Dear parents
Welcome to this bumper edition of the Week Ahead. As a result of the mini-break next week, this edition includes the key events from 9th-21st November. Next week's Week Ahead will include a focus on a special service-learning project running in the Senior School.

I was lucky enough this week to be invited to an awards ceremony in Beijing, hosted by the Hurun Education, part of the Hurun Report group. In its recent list of Top 100 international schools in China, Wellington rose to number 33. The list, not surprisingly, is dominated by long-established schools in Shanghai and Beijing – together, these cities comprise 53 of the 100 leading schools – and Tianjin has just one: Wellington.

Whilst our increasing recognition among the leading international educators across China is undoubtedly an encouraging development, it was also an opportunity to engage in the sharing of ideas and experiences with other top school leaders. Much of the discussion centred on the impact of Covid-19 and how it had forced schools to adapt to completely new ways of teaching and learning. Perhaps inevitably, many head teachers reported pupil and teacher levels of stress and isolation; the challenges of teaching effective lessons online; the impact of travel restrictions; and the recruitment of teaching staff as their main concerns. Many schools in Beijing, for example, are still forced to offer a hybrid online education, with many children and staff still unable to return to China and no immediate end in prospect.

Of course, these are among the very best international schools in China, and they achieve this status through great leadership, hard work and a willingness to adapt to challenging situations with imaginative solutions. Several head teachers spoke of the benefits of the extended online learning period. Chief among these were innovation – schools are increasingly willing to try new ways of offering their educational programmes online – and embracing new technologies as a part of day-to-day teaching. Wellington is no different, and I am pleased to be able to share with parents a few of the details of our own action plan for any further disruption to our in-school teaching. Over the past nine months, we have listened very carefully to the feedback from parents, pupils and staff in the wake of the previous online learning period, and our focus this year has been to consolidate the aspects of the provision which proved particularly effective and offer some radical solutions to those which needed adapting for greater impact. 

We will publish the online learning provision in full at the end of the month, but the keys will include:

• A bespoke, secure learning resource platform for pupils from pre-nursery to year 3. This will include improved accessibility from home, a bank of reading materials suitable for all levels, numeracy and mandarin resources, videos, music, sport and ASA activities as well, of course, as live lessons.

• A fully coordinated timetable of live lessons for pupils in the Junior and Senior Schools, with time included in the school day to allow for greater breaks from screen time.

• Physical packs of resources, including library books, which can be collected from the school and will provide a further break from the unrelenting nature of online lessons. The library will offer an uninterrupted lending service to pupils and parents.

• Extra sessions for pupils with specific needs or ELA learners.  

• Wellbeing and mindfulness will play an increasingly significant part of the week’s learning, supporting input from sport and activities so that children remain healthy in body and mind.

• Finally, a series of short, multilingual instructional videos to help families at home maximise their ability to use the online resources.

As much as I do not want another hiatus in the life of the school, it is prudent to prepare for one. I want the entire community – pupils, staff and parents – to be ready to access a high-quality e-learning provision so that the education of your child is uninterrupted and impactful.

It was great for our school to be included in the Hurun Top 100 list: everyone likes to get an award for their hard work. In the long-term, though, it is much more important to me that our families and staff recognise the school's quality by seeing the achievement and progress of our pupils.

Have a very restful mini-break next week.

Best wishes
Julian Jeffrey
MASTER

Lunchtime concert

Black Box

1325hrs – 1355hrs, Friday

13th November

The music department will host the first lunchtime concert of 2020 to showcase the musical talents in the Senior School on Friday, 13th November in the Black Box. The concert will start at 1325hrs with a performance from the Wellington String Quartet, featuring the 1st movement of Palladio composed by the Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins. Wellatonics, our a cappella group will round off the performance with their rendition of Where Are You, Christmas?

As well as pieces from these music ensembles, the concert will feature singers and guitarists who have a passion for popular music. Alongside Ally and Mina in year 11, who are already established musicians in our school, year 10 pupils Justina, Jackie and Billy, who joined the school at the beginning of the academic year, will also perform well-known songs and pieces on their instruments. The new pupils' courage in getting up on stage is also a significant indicator of how well they have settled in. Well done! Parents would like to attend need to register by 1300hrs on Thursday 12th November with Ms Tina Bai. As a result of the restrictions on access to the school's estate, numbers have to be limited to 20.

