Dear parents

This is the final Week Ahead of the old year: the year of the rat will soon come to an end, although it will inevitably live long in the memory. It has been a time that has tested each one of us. No life has been left untouched by the pandemic, many of course in tragic circumstances, millions of others with a long road ahead to recovery and normality. I am not even sure what 'normality' will look like in the post-pandemic world. Schools have - and are - changing in quite extraordinary ways. Online teaching is more sophisticated and responsive to the needs of pupils and public examination bodies have been forced to adapt their grading to meet the needs of the generations of candidates who have been unable to sit physical examinations. As a result of the global travel restrictions, expatriate communities across the world have shrunk, and the recruitment of international teachers has also changed significantly.

It may be that, in Charles Darwin's famous aphorism, it has been those "most adaptable to change" who have emerged stronger from the pandemic. Overcoming challenge, particularly acute and unpredictable ones, is a mark of resilience. Being tested, as so many schools and families have been during the past 12 months, may not be fun. It is certainly not easy, but what emerges is often far more powerful and capable of overcoming further setbacks. Learning not just to cope in the current situation, but to thrive within it, is something we have worked hard to instil in our pupils. Of course, helping children with their independence in learning and preparation for life beyond Wellington have long been important goals for us, but it has rarely been such an urgent and immediate task. As a result, I was so pleased to see the pupil and parent survey results, both of which showed overwhelmingly positive responses to questions around individual wellbeing, safety, independence, and progress in school.

As we move into the year of the ox, the qualities of that creature seem to me to be precisely the ones needed to help schools move on from Covid-19. Rarely can traits such as strength, reliability, patience and self-belief been more critical than they are in 2021. I think our community has shown all these and more over the year, and I am confident that we have never been in a better position to help all our children grown into the successful, happy young adults they each deserve to be. 

I wish all our families a restful holiday and a very happy new year.

Best wishes

Julian Jeffrey
MASTER

We have had another week in the Nest packed with learning, performing, remembering the importance of family and cultural traditions and in all this we have grown in confidence, independence and resilience!

The children from the Nest have worked so hard with their adults in school to prepare for the Chinese New Year Show 2021, the year of the Ox. They sang they danced, they spoke clearly and beautifully in Mandarin and English. Some of the children had to remember a lot of dialogue or a lot of movements for their dances. Some children were working hard to focus on the adults so they could follow instructions. All of this was wonderful to see. The costumes looked tremendous and there were some super hairstyles on our dancers too. The greatest part of all, however, was to see the smiles on the children's faces! They knew they had worked hard, and they did it to make the adults around them and their families proud of them.

With great effort, comes great reward! The Nest children should feel very proud of themselves. They rehearsed and put in the effort knowing they would not be able to have their families in the theatre as their audience. They did know it would be recorded so that everyone at home would see how hard they had worked and feel proud. Let me tell you all, each and every child did their family proud! Today we had a visit from the God of Wealth! I believe the message about how hard the children have been working has been passed on and there may be some presents coming to the children!

After the Chinese New Year holiday, the Nest will be moving on to a new theme. We will be going 'Under the Sea' to find out lots of new learning about the sea, what lives there, how they can live underwater, and lots more. We have compiled a book list of books suitable for different year groups that link to our upcoming theme. You may like to have a look at the list and find time to share a book about 'under the sea' with your child. Time spent reading is never wasted. You can read the words or talk about the pictures. The most important things are; is your child using language and asking questions. You also get to snuggle with them and have a wonderful time sharing a book.

Please remember that we return to school on Monday 22nd February, and all families will need to show the Tianjin health code and the travel code. For more information, please refer to the letter sent by TChat on January 29th 2021, especially if you do travel outside Tianjin.

All that remains is for me to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year from everyone in the Nest to all our wonderful families.

After the Chinese New Year break, the Nest will be starting a new theme – Under the Sea. Our core books across the Nest will be a mix of story books and non-fiction books all about our oceans and what lives there.

Sharing books together is a wonderful way to guarantee quality time with your children. Time spent reading is never wasted and sharing these books will support your child as we move to a new theme for our learning.

We do not expect our children to be able to read these books independently, but to share them with an adult and to talk about the story or the facts would be a great way to start our next theme.

These books should all be available to purchase online through the usual shopping websites.

Safer Internet Week 2021

Most young people today are very active on the Internet, our pupils being no exception. We take their e-safety very seriously. We educate our pupils and raise awareness about online safety issues through our annual Safer Internet Week, which will take place between February 22nd and 26th. Safer Internet Week is an extension of the Safer Internet Day, an annual event observed worldwide on 9th February. Created by the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC), it represents a celebration of technology and young people using the Internet responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. Safer Internet Week 2021 is an excellent opportunity to focus on online safety with our pupils through learning activities, assemblies in the Junior and Senior school, and events in the Nest.

The theme for Safer Internet Day 2021 is 'An Internet we trust: Exploring reliability in the online world', and it celebrates the range of information and opportunities online, and its potential to inform, connect and inspire us, whilst also looking at how young people can separate fact from fiction. Our activities will focus on how we can know what to trust online, supporting young people to question, challenge and change the online world. They will explore how influence, persuasion and manipulation can appear online and why this may happen.

We know that misinformation and 'fake news' do not solely affect young people but that these issues have a significant impact on how young people feel about their time online. Through Safer Internet Week 2021, we want to help equip young people with the skills they need to spot inaccurate content, which can sometimes be a complex task. Once young people feel more comfortable spotting fact from fiction, it is essential that we then support them to take the next steps to create an Internet full of trustworthy and reliable information. The online world is an excellent source of information for young people and adults alike. Opportunities to research, learn new facts or skills and even broaden viewpoints are extremely important to all Internet users. We hope that, by highlighting the ways to spot inaccuracies online, we can help more people to harness these positives.

Onward, together, to a better digital future!

Online
0900hrs-1015hrs, Wednesday
24th February

Parent briefings are held on Wednesday mornings usually from 0900hrs-1015hrs. Parents will have the chance to engage with the school in sessions covering all aspects of your child's education, from the Early Years to A levels and university admissions.

Mr Gregor Markovic, the Director of Educational Technology, will present the current state of Educational Technology at Wellington College International Tianjin and our plans for the immediate future in a brief parent briefing video on Tuesday, 23rd February. The video will be subtitled in Chinese and Korean, and he will be available for questions afterwards. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

International Mother Language Day
Monday, 22nd February

A child's mother language is generally considered the language or languages they have been exposed to from birth. Development of the mother language is crucial in a child's cognitive and social development. When children develop their mother language, they are simultaneously fostering a whole host of other essential skills, such as critical thinking and literacy skills. It is now well-established that these skills are transferable to a child's second language. Far from stunting your child's second language progress, reading and talking with your child as much as possible in your mother language can be a powerful tool in promoting their second (or third) language development and school performance. The activities children are sent home with from school provide wonderful opportunities for multi-lingual language development. After listening to your child read their book to you in English, discuss the characters, themes or events in your mother language. Ask your child to explain the process and outcomes of the science experiment they conducted at school that day. These daily conversations provide the double linguistic benefit of boosting a child's mother language and reinforcing a child's learning in English. This is one of the ways the school-home partnership can create a virtuous circle of bilingual language development.