Dear parents

Graduation for our year 13 pupils is Friday 21st May. It is a hugely symbolic day in the school calendar, marking the moment in which our most senior pupils move on from their years of school education and take the first steps into adulthood and university life. For many, the ceremony is one of great joy, perhaps even relief, but it is always tinged with sadness. These young people have been our school leaders, our academic champions and role models for those who follow them for so long. This sadness is understandable, and acknowledging this emotion is only fitting. Still, the tone of our ceremony is firmly celebratory because it comes in the context of outstanding personal and collective achievement by these fine young men and women.

This is my message for these graduates and their families this year: use this time to reflect on the journey you have been on with Wellington. Look back over your years at the school and see how far you have come, both in your own personal growth but also in the way you have lived and worked in a community of others.

Many children enrol here at Wellington with an understandable nervousness about their immersion in an educational culture and language that are quite alien to their experiences. This can be a daunting prospect, but their teachers are always ready to support those pupils who need the time and space to find their voice in our school. For some children, this confidence and self-assurance is not an issue, and they throw themselves headlong into their classes and activities with abandon. For others, though, developing their English and growing to understand how a British international school seeks to engage its pupils in lessons and across the school is a slower process.

I urge our graduates to think back now to their first days at school. What type of Wellingtonian were you? The extrovert, happy to speak and write in English, unphased by the teachers who sought your ideas and opinions and who frequently expected you to challenge them? There will be many on the stage at graduation who would fit that description. But there will be others who did not find those first few days or weeks easy. For those young people and their families, the journey to graduation must have seemed a long, and at times difficult one. It doesn't need me to tell you that being a teenager brings with it all its own particular hardships. Maybe they sometimes even doubted whether this path was the right one for them? Even the most successful and confident among pupils will have experienced times when things were tough, although they may have been better at disguising it than many of their peers.

Wellington talks a lot about its five values, but if they remain little more than words or empty expressions, then we have failed as a community. The value that these graduates as a group best exhibit is courage. They had the courage to join a school which, for most of them, taught its lessons in a second language; they dared to place their trust in a foreign education that could not have been further removed from their own experience or that of their parents; they had the courage to stick it out when times were difficult; and now, on the cusp of their graduation from Wellington College International Tianjin, they have the courage to take that next step, into the unknown of an international university destination.

I hope you will all join me in congratulating our marvellous pupils from year 13 – our newest group of Old Wellingtonians - as they mark their passing from Wellington. It will undoubtedly be an emotional occasion on Friday, but they should all be confident in the knowledge that, in the graduation process, they are taking a step through a door to a new and unimaginably bright future.

Best wishes

Julian Jeffrey
MASTER

Thank you to the families of the year one children who came to see their assembly today. The children have been so busy learning about building and construction as well as their more recent theme of minibeasts. I was so proud of them. They have shown their ability to speak in Mandarin and English in front of family and friends on the huge stage. They have grown up so much since I arrived in Tianjin in October last year. Today was definitely their moment to shine!

Next week will see lots of official school photographs. Please ensure the children come in the correct school uniform on the days they are being photographed. There will be a whole school photograph as well as class and individual photos. Please look for the year group week ahead information for more details. The photographer will begin at 8:30 AM. Please make sure your child is in school on time, especially if they are having photos at the start of the school day.

Monday 17th May will be the whole school photograph.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday 15th May for the summer fair. The staff and children have been busy preparing for the games. I would like to say a special thank you to those parents who came to school this week to prepare the posters to advertise the stalls. It is a big help to us all!

There are lots of things happening between now and the end of the summer term. Keep a lookout for all the information coming soon.

Duke of Wellington Room (MB109)
1400hrs-1500hrs, Thursday
20th May

This week's Meet the Master slot is open to parents of pupils in the Nest. If you would like to attend, please confirm via e-mail with Ms Emma Shi by Wednesday, 19th May. Parents of other year groups are, of course, more than welcome to attend.

(emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn)

Duke of Wellington Room (MB109)
0900hrs-1015hrs, Wednesday
19th May

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 their child's education, from the Early Years to A levels and university admissions. We continue to pre-record the video with Chinese and Korean subtitles and share it with parents before the day. Meanwhile, parents are welcome to the campus to watch the video and afterwards, the presenters will lead a Q&A session.

Developing independence in learning is a process where learners take ownership of their learning. One of the key responsibilities of excellent schools is to provide the context in which young people learn how to study effectively on their own. It develops creativity and intellectual curiosity and requires pupils to be active rather than passive. It is about them working out the answers rather than being told them. It is about them wanting to study because they want to understand more, rather than just want to pass the examination. 

If you would like to know more about initiatives at Wellington that assist your child to become more independent in their learning, please join us on Wednesday, 19th May at 9am. Mrs Popovic and Mr Ali will lead the session.

Please note, as the session will run in the Duke of Wellington room this week, space will be limited for parents in school. Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. The livestreaming of the event will not be affected by this room change. To reserve a seat at the in-person event, please contact Mrs Agnes Cui by 1700hrs on Monday 17th May.

agnes.cui@wellingtoncollege.cn