(tina.bai@wellingtoncollege.cn)

E-Safety in the Junior School

Being online is an integral part of children and young people's lives. Their online world is vast, incorporating social media, online games and apps accessed via phones, laptops, or tablets. Although this opens the door to new and exciting opportunities for learning and growth, it can expose pupils to new types of risks.

In the Junior School, children will be learning about e-safety and how to stay safe online. All classes will learn how to "Be Internet Awesome" using a curriculum created by Google, including a classroom discussion and an adventure-packed online game that makes learning about digital safety and citizenship interactive and fun. Pupils will learn how to tackle hackers, phishers, and bullies by practising the skills they need to be good digital citizens. They will also learn about the correct way to share their personal information online and who can access their information. We hope to teach children the fundamentals of digital citizenship so that they can explore the online world with confidence and security.

Reader of the week

The English department is delighted to announce that this week's reader of the week is:

Amy in year 8, who was nominated by Mr Furse for improving her reading speed, accuracy and fluency.

A huge congratulations to Amy — what an impressive achievement!

Online Meeting

1400hrs-1500hrs, Thursday

19th November

This week's Meet the Master slot is open to parents of pupils in years 12 and 13. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email with Ms Emma Shi by Wednesday 18th November.

(emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn)

Online Meeting

0900hrs - 1015hrs, Wednesday

18th November

Parent briefings are held on Wednesday mornings usually 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.

Next Wednesday, there will be a parent briefing about the arts in the Senior School at Wellington. An online presentation video will be sent to all parents the day before explaining how art is taught at KS3, GCSE and A Level. Information explaining how art is assessed for exams is included along with details regarding university applications to art-related courses. There will also be a short overview explaining why a creative education is so beneficial to all pupils who study at Wellington.

A live Q&A session with the art department will be held online via TEAMs at the conclusion of the briefing. If you would like to find out more about your child's art lessons, please tune in and I look forward to answering your questions.

Senior School parent evenings

Online

Years 7 and 10

1700hrs Tuesday 17th November

Years 8 and 9

1700hrs Thursday 19th November

There are two parent evenings in the Senior School next week. One is for parents of pupils in years 7 and 10 which will be held on Tuesday, 17th November and the other will be held for parents of pupils in years 8 and 9 on Thursday, 19th November. Due to the restricted access to the school, the evening will take a different form to our conventional parent meetings. The majority of the meetings will be held online, and parents need to approach the teachers they would like to talk to via e-mail, or their child's Teams account. The respective teacher will then schedule a meeting and book it into your child's calendar. You can join the meeting using the Teams platform via your child's account. The meetings can last between 5-7 minutes. The evening will start at 1700hrs and will finish at 1830hrs.

Additionally, parents of the underperforming pupils will be invited to come to school and discuss their child's progress with senior leaders.

If you have any enquiries about the parents' evening, please contact Mrs Popovic, Head of Senior School.

Dragana.popovic@wellingtoncollege.cn

MP2 Binhai Museum of Science and Technology Trip

Thursday, 19th November

Pupils in Milepost 2 (MP2) will visit the Binhai Museum of Science and Technology on Thursday 19th November. They will enjoy a guided tour of the museum galleries, followed by a 4D cinema experience and a variety of practical science activities. This will support their International Primary Curriculum studies. For further details, please refer to the recent letter to parents and attached consent form. MP2 parents are welcome to email me with any questions they may have:

mary.prendi@wellingtoncollege.cn,

Online University Fair

Due to travel restrictions this year, our University Fair will take on a different format. We are pleased to be offering a series of online presentations (three per week) from universities from all over the world. Over 200 universities from all over the world will be in attendance so this is a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to gain information first-hand.

Next week we will have one university from the UK – The University of Sheffield. The presentations will take place in the Sixth Form Seminar room and pupils from years 10-13 are all welcome to attend. It will all start at 1320hrs, and early lunch is available. Pupils will need to contact a member of the university team if they wish to attend. Sheffield is ranked No. 14 in the UK according to the Times Higher Education ranking (THE).

Thursday 12th November 1320hrs – The University of Sheffield (live presentation)

From Tuesday 17th November, we will have four universities from Korea – SungKyun Kwan University, Hanyang University, ChungAng University and KyungHee University.

Tuesday 17th November 1320hrs – SungKyun Kwan University

Wednesday 18th November 1320hrs – Hanyang and ChungAng Uni