am keen to know likely numbers, so I can decide if we run a trip and how we can best support those pupils keen to attend a course as places are limited. Please visit https://podio.com/webforms/19737729/1336353 to complete an expression of interest. The deadline for submitting this expression of interest form is 13th November. If you have any questions regarding the programme please email the Future Foundations team: social.leaders@future-foundations.co.uk or visit the GSL website to find out more about the programmes: https://www.globalsocialleaders.com/. If you have any questions about our school’s role, please email Mrs Sabio: jayne.sabio@wellingtoncollege.cn. Art Trip to Huangshan The Art trip to Huangshan has been postponed, but there will be another opportunity to go later in the year so please watch this space. Another exciting end to another packed week for the children in the Junior School.  The children and staff all dressed up on Friday in their scary Halloween costumes. They paraded around the Junior School corridors to show off their most scary stares! We were then welcomed to the Celebration Assembly by Year 5 non-native Mandarin team singing a Chinese Halloween song. I was extremely privileged to be part of many English and Maths lessons last week. It is so pleasing to see the amount of collaboration in English in all classrooms. As we all know, the more the children talk in a second language, the quicker they will improve their skill and confidence in that language, which in turn accelerates the academic achievements in English and reading. During my visits to the classrooms I saw lots of exciting learning activities– those lessons never happened when I was young! Year 1 pupils recounted the Gruffalo story. The children all had parts to play and to think about how the characters would act and feel when they saw the Gruffalo. Year 2 were practising their rhyming words and putting them into couplets, to help them understand even though the word has the same sound (phoneme) it can have a different spelling (grapheme). Year 3 pupils were writing questions to interview Pirate Bear about his amazing adventures. After they had thought of their questions, they role-played their interview techniques. All the children were involved in this learning activity. In Year 4, children were writing instructions on how to brush their teeth; this was quite amusing as during the plenary one little girl used her instructions on Mr Cameron. Needless to say the children fully understood that they cannot miss out important instructions otherwise they will have half a tube of toothpaste on their toothbrush! Year 5 have been using Pie Corbett ‘Talk 4 Writing’ to write stories using drama and pictorial representations for words, then the children can write their amazing and exciting story. Year 6 pupils used a range of adverbial phrases for sentence starters – a high level of academic challenge was needed to complete the task. Three different activities were given to the children to support all learning needs. These grammar activities support the children’s writing expectations. Also in Year 6 Maths, the children were looking at equivalent fractions. There were four differentiated activities from identifying what an equivalent fraction is, to completing a puzzle with all four operations, finding equivalent fractions in shapes and finally drawing equivalent fractions. Our Attendance Award goes to Mr Cameron’s class! The children in Mr. Cameron’s class must be extremely healthy young children and thoroughly enjoy coming to school. Blucher House won the most house points. There will be a pizza party for the House that has the most house points at the end of Michaelmas term. The children can be awarded house points for excellent work, trying hard and showing the Wellington Values – it’s easy. Golden Learning Moment Year 6 “Go with the flow” experiment. Children dug a river bed in our long jump pit and poured water in it to see how the water would flow. Quote from a child: "I really enjoyed making the three parts of the river and pouring the water down the 'mountain'   Chinese Literacy Exhibition Year 6 native Mandarin "Chinese literacy" exit point was held successfully last Thursday. All the pupils gave an excellent performance and improved lots of skills in learning Chinese literacy, which includes famous writer interviews, main characters analysis, original compositions reading, handmade bookmark sale and learning experience sharing (by watching video). Thank you to all the parents who joined us and a big thank you to all the children for their continued hard work!   Monday 06 November 2017 All Day Anti-Bullying Week (to 10th) (JL) 1400hrs - 1500hrs Meet the Bursar (LL) (Black Box) Tuesday 07 November 2017 0830hrs - 0930hrs WCA English Class: beginners (PF) (MB 235) 0900hrs - 1030hrs WCA: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) (WCA Room) 1100hrs - 1200hrs WCA: Pilates (Black Box ) 1700hrs - 1830hrs Parents' Evening: Years 8 & 10 (DP) Wednesday 08 November 2017 0830hrs - 1200hrs Nursery: Educational visit (ZA) 0900hrs - 1000hrs Parent Briefing: Reporting in the Junior School (YT) (Black Box) 1400hrs - 1830hrs HS Basketball vs TEDA IS (a) (SC) Thursday 09 November 2017 All Day World Scholar's Cup (to 17th) (EP) (Yale University) All Day Model United Nations (TIANMUN) (to 11th) (DJ) 0830hrs - 1200hrs Eaglets: Educational visit (SL) 1100hrs - 1200hrs WCA: English Class - Intermediate/Advanced (PF) (MB 231) 1400hrs - 1515hrs Meet the Master: Years 7-11 Parents (ES) (Master's Study) 1400hrs - 1515hrs Shakespeare ASA Performance (YT) (Theatre) Friday 10 November 2017 0830hrs - 1100hrs WCA: Art Class (KM) (Junior Art Room) 0830hrs - 1200hrs Eaglets: Educational visit (SL) 0930hrs - 1030hrs WCA: Pilates (Dance Studio) All Day Senior School Europe Trip (to 19th)