The Week Ahead 30th October 2020

Dear parents

The first term seems to be flying by, and with a short break coming up at the end of the coming week, we are already well into the academic year. Academic progress is good across the school, and as we approach the assessment and reporting season, I notice data from across the school indicates that our pupils are making encouraging progress against their ambitious targets. Children at all levels are on track in terms of academic outcomes and give the emphasis we place on effort as well as pure attainment, I am confident that we are well placed to meet – and perhaps even exceed – last year’s momentous results.

Great results are one sign that a school is performing well, but it can never be the only indicator. Children and young people are not machines – they need to feel secure, confident and in control of their lives if they are to perform to the best of their abilities. Managing their social and emotional lives is a crucial part of our education here at Wellington. Studies from the UK suggest that a comprehensive wellbeing programme can add more than 10% to a child’s results at IGCSE and for our pupils to flourish in the way we expect, we need to be able to support them with a robust pastoral system.

One of the most insidious and potentially damaging threats to wellbeing is the impact of stress. We do not seek to eliminate stress from the lives of our pupils; that would be a near-impossible goal however praiseworthy it sounds in theory. Stress that is managed and channelled is positive in that it stimulates energy and helps us to meet daily tasks. Our aim, through projects such as next week’s stress awareness week, is not to try and eliminate stress. It is more aimed at helping pupils to understand what happens to their minds and bodies when stress goes beyond tolerance levels. Too much stress triggers a raft of physical and mental symptoms which, if left unresolved, can cause long-term harm to even the healthiest and most resilient of us.

One of the hardest things is to recognise when you are experiencing excessive levels of stress. The symptoms are often physical – tiredness, irritability, an inability to concentrate for long periods, for example, and might therefore not immediately be traced back to stress. In some cultures, it may also be taken for a sign of being ‘tough’, signalling a capacity to absorb stress in superhuman quantities. The reality is that feelings of being overwhelmed or burnt-out are not controllable if they are not understood. As with so many things in life, learning the causes and symptoms of stress represents the best chance for our pupils to avoid the debilitating impact of extreme stress.

Next week gives us a chance to focus on this most common challenge to our mental and physical wellbeing. Staff and pupils will use the week to learn more about managing stress, reflecting on advice for overcoming times of high stress and how we, as a community, can work to reduce the negative impact stress can have on its members. The aim is to have an open dialogue around the topic, helping one another to become better equipped to deal with it when, as inevitably it will do in each lifetime, stress levels go beyond the boundaries of our control.

Best wishes

Julian Jeffrey
MASTER

School winter coat

The school winter coat is in stock for you to purchase. It is made of 3M Thinsulate, which is a good material to keep warm.

Please come to the uniform shop to purchase the winter coat for your child(ren), you can also  purchase it from the online shop via http://pc.halfrin.com/shop/login/login. If you have any question, please contact: lisa.liu@wellingtoncollege.cn.

Junior School Instrument Fair
1400hrs – 1600hrs, Monday
2nd November

On Monday, 2nd November, the Junior School will host its first instrument fair and welcomes musicians from the Tianjin Music Conservatory for a frisson-inducing experience!

The woodwind quintet, brass quintet and string quartet will perform popular pieces including Cinema Paradiso by Ennio Morricone and Andrea Morricone, Something’s Coming and America from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II.

The performance is followed by a workshop in the Music Department, where the pupils will have an up-close opportunity to ask specific questions about the mechanism of each instrument.

World Vegan Day

Around the world, November 1st is celebrated as Vegan Day; it comes a month later than Vegetarian Day. The United Nations estimates that the world population in 2020 is 7.8 billion. The total number of vegans in the world is approximately 78 million. This number shows that being vegan is becoming popular across our planet.

Who are vegans?
Vegans are people who do not eat any animal products (such as meat, eggs, fish, dairy, honey). They tend not to buy products that are tested on animals, made of animal products, and they do not support animal suffering.

Who are vegetarians?
Vegetarians are not as strict as vegans – some of them eat dairy products or eggs.

Why?
There are many reasons why people decide to switch to an animal-free diet. There are many health benefits of a vegan diet;lower cholesterol levels, richer in certain nutrients, improved kidney function, lower blood sugar levels, lower risk of heart disease, etc. Moreover, vegans do not agree with extreme suffering animals go through to support the meat industry.

Famous vegans
Pythagoras, Mahatma Gandhi, Leonardo da Vinci, Franz Kafka, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Gao Yuanyuan, Lee Hanee, Faye Wong, Albert Einstein, Ms Chapman, Mrs Arden, Ms Pelham, Ms Stevens, Ms Rogic, and many more.