The Week Ahead 23 August 2019

From the Master 来自校长 마스터

Dear parents I began this year's series of Week Ahead pieces last week with a reminder that timely communication between school and home is a vital part of the success in a child's education. The school is committed to being an undefended, open participant in such a dialogue, and it is my sincere hope that all our parents, however long you have been with the Wellington family, feel equally willing and able to be proactive. The start of a new year is clearly a key time for such clarity of messages between us, and I thought it may help to reinforce the ways and means of communication that the school uses. School-home communication There are several ways the school sends out messages to parents, both individually and collectively:

• On an individual basis, work in class, progress updates and reminders about special school events like trips will go out via the class, or House, T-chat account. If you have not yet registered for the new year's T-Chat functionality, please note that you child will be bringing home a QR code for you to scan in order to set this up. If you experience any difficulty with this process, please contact the administrator, Ms Jiao via email: jiao.jiao@wellingtoncollege.cn
• For more confidential or urgent communications, such as a follow up for an unexplained absence or a medical concern, you should expect a phone call. This requires you to have provided an up-to-date mobile telephone number to the school, so please confirm any changes with our pupil record administrator, Ms Zhao: cissy.zhao@wellingtoncollege.cn
• Clearly, face-to-face interactions are usually the quickest and most convenient ways in which to deal with a concern or question you may have. The list of formal parent evenings for the school year are published in the new term diary, which was sent home last week. Pages 43-48 outline the dates and times of such meetings for parents across the school. You can, of course, request a private meeting with your child's teachers or a member of the school's leadership team in order to discuss a specific issue or concern. This can best be done by email or by calling the Reception desk (tel. 22-8758-7199), from where you will be allocated a member of staff to support you.

For messages which apply to large numbers of pupils or families, we use the following methods:

• Emails sent via iSAMS, our school management system, provide parents with all the news and updates that relate to large parts of the school community. These includes letters from the Master, or important updates from the Heads of School and other senior leaders.
• Weekly newsletters: The Nest and Junior School send out a digest of upcoming learning, key events and, where relevant, homework reminders. These go out in hard copy and email each Friday afternoon. Please check your child's schoolbag for the hard copy version!
• Public messages, mainly focused on news and events that are of interest to the whole Wellington community, go out via email and WeChat. These include the Week Ahead, obviously, but also specialist articles from members of staff highlighting the teaching and learning that goes on in the school. To follow the school’s various WeChat accounts, scan the QR codes below.
• Finally, we also host three regular sessions for parents to come in and hear about the school and its work. They include parent briefings, held at 0900hrs every other Wednesday, in which you can find out more about specific areas of academic practice; we also have weekly Meet the Master sessions (Thursdays at 14:00hrs), during which parents from across the school have a chance to ask questions about any issues that may be of interest. Each month, we include the Bursar in such discussions, and these meetings tend to focus on issues around the school's services such as catering or buses. Thirdly, the Bursar chairs a food committee meeting (one for Nest parents, the other for the rest of the school) on a termly basis. Parent representatives attend these meetings and have the chance to engage directly with the catering providers, Compass Chartwell.

Perhaps the key document listing all these, and more, is the term diary. This is now available, in print editions of English, Chinese and Korean, from Reception if you have not yet retrieved a copy from your child's schoolbag. I find this an indispensable way to plan my time and engagements, and I hope that you find the revamped special dates section (from page 40) to be a reassurance that you need never miss another important school event again. Home-school communication Much of this is down to personal preference, of course, but I hope that the section above helps to show the school's flexibility in accommodating parental questions. For ease of communication, though, the school’s preferred method is via email. This helps us to log incoming messages and respond to them in a timely manner (we have a policy of replying to such correspondence within 24 hours of receipt) and facilitates our team here to schedule meetings or follow up with individual cases. As ever, the key email addresses are given in the term diary (pages 5-6), but for most run-of-the-mill questions, please contact your child’s class teacher (for Nest and Junior School pupils) or Housemaster / Housemistress for those from Years 7-13. The language of the email need not be English; we can translate any such communication. We will be unveiling an exciting new communications platform across the Wellington community in the new year, but until that is ready for use, the formats I have outlined above are the most efficient and rapid means of contacting the school. The system relies on the prompt support of both home and school, so I will end this week's piece with a final reminder of the need for timely and open dialogue between home and school in order to provide the best care and education for your child. I look forward to hearing from you! Best wishes Julian Jeffrey MASTER Monday 26th August Revised access arrangements to the school grounds Our new security gate house, situated at the Yide Dao entrance to the school, is designed to be the new main entrance for all pedestrians arriving at the school, as well as new visitors to the estate. We have sought to strengthen the access control to other areas of the school buildings as a part of our wider commitment to enhanced safeguarding and child protection practices. Parents are reminded that:

