The Week Ahead 19 October 2017

Dear Parents There has been a great deal of work going on this term in defining our Wellington values – respect, kindness, courage, responsibility and integrity – for the Tianjin context. Time and again, I have come back to the theme of what does this value look like in our community? What can we all, as participants and members of the community, expect for ourselves and others with these as living, vibrant values? The working party we convened at the start of the year has now met several times and finalised some proposals, which we will bring to our wider community for discussion in November. The aim is not to present a fait accompli in terms of the values and how we interpret them, but rather a series of ideas and prompts for us to use in our engagement with the Wellington family. In this way, the proposals seek to present some practical ways in which we see the values being exhibited around the school, further engendering a sense of shared ethos and community. The group has been comprised of representatives from the staff, parents and, crucially, the pupil body. Celia (Year 13), Kai Yi and Mimi (Year 6) have led the discussions in our group a number of times, providing thoughtful and mature insights in how the values impact upon the young people in our school. Pupil voice and leadership are increasing features within the school. We recognise the importance of listening to our pupils through prefect roles, mentors, surveys and weekly meetings with the school leadership teams. One thing that is obvious from the feedback we get from the pupils is how seriously they take their role in helping the school to improve and how sensitive their insights are into the issues that impact our community. Celia, Kai Yi and Mimi may just be three of our young leaders, but they represent the deep well of talent and maturity we have here in the school. Best wishes Julian Master

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MEET THE MASTER Master’s Office 1400hrs-1515hrs, Thursday 26th October This week, the Meet the Master slot is aimed at parents of pupils in Nest. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email with Ms. Emma Shi (emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn) by Wednesday 25th October.

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ANTI-BULLYING PROGRAMME Common Room 0900hrs-1000hrs Wednesday 25th October 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, Mr Johnathan Lewis, the Deputy Head (Pastoral) will introduce the Anti-Bullying Programme at Wellington.

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Senior School Reports Parent Portal Friday 27th October The reports for Senior School pupils will be published on the Parent Portal on Friday 27th October at 1700hrs. Pupils will also receive a hard copy of the report on the same day. Please note that pupils in Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and Year 11 (A Level Induction) will receive Interim grades, whilst pupils in exam year groups (Years 11, 12 and 13 (both streams)) will receive full written reports.  

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JUNIOR SCHOOL MANDARIN TEACHER Chinese Literacy Exhibition Mandarin classrooms MB118 and MB119 1440hrs-1530hrs Thursday 26th October To celebrate and show off the hard work and brilliant achievements in learning Chinese literacy, Year 6 native Mandarin class is going to have a Chinese literacy exhibition on the 26th October, from 1440hrs to 1530hrs, in Mandarin classrooms MB118 and MB119. A warm welcome from the Junior Mandarin department to all the parents of native-speaking pupils in Year 6 is guaranteed. I believe you will be very proud of your children and be surprised by their fantastic achievements.

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Nest Oral Examination and Lecture Black Box Thursday  24th October  There will be an oral examination for all the Nest pupils and a lecture “Every child can have healthy teeth” given by Tianjin Orange Children’s Dental Clinic. Parents will also have an opportunity to consult the dentist on Tuesday 24th October in the Black Box. A parent letter has been sent out this week. If you have any inquiries, please contact the school nurse directly atcandy.chang@wellingtoncollege.cn. First Aid Lecture Common Room 1400hrs-1500hrs Friday 27th October We have invited the medical team from First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of TCM to provide a first Aid lecture for all parents on Friday afternoon of 27th October at 1400hrs in the Common Room. This lecture is in Mandarin and open to parents of all group children. Please confirm via email with the school nurse (candy.chang@wellingtoncollege.cn) to reserve a place.

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FROM THE HEAD OF EARLY YEARS Halloween Friday 27th October A fun week ahead here in the Nest as we celebrate Halloween on Friday 27th October! Children can come in their favourite costumes and participate in a variety of activities such as cupcake decorating, crafts, music and movement.  This is a regular school day and schedule will be the same as usual.  

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Art Exhibition  21st -27th October Nasca Linien  The very first Art teachers' exhibition 'Mindscape 山水心' will be open next week at Nasca in Wudadao, from Saturday 21st - Friday 27th October. Exhibiting a range of paintings, drawings and prints made by Wellington's Art teachers, the exhibition will be open 10am to 5pm each day with entrance tickets available from the school reception and on the door at Nasca. Tickets are 10 RMB each with proceeds going to the Pink Ribbon charity. There is a special Private View on Wednesday 25th October at 6pm for the Wellington Community. If you would like to attend please confirm at the front desk. There will also be two Art workshops to accompany the exhibition taking place at Nasca. On Saturday 21st October a linocut printing workshop will take place from 1 - 3pm and on Sunday 22nd October a collage workshop from 1pm - 3pm. Each workshop costs 10 RMB per person so if you are interested in participating please contact Nasca directly (details below). We look forward to seeing you there! Nasca can be found at the following address:  113 Chongqing Road Heping District 地点:和平区重庆道113号. Telephone 022-23300113 Email: nasca_linien@hotmail.com

