From the Headmaster’s Study
We are delighted to support and champion Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week 2021 and whilst this focus is clearly on children, we are all aware of the importance of all us looking after our mental health. Members of our community – pupils and staff – will take part in a range of activities and challenges throughout the week focusing on the theme for the year, “Express Yourself”. It is a wonderful initiative and a truly worthwhile cause – do please check out further information below in this edition of the Wellesley Weekly. We wish you all a happy and healthy week.
Gavin Franklin
Wellesley Online
Our teaching staff have worked hard to produce this reader friendly guide to our remote teaching and learning programme. The booklet contains several valuable hyperlinks for your information. Click on the image to view.
announcements
Calendar Update
As detailed on page 4 in the Wellesley Online programme, please note that exeat and half term will start at the end of the school day – 3pm for Pre-prep and 4.20pm for Years 4 to 8.
Half term begins on Friday 12th February and further information regarding term dates is available to view on the website.
Friends of Wellesley – Virtual Quiz Night
We hope many of you will join us for the Virtual Quiz Night on Friday 19th March. Our very own Mr Jean Latteur will be quiz master and proceedings will begin at 8.00pm. Tickets are priced at £7 per adult. People can form their own teams up to a maximum of 6 households/computers (this is not exclusive to Wellesley, please do include your friends should you wish).
Please RSVP to marketing@wellesleyhouse.net before Friday 5th February with the details of your team members and who your nominated team leader is. If you do not have a team but would like to take part please sign up in the usual way and you will be allocated to a team!
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
Symptoms of COVID – children
School Last Week
News from Pre-Prep
This week we are looking forward to hearing the children in JH perform their poems for the Junior House poetry recitation. I’m sure this will inspire the younger Pre-prep children who will take part after half term.
It has been super to see children in Pre-prep put forward for Send-ups, Mr Franklin has already met with some children and will catch up with other Pre-preppers this week.
We continue to be inspired by the positivity shown by all our children and whether online or at school our sense of community and family shines on.
Get Wellesley Fit
Do please check out (and have a go at?!) the most recent challenge from Mr Longdon, enter your scores here.
Senior General Knowledge Quiz
In our (first ever!) virtual Senior Wellesley Challenge this term, the winners in this round were Vikings with a score of 43 (out of a total of 50). Romans came second with 33 and Danes and Saxons were third equal with 30 points.
Well done to all who participated – all contestants demonstrated very impressive general knowledge. It was not without challenge (pardon the pun!), as Mr Latteur had not organised such a contest before, and, overall, we all learned a lot from it. This Friday it will be the turn of the Middle School to have their “fingers on the buzzers…” The Senior contestants were:
Vikings: Archie Butterill, Reuben Okotie
Romans: Henry Barker, Alexander Long, Hector Hulme
Saxons: Scarlett Newman-Cousins, Archie Brown, Matthew McBride
Danes: Margot Grand, Mimi Rowe
Huge thanks go to Mr Latteur and Mr Hallam for their determination to push ahead with the newly formatted Wellesley Challenge.
RSPB Birdwatch
Through discussions in Form Time, Block 3 pupils were encouraged by Mrs S-D to take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend, from the comfort of their own gardens (or through their windows!) The stunning photos on the header of this Wellesley Weekly were taken by some of our budding ornithologists!
School This Week
Parent/Teacher Meetings
We will be holding two parent/teacher meetings prior to half term:
Block 3 – Wednesday 3rd February (pm)
Block 2 – Wednesday 10th February (pm)
An invitation to book your google meet appointment will be sent to your parent portal account. The google meets will be hosted via your child’s Wellesley Haddon Dene email account and if you have any questions, please contact Mrs Baird via hmsecretary@wellesleyhouse.net.
Please note that the Block 1 meetings will take place after the mock exams (2nd – 5th March).
The theme of this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is Express Yourself.
Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. It is about finding a way to show who you are, and how you see the world, that can help you feel good about yourself.
Parents may want to click on this link to take you to the Place2Be Website, packed full of activities and ideas to try out during this year’s Mental Health Week.
Also, we’d love to see what you get up to in your spare time so please send in a photo to Ms Moosuddee (ahm@wellesleyhouse.net) – it could be anything from a hobby or pastime to something you enjoy doing to express yourself. Our staff have shared photos of hobbies which make them feel good – you may recognise a few faces here!
Inspirational talks for pupils, families and staff
Wellington College continues with its programme of Fireside Talks …
Fireside Talk with Annabel Croft, Monday 1st February, 5pm
Fireside Talk with Raymond Antrobus, Monday 8th February, 5pm
If you would like to join a talk, please click on the appropriate link, you will then be admitted from the lobby prior to the talk beginning.
This week, The King’s School, Canterbury has two lectures which may be of interest:
Tuesday 2nd February at 7.45pm – Head of Geology at The King’s School, Canterbury, Mike Mawby offers an insight into some of the largest known volcanic events ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’ The perils of supervolcanoes’
Thursday 4th February at 7.45pm – ‘From King’s to Kites‘ by OKS Ryan Mannering (SH 1989-94). An insight into the career of Wing Commander (Retired) Ryan ‘Manners’ Mannering joined the Royal Air Force after university and spent 22 years flying fast jets operationally across the globe.
Lockdown Activities
Atom Learning has rolled-out a programme of supplementary learning workshops, available on-line. Aimed at children aged 7 to 11, subjects cover English, maths, reasoning and even creative writing, please click here for further information.
Senior School News
Eastbourne College has sent details of their newly released film and booklet on all things Eastbourne. With an ethos very similar to Wellesley, for further information, please contact admissions@eastbourne-college.co.uk.
Benenden is hosting a series of online Prospective Parent Open Mornings, please click here for dates and further information.
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.
The King’s School, Canterbury is holding a live virtual Open Morning on Saturday 6th March 2021 and you can register and request a Digital Information Pack by clicking here.
Eton College has introduced a 45-minute webcast which includes an interview with the Headmaster, a tour of the school given by a Y9 boy, an explanation of the admissions process for parents, and a broader video about the school. For further information, please contact admissions@etoncollege.org.uk in order to book into a webcast.
Matches This Week
Please always refer to the website calendar as it is the most up-to-date place to check for fixture changes and locations.