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 Another great week of learning here at the Nest and thank you to all our parents who joined us at our parent briefing last Wednesday with our Master, Mr. Julian Jeffrey and Deputy Head, Dr. Yang Yang as they delved into the importance of understanding our core values and how it helps shape our future. That was quite a performance from our Eaglets children during our weekly assembly as they sang their favourite songs. What was evident was their vivid enjoyment and progress in their social and linguistic skills as they all confidently performed on stage. We also welcomed prospective parents during our Open Day as they learned about our program and give children an opportunity to experience a day as a Wellingtonian. Our Reception teachers will be visiting our sister school in Shanghai on Monday to cross moderate our assessments and also to share good practice amongst Wellington schools. We look forward to another week of discovering, learning and thriving together! Eaglets News We have done our first assembly and congratulations to all our children you were all amazing! Next week, we will continue with our topic about our body by making a picture of our faces and noticing the colour of our hair and eyes. We will also be learning the songs, ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ and ‘Wind the bobbin up’. The children will be making patterns using different sized cars and use paint to mark make. Vocabulary words next week will be ‘ready steady go’ and ‘push’. Nursery News We have had a good start on our Topic of Transportation this week that was linked to the value of friendship and good manners. The children have made a lovely friendship quilt to keep Henry the Helicopter warm at nights as their way of saying 'Thank you' for his rides into the sky. They also explored toy car impressions in the play dough, had a go at painting with cars and took part in the helicopter craft. Next week we will continue our Transport Topic by looking at all sorts of trucks and tractors. This will be supported by a lovely story Driving My Tractor by Jan Dobbins.   A kind reminder, the children in the Nest are required to wear indoor shoes while they are at school. Please change your child’s winter boots into indoor shoes when you bring them to school in the mornings. Reception News This week the children have enjoyed learning about our new topic ‘Spring.’ We have read lots of exciting stories about the changes in weather and shared our ideas and feelings about Spring. Next week we will have a ‘Messy Week,’ this means the children will be engaged in very creative and messy activities. Therefore, please be aware children may come home a little dirtier than normal. In Mathematics we will continue with number and measures. Please also note that Ms Padfield, Miss Dingli and Ms Jordan will be absent on Monday the 25th February for a staff meeting in Shanghai. However, Ms. Zantua is arranging appropriate cover. Year 1 News Well, we did it! We made it through the first full week back, since the holiday! Year 1 are always busy, and this week was no exception! In Literacy, students completed their weekly Weekend News and have been learning how to use adjectives in their writing. In Numeracy, Miss Millar and Ms Sam’s group completed their unit on money and currency, while Mrs Maliphant and Ms Kristen’s group consolidated students’ knowledge and understanding of patterns and positional language. In IPC, we have continued to investigate the properties of materials and push/pull forces. On Thursday, Year 1 participated in a sushi making activity. The children were all eager to get involved and had a lot of fun! Next week in Literacy, we will continue to work on recognition and formation of lowercase and uppercase letters and descriptive writing. In Numeracy, Miss Millar and Ms Sam’s Maths Group will be introduced to fractions. Mrs Mailphant & Ms Kristen’s Maths Group will focus on money and currency, time length, height, weight and capacity. In IPC, we will continue to learn about materials and their properties and push and pull forces. Finally, in Mandarin, the Native group- will be learning about the different parts of a poem and Pinyin. The Non-Native group will learn how to describe Spring in Mandarin. We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you next week. 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.