The Week Ahead 29 March 2019

Dear parents Next week sees the school enjoying a well-deserved break. It has been almost seven weeks since we returned from the Chinese New Year holiday, and the school has been busy every day during that time. Weekends have not been exempt from this, consumed by rehearsals for the astonishing West Side Story production, ISCOT sports’ tournaments, extra revision sessions for public examinations, a full Academy programme and the hectic USAP/USAD trips. The break is important in recharging batteries and giving our pupils and staff time to prepare for the coming term. The Summer term promises to be another dynamic and purposeful time for us, and instead of focusing on just the coming week in the school, I thought I would share with you all our priorities for the next three months so that parents felt as engaged in our community as any other stakeholders. I think there are three key areas of focus before the summer holidays: i. Fulfilling the academic potential of all our learners: we have set very ambitious targets for all our public examination candidates once again this year as we look to provide them with the best chance of gaining admission to the world’s leading universities. Clearly, much of the focus in the top years of the school will be in supporting and stretching our pupils to reach – and exceed – their individual targets. However, pupils across the school also have targets to work towards; their progress and attainment is equally important in providing a launch pad for the coming year. As parents, you will know that we aim to go well beyond the expectations for pupils in UK schools as we challenge ourselves to match the best schools in the world, so you can expect your children and their teachers to be working hard right up until the school year ends on 29th June. Literacy continues to provide a significant focus for us as we look to accelerate progress. Across the school, children, staff and parents are being encouraged to further a love of reading and writing. Parents can foster this by providing dedicated time to literacy projects at home, spending time with their children in discovering the joy of shared reading or creative writing activities. ii. Providing wider educational opportunities for our pupils and families: academic results are a key way of gauging pupil success, but Wellington seeks to offer a genuinely holistic programme for its young people. As a result, exciting learning opportunities outside the classroom are also planned for the summer term. The most high-profile event is surely the Festival of Education, on 19th/20th April. Building on the success of the 2018 EdFest, we are once again hosting a huge range of educators, influential thinkers and innovators from the world of global education. The programme, with sessions in both English and Chinese, will offer stimulating discussion and debate for professionals and parents alike, whilst our older pupils will also gain a huge amount from the experience. Further details are available within this Week Ahead. School trips offer another way for children to learn beyond the classroom, and with major residential visits to Shanghai, Wellington in the UK, the Great Wall at Beijing and Kenya to come, more and more of our children will have the chance to gain wider access to ways of learning. iii. Building the community: one of the most encouraging reflections from this week’s Annual Review team came when they reported how strong the pupils’ sense of community was across the school. For them, it centred on supporting one another and feeling able to contribute to the overall progress of the school, but for me it equally encompasses our families and their friends. I have written many times on the power of positive parental engagement with the school, and groups like the ever-expanding Friends of Wellington (FOW) reflect the range of interests of our wider community. The FOW will continue to offer a full programme of activities and lessons next term. In addition, we will host three further major annual events which encourage participation from our wider community. The first is the Summer Fair (Saturday 18th May), which once again