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Updates The Year 6 celebration Assembly starts at 0830hrs on Friday. All parents please sit in the front row. Ms Jia’s Mandarin team will also be presenting on food wastage, which is part of the Junior School Mandarin Committee’s Yearbook. A reminder that there are no ASA on the week of 23rd October due to the Parents’ Evenings. Slips will be sent out by the end of this week. During the Parents’ Evening, all books will be available for parents to view. Reading, Writing and Math targets will be given, and we will have the Chinese translation of the Age-related Expectations. Our next Open Morning is Wednesday 29th November, please email Ms Polly Zhang,polly.zhang@wellingtoncollege.cn to book an appointment.  

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  WCA WORKSHOPS Each week we will have workshops and lectures on various and colourful topics held by our school parents and friends. This is to enhance our bounds as a Wellington Community and we would love to welcome all of you to join us! 

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  Art Class Junior Art Room 0830hrs-1100hrs every Friday  The last Art Class in September was a nice introduction to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Our guest Ms Stacey Liu, Senior School Mandarin Teacher, helped us a lot in explaining the meanings of the Chinese patterns and sharing with us the wonderful tea ceremony. We are really grateful for such a friendly knowledge sharing gesture. As a community, we aware that there is always someone who needs help. WCA Art class takes part in Pink Day Charity by making bookmarks and calendars for this special occasion. We are happy to announce that we sold out all the bookmarks and calendars and collected 1500 RMB for Charity on Pink Friday! I want to say a big thank you to all parents took part in this event: Monica, Anne, Gabi, Yu Ling Wu, Rena, Kiyoko and Martina. This week, we continue to explore the field of art by drawing our self-portraits - the best way to get to know ourselves, who we are, what we think we are and how we present ourselves in a visual way. Come and join us for great art challenges in Junior Art Room!

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Lower Level EAL Class MB 235 0830hrs-0930hrs every Tuesday  This class is for beginner level learners who would like to improve their grammar, vocabulary and all-round language skills. Higher Level EAL Class MB 231 1100hrs-1200hrs  every Thursday  This class is for more confident learners who would like to extend their grammar and vocabulary and will have a focus on improving spoken fluency.  

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Pilates Dance Studio every Tuesday and Friday Pilates is physical exercise system developed by Joseph Pilates. It is complete coordination of body, mind and spirit. Pilates focuses on core strength and balanced muscle development as well as flexibility and increased range of motion for the joints. So don't hesitate, join our classes and feel better. You are warmly welcomed.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): Food Therapy WCA Room 0900hrs-1030hrs every Tuesday  Professor Wang is the Director of Clinical Teaching and Training Department in Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Every Tuesday morning 9:00am to 10:30am, I will demonstrate how to find out you and your family’s health issues and how traditional Chinese medicine help with your family diet, the balance of vegetables and fruits etc. I will also show you how to diagnose your body by looking at the colour of the tongue and your face. The last 15 minutes of the lesson will be a massage session which will be greatly helpful to maintain your health. The whole lesson is completely practical and instructed by cases, look forward to seeing you!

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The children have been working exceptionally hard as usual, as parents saw during our very successful Open Morning last Monday. The school has had some exceptional home-learning projects: please spend time looking at them, as the children spent a lot of time not only on the finished product, but all the work to get to the end product, which is vitally important. I have seen some excellent projects in Year 1 today on ‘what a healthy meal should look like’. I personally liked the plate that had plasticine sausages, bacon and croissant until I realized this was showing what not to have for a healthy meal! The open Maths session on Wednesday night is proving very popular. Parents can see the amount of work that their child is producing; what their child struggles with and the writing which is expected in their Maths books. We are promoting language learning in all subjects where the teachers expect children to explain their strategies, the method they choose and why, and writing real life problems incorporating with the learning topics. However, can I please ask parents to only look at their own child’s Maths book, as a matter of confidentiality? Also, note that this is not a full parent consultation; if you would like to speak about your child’s work, then please make an alternative appointment because all staff have to be at a meeting at 1540hrs. A teacher has also commented that parents have helped themselves to some of the resources in their classroom, which are purchased to help the children. Unfortunately, they are now taken. We want to continue the Maths nights, but we cannot have these events happening. A huge ‘well done’ to Thomas in Year 6! His saxophone playing on Friday was awesome. Many staff and children told me how fantastic his playing was - I cannot wait to hear him myself. Well done also to our Year 2 and 3 football squad who won the first place in the ISCOT competition. It is great to keep hearing how brilliant we are at Wellington for our competitive sports. Wellington prides itself in stretching and celebrating children in all areas academically, musically, artistically and physically. Well done to Year 6B for 100% attendance, there’s an extra playtime for you. To be more eco-friendly, we send out our class letter by ISAMS. If you do not receive this please contact Cissy Zhao cissy.zhao@wellingtoncollege.cn. Golden Learning Moment During Year 5’s literacy lesson, they are using a very well-known approach for writing called Talk 4 Writing. All the children begin with reciting a descriptive paragraph or a whole story from the chosen text. They were asked to use actions or gestures (which you can see in the picture, also please ask your child so that they will remember it) to dramatize the passage. Then they can only use pictures to represent the words before they start to write their own text. This is an extremely popular programme in the UK, and has seen amazing results in both children’s language learning and enjoyment factor. We will be rolling this out to all year groups over the coming months.      

