Wellesley Weekly 14th June 2021

announcements

Update on school fixtures and spectators

With the government’s announcement to progress to stage 3 of the roadmap, we are delighted to be able to allow spectators for our fixtures at Wellesley. We still need to be cautious, however, and remind parents not to come into the main school building. Toilets will be available in the sports hall. I’m sorry that we won’t be offering sharing platters for match teas at this stage but will have a self-service tea and coffee station under the gazebo outside of the dining hall. In order for us to ascertain numbers of spectators, we will be asking you to complete a google form stating your intention to attend the fixture. Spectators at away fixtures are determined by the host school – all schools are operating to their own risk assessment. If away schools are accepting Wellesley spectators, you will have the option to complete your information on our google form – if you don’t have the option, it is because that school is not accepting spectators at this time. Thank you.

Wellesley Haddon Dene Summer Party – Saturday 26th June – Postponed

We are sorry to announce that following the Government’s announcement that restrictions and contact tracing are to remain in place we are unable to go ahead with our planned Summer Party.
The Friends of Wellesley will be meeting this Friday to discuss possible future dates.

Swimming

This term, we are pleased to be able to offer swimming lessons (for the whole school), on Monday and Tuesday afternoons from 3:30-5:10. All lessons are group lessons.
£14 (per child) for a half hour, group lessons.
We are currently taking a waiting list for Tuesdays.
If you are interested in booking lessons, please contact Geraldine via hmsecretary@wellesleyhouse.net or directly to the swimming instructor at jfc@wellesleyhouse.net

Signing Out

Please could we remind parents of boarders taking their children out on Wednesdays or Saturdays after matches, that the children must sign out and then back in again on their return. The children have been reminded about this and it is incredibly important that we know if boarding pupils are leaving the school site. If parents could check with their children that they’ve done this before heading out to the beach then this would be really helpful. Thank you for your assistance with this.

Team Photos

Team photos for this term are now available to order. Please use the google form to order your copies. The deadline for ordering is Sunday 20th June. Under 9 team photos will be taken this week and parents of children in those teams will receive a separate form.

COVID-19

We thought that it would be valuable to share with parents our COVID-19 flow charts, which map out the necessary course of action, dependent on the situation for pupils and staff who are displaying COVID-19 symptoms in school.
Staff
Positive cases – children
Positive cases – boarders
Symptoms of COVID – children

School Last Week

Common Entrance

Our Block 1 pupils sat their Common Entrance examinations in the Old Hall last week. Their final exam was on Friday and after an introductory briefing regarding their diverse and exciting Leavers’ Programme from Mrs Spencer and Mr Franklin, they celebrated the end of the exams with a dip in the refreshing sea at Viking Bay in Broadstairs and an ice cream from Morelli’s, of course! They will receive their results on Friday of this week.

Nature camera

We have set up a nature camera at various locations around the school. The pupils have enjoyed discovering what animals we have within our beautiful grounds and the exciting things they get up to in the evening and early morning.
We have identified foxes, squirrels, hedgehogs, crows, pigeons and magpies. We are currently watching what appears to be an active parakeet nest. There is a lot of activity and nesting material has been seen going inside. Only time will tell if they are indeed nesting and we hope to see some chicks soon.
Images we have captured so far can be found here.

JB to Beaney Museum

Yesterday we went to the Beaney Museum. We looked at lots of cool stuff. George pretended to be a pharaoh, he was a very bad pharaoh and Henry pretended to kill him and then we mummified George and we pretended to take his organs out. We put the organs in canopic jars. Then we went back to the minibus and had lunch and went back to school.
Report by Auben Shaddick Form JB

JH trip to Hulme Farm

On Friday 11th June, JH took a trip to the farm. The children loved it and learnt a lot. We had a tour of the farm where the children got to stroke some calves, as well as see lots of bulls and cows. We went in a cattle transporter and a crush where they get their medicine. They were then lucky enough to play on a fort made of straw, sit in tractors, play in tyres and climb the wood chip. At lunch in the garden, the children were treated to even more animals; stroking the dogs, holding the guinea pig and feeding the chickens and ducks. We even collected some eggs to take home. A huge thank you for a great morning to Louisa and Edward Hulme and also Mr Spencer for coming with us!
Suri Lear said ‘It was really, really fun and amazing! The scary bit was when the bull charged towards the fence and all the girls screamed!’
Sophie Spencer: “I liked the guinea pig!”

Team of the Week

Congratulations to the U9 A&B cricket teams for performing so well v Northbourne Park School and indeed, in their first few inter school fixtures. Aside from recording victories, they have played the game in excellent spirit and enjoyed the competition and fun that comes with these such opportunities. They will enjoy squash and cookies with the Headmaster on the front lawn during a break time this week. Well done!

Wild Club visitor

One of the Friday activities this term is a Wild Club, led by Mrs Sabin-Dawson. So far this term they have learned a lot about the wildlife at Wellesley, through exploring the grounds and looking at footage from our nature camera, but last week they were delighted to have Mr James Bonthron visit them in the school grounds.
Mr Bonthron is studying Wildlife Conservation at the University of Kent and he was able to tell the children about a number of ideas for ‘rewilding’ their own gardens. Some members of the Wild Club were also delighted to show Mr Bonthron their ‘bug hotels’- built in the school grounds in their break times.