will be the richer for the support of our wider parent body as we look to raise money for local charitable causes. A week after that (24th May), we have our largest ever Graduation ceremony, with 36 Year 13 leavers celebrating their achievements at Wellington. Our tradition of concluding the year with powerful musical performances is continued this year with a super new Junior School gala (14th June) complimenting the full school Summer Concert on 21st June. Finally, I should highlight the range of sports’ events for the coming term, with a full range of ISCOT events; sports’ days for each section of the school in the week leading to half term; our third annual Tianjin youth football competition as well as a visit from teams representing our sister school in Hangzhou for a mini summer Olympiad (27/28th April). The Lent term has been one of real progress for the school. You will soon be able to read the findings of the 2019 Annual Review team, once again ensuring that parents have a unique opportunity among international schools to assess the quality of our educational provision.  I will also send out the results of the recent parents’ survey, so that you can see how the community feels about the school in all its aspects. My colleagues and I are always more interested in looking forward, though, and the Summer term offers ever more exciting opportunities for your children to learn and grow in a safe and nurturing environment – I encourage you all to continue to engage with the school and its activities whenever possible. I wish you all a very peaceful and restful holiday break. Julian Jeffrey MASTER REMINDERS The Summer term begins at 0800hrs on Monday 8th April. The full school photograph is on Thursday 11th April. All pupils are expected to wear the uniform in full; for details, please check with the Heads of School. Art Every Friday 8:30-11:00 MB125 Mrs Markovic ksenija.jakic@gmail.com Reading club Every Thursday 9:00-12:00 MB125 Mrs Wang 712205@qq.com Mandarin Every Tuesday 10:15-11:15 MB125 Mrs Yuan and Mrs Zhang yizhang001@foxmail.com EAL (lower level) Every Monday 8:30-9:30 MB231 Mr Findlay paul.findlay@wellingtoncollege.cn EAL (higher level) Every Friday 8:30-9:30 MB231 Mr Findlay paul.findlay@wellingtoncollege.cn Pilates Every Tuesday 8:45-10:00 Black Box Mrs Stofkova dstofkova@yahoo.com Pilates Every Friday 8:45-10:00 Black Box Mrs Stofkova dstofkova@yahoo.com Yoga Every Wednesday 8:45-10:00 Black Box Mrs Havlíková havlikann@gmail.com Yoga Every Thursday 10:45-12:00 Black Box Mrs Havlíková havlikann@gmail.com Traditional Chinese Medicine Every Thursday 9:00-10:30 MB207 Mrs Markovic ksenija.jakic@gmail.com Notice: Any changes of time/date/venue please follow the notice according to the course organizer. UPCOMING EVENTS Monday 08 April 2019 All Day Summer Term begins (ES) All Day Week A 7:40AM Full staff briefing (ES) (Common Room) 8:30AM - 9:30AM FOW EAL (Beginners) (PF) (MB 235) 3:05PM - 3:45PM Senior School Assembly (JMS) (Theatre) 5:00PM - 6:00PM HOD's Meeting (DP) (Duke of York's room) Tuesday 09 April 2019 8:45AM - 10:00AM FOW Pilates (ES) (Black Box) 10:15AM - 11:15AM FOW Mandarin Class (ES) (MB 125) Wednesday 10 April 2019 8:45AM - 10:00AM FOW Yoga (ES) (Black Box) 9:00AM - 10:15AM Parents' Briefing: (ES) (Common Room) 3:05PM - 3:45PM Junior School Assembly (RA) (Theatre) 4:00PM - 5:00PM Staff CPD (JL) 4:00PM - 6:00PM HS Boys Football vs TIS (a) (RG) Thursday 11 April 2019 All Day School Photograph (JZ) 8:30AM - 9:30AM IT Committee (GM) (Duke of York's room) 9:00AM - 10:30AM FOW: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) (ES) (WCA Room) 9:00AM - 12:00PM FOW Reading Group (ES) (MB 125) 10:45AM-12:00PM FOW: Yoga (ES) (Black Box) 2:00PM - 3:15PM Meet the Master: Year 12-13 parents (ES) (Duke of York's room) Friday 12 April 2019 8:30AM - 9:00AM Nest Assembly (DZ) (Theatre) 8:30AM - 9:30AM FOW EAL (Advanced) (PF) (MB 231) 8:30AM - 11:00AM FOW Art Class (KM) (MB 125) 8:30AM - 3:30PM Year 9 Mandarin trip (YZ) 8:45AM - 10:00AM FOW Pilates (ES) (Black Box) 3:05PM - 3:45PM Senior School Inter-House Table Tennis (RG) (Sports Centre) 6:30PM - 9:30PM World Scholar's Cup (North China round) (to 13th) (YY) (Theatre)