• Full access to the school is only possible when a parent is in possession of a valid, up-to-date identification card.
• The exterior door leading to the Junior bus hall and dining room will require card access at all times except between 0800-0830hrs each weekday. This is to facilitate the arrival of pupils in the morning whilst restricting access during the rest of the school day. Parents without valid id and visitors will be asked to enter the school via the front entrance and Reception desk.
• The Nest security gate will be closed at 0845hrs. Parents arriving after this time will need to wait in the gate house in order to be escorted into the Nest.

Measures such as these are designed to keep our pupils safe. Your cooperation and support in making these, and other access control procedures, secure is essential. Please observe the new regulations. PARENT BRIEFING: ASSESSMENT AT WELLINGTON Nest: N205 Junior School: Black Box Senior School: Common Room 0900hrs - 1015hrs, Wednesday 28th August 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. This week there will be a selection of parent briefings on how we assess and use assessment information within the various parts of the school. Assessment strategies, scales and systems are modelled on Wellington College in UK and global best practice and, by attending, you will gain an insight into both the formal and informal methods we use to measure progress and attainment, as well as how we track pupils to make sure that they are challenged and supported. We look forward to seeing you at these events [please note: the venues differ for each section of the school]. FROM THE UNIVERSITY GUIDANCE TEAM University Visit: Boston University Theatre 1500hrs, Wednesday 28th August There will be a presentation from Boston University on Wednesday 28th August at 1500hrs in the Seldon Theatre. Parents of children in all year groups are welcome to attend and there will be a Q and A session at the end. FROM THE SERVICES' SUPERVISOR Food Committee Recruits By Wednesday 11th September Food committees for the Main Building and the Nest have been in operation for over a year. Thank you for all the support from parents, especially the food committee members who have donated their time and been deeply involved in the pursuit of continuous improvements in our catering service. At the beginning of every new academic year, we would like to update the food committee membership. Currently, we hold a termly food committee meetings for both the Nest and Main Building. The Nest group covers pupils from Eaglets to Reception, whilst the Main Building committee represents parents of pupils from Years 1 to 13. We are seeking 5-6 new parent representatives to join each of the committees. If you are interested in joining us, please send an email to Ms. Lisa Liu lisa.liu@wellingtoncollege.cn with your child’s year group, nationality and brief outline of your experience with nutrition or catering. Existing food committee members, please contact Lisa Liu directly regarding your intention to continue as part of the food committee. The closing date for both requests is Wednesday 11th September. Many thanks. Art Every Friday 8:30-11:00 MB125 Mrs Markovic ksenija.jakic@wellingtoncollege.cn   Mandarin Every Tuesday 10:15-11:15 MB125 Mrs Yuan and Mrs Zhang yizhang001@foxmail.com   EAL (Beginner level) Every Tuesday of Week A 8:30-9:30 MB234 Mr Furse David.Furse@wellingtoncollege.cn   EAL (Advanced level) Every Thursday of Week B 8:30-9:30 MB234 Mr Furse David.Furse@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 MB113 Mrs Markovic ksenija.jakic@gmail.com   Notice: Any changes of time/date/venue please follow the notice according to the course organiser.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday 26 August 2019 All Day Week 2 (B)   11:00AM - 12:00PM Senior School assembly (JMS) (Theatre)   Tuesday 27 August 2019 8:45AM - 10:00AM FOW: Pilates (LL) (Black Box)   10:15AM - 11:15AM FOW: Mandarin class (LL)   Wednesday 28 August 2019 8:45AM - 10:00AM FOW: Yoga class (LL) (Black Box)   9:00AM - 10:15AM Parent briefing: Assessment at Wellington (RA)   3:05PM - 3:45PM Junior School assembly (RA) (Theatre)   Thursday 29 August 2019 9:00AM - 10:30AM FOW: TCM class (LL)   10:45AM - 12:00PM FOW: Yoga class (LL) (Black Box)   2:00PM - 3:00PM Meet the Master: Nest parents (ES) (Main Building)   5:00PM Benson House BBQ (SW) (Benson)   Friday 30 August 2019 8:30AM - 11:00AM FOW: Art class (LL)   8:45AM - 10:00AM FOW: Pilates (LL) (Black Box)   Saturday 31 August 2019 9:00AM Saturday Activity Programme (SAP) (EvK)