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FROM THE CHARITY COORDINATOR  Pink Day Once again, the Wellington College community in Tianjin marked the Breast Cancer Awareness Month on October 13th. Pupils wore pink clothing and donated money for each item of ‘pinkness’. I’m proud to say that everyone in this community came together to help us raise the awareness for this brilliant cause – our mums in the WCA donated their time, skills and efforts to create a whole host of thoughtful items such as: tasty cakes, wonderful calendars, bookmarks and keyrings – all in passionately pink! Additionally, the money from Friday Pilates lesson was donated to our Pink Day event. I am proud to announce that our community here at Wellington College raised 11,253 RMB for the TICC’s charity campaign. Thank you all for your enormous support and remember to stay breast cancer aware!  

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WellingTEN Talks — ‘Space’ The beginning of the school year meant the beginning of our very popular WellingTEN talks. Two of our brightest pupils and one amazing teacher, Marcos, Alex and Mr. Markovic, had their ten minutes talk on the theme of “space.” All of them interpreted “space” quite differently in their own way. Our first speaker was Marcos in Year 10 who shared his own experience about learning the Chinese characters. He discussed about etymology and that English is a conglomerate of several languages including Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, while Chinese characters all developed from very basic structures into today’s complicated language system. He lastly stated the relationship between the theme and his talk that people use different parts (spaces) of the brain to process data. The next speaker was Mr Markovic who talked about spaces where people can use their phones safely. As people carry expensive devices everywhere, they should be aware of the potential dangers and correct places and times to use these devices. He showed a number of places such as public transport, underground tunnels, theatres and schools. He interacted with the audience by asking which places were the most appropriate places to use their phones. The final speaker of the WellingTEN talk was Year 12 pupil Alex who explored personal space. He deplored the fact that the communication between people has suffered with the recent development of technologies such as Facebook and WeChat that allow ubiquitous mass communication between people. He also shared his enthusiasm about reading books, which represents the different personal spaces of the authors. As usual, the WellingTEN talks were breathtaking and instructive. Pupils are able to show their flair in speaking and inspire their fellow pupils. Wellington welcomes everyone who is eager and willing to show their passion on stage through WellingTEN!

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Monday 23 October 2017 All Day Pupil Survey: Anti-bullying (to 27th) All Day Art Teacher's Exhibition (to 27th) (MFC) (Wu Da Dao) 0900hrs - 1530hrs Festival of Education (MS) 1500hrs - 1830hrs HS Volleyball vs IST (a) Tuesday 24 October 2017 0830hrs - 0930hrs WCA English Class: Lower Level EAL Class (PF) (MB 235) 0900hrs - 1030hrs WCA: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) (WCA Room) 1100hrs - 1200hrs WCA: Pilates (Black Box) 1545hrs - 1830hrs Junior School Parents' Evening: All Year groups (YT) 1600hrs - 1800hrs MS Boys' Football vs TIS (a) Wednesday 25 October 2017 0900hrs - 1000hrs Parent Briefing: Anti-Bullying Programme (JL) (Common Room) Thursday 26 October 2017 0900hrs - 1530hrs House Football: Years 7-9 & 10-13 (RG) (Sports Centre) 1100hrs - 1200hrs WCA: Higher Level EAL Class (PF) (MB 231) 1400hrs - 1515hrs Meet the Master: Nest Parents (ES) (Master's Study) 1545hrs - 1830hrs Junior School Parents' Evening: All Year groups (YT) Friday 27 October 2017 All Day Halloween (YT/JL) 0830hrs - 1100hrs WCA: Art Class (KM) (Junior Art Room) 0930hrs - 1030hrs WCA: Pilates (Dance Studio) Saturday 28 October 2017 0900hrs - 1230hrs Saturday Activity Programme (SAP) (EvK)