Pre-Prep

It has been another busy week. Lots of children have been involved in cricket matches, there have been trips out to farms and museums. It has been lovely to enjoy the sunny days whilst at Beach School, some children have taken part in a beach clean as the warmer weather entices more people to the beach and more litter is evident. On 8th June we marked World Oceans Day and spent some time thinking about the importance of our oceans during Pre-prep assembly. Children continue to make the most of all Wellesley has to offer and for some it has been the first time they have welcomed their parents to school to watch matches and swimming. One of our younger children commented that Wednesday match afternoon seemed like a festival!

School This Week

Block 1 Camping to Nethergong

To celebrate the end of their Common Entrance exams, our Block 1 pupils head to Nethergong for a week of “glamping” and fun. In amongst other things, Mr Longdon, Miss Wallace and Mr Waldie have arranged a plethora of activities from a trip to the Escape Rooms in Margate, a full day outing to Thorpe Park in Surrey, Go Ape at Leeds Castle and a trip to Bewl Water Aqua Park. We hope they all have a wonderful week.

Athletics at Tonbridge

On Tuesday, a team of Block 3 pupils will be travelling to Tonbridge School to represent Wellesley at the U12 Athletics fixture. Parents of selected pupils have been contacted and Tonbridge are welcoming spectators to this event. We wish our pupils all the very best for a fun and active day out!

Kent Prep School Golf Championship

On Thursday afternoon, a small group of golfers will be representing Wellesley at the Kent Prep School Golf Championship, held at Canterbury Golf Club. We wish all those competing this week the very best of luck.

School Exams

Block 2 through to JL will be sitting internal exams this week (starting on Tuesday 15th of June).
Teachers have prepared extensive revision resources for the pupils to use in the build up to these exams and these are available in the pupils’ Google Classroom.
Each year group has their own Revision Classroom, which has study skills resources as well as subject based guidance for each exam. The pupils may also have been given some of these in paper form to bring home over half term.
Ms Laurans and Ms Moosuddee have given the pupils guidance on how to approach their revision and many parents have already purchased the Galore Park Study Skills book which will also support and guide the pupils through these, and future, assessments.
These internal exams are for the pupils to demonstrate the progress that they have made this year and the results will be recorded on their end of year reports.

Reception familiarisation sessions

We look forward to welcoming our new Reception children to Wellesley this Friday morning for the first of two taster sessions with Miss Kingsland.

Codekids

Please see the click here for more information on the workshops Codekids is running during the Summer holidays.

Mrs Franklin’s Coffee Morning

Mrs Franklin will be hosting a coffee morning for new parents joining our taster sessions and current Pre-prep parents this Friday morning. Coffee and croissants will be served on the swimming pool terrace from 8.15am.

Exeat

This weekend is exeat and Pre-prep pick up is at 1pm and Years 4 to 8 pick up is at 1.30pm from the usual bubble pick up points. Boarders should return to school between 6pm and 7pm on Sunday (via the red covered way entrance) and day children should return at 8.10am on Monday. We wish you a relaxing exeat weekend.

Learning Support

We have a couple of spaces available if your child would like some additional English tuition with Mrs Smith. These are usually 1/2 hour 1:1 sessions and are billed accordingly. These sessions complement class teaching and can often give your child a little boost.
Please get in touch with Ms Moosuddee if this is something you feel would be beneficial for your child.

Atom Nucleus

Atom Nucleus provides unlimited access to personalised learning at home from Years 3-8, combining high-quality teacher-written content with an adaptive algorithm tailored to your child. Click here to see how it works. Parents will gain access to:
Course areas across English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning (and soon Science).
Unlimited mock tests that closely mirror key senior school entry assessments.
Granular performance insight on strengths and areas to work on.
Live and on-demand video tutorials for supplementary support.
We have a discount code which will give you 20% off your first month if you would like to try it out: WwcsvSyg (This code is valid until 31st July 2021.)
If you would like any further information on this please email Mrs Sabin-Dawson (ksd@wellesleyhouse.net).

Gap students

Please do get in touch with the school office if you know of any enthusiastic 18 year olds that may be interested in working at Wellesley Haddon Dene during the Michaelmas term. We are able to offer accommodation and meals if needed.

Menu

This week the kitchen will be serving Menu 2.

Senior School News

For boys seeking entry to Tonbridge School in 2024 an ’in person’ Open Morning is being held on Saturday 26th June. For further information please contact  admissions@tonbridge-school.org 

Wellington College very much hopes to be able to welcome visitors soon, however, in the interim please view their Virtual Visitors Day via this link.

King’s Rochester is inviting families to pre-book for their Open Morning on Saturday 26th June.  Please contact admissions@kings-rochester.co.uk for further information. 

Sevenoaks School will be hosting an Open Morning on Saturday 26th June, please click here to contact their admissions team for further information.

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