Wellesley Weekly 28th 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.

Friends of Wellesley

The Friends of Wellesley have set a new date for their Summer Party.  Invitations went out again last week for the revised date of Saturday 18th September.  They do hope you will be able to join them.  Please RSVP if you are able to attend the new date with your menu choices and any wine you might like for your table.  Tables of 8 can be organised and a message can be left on paperless post with this information.  

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.

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

Pre-Prep

Reception Familiarisation session – we look forward to welcoming new starters to Wellesley this Friday to spend time in their classes.
It was brilliant to see all the children participating so enthusiastically in our Pre-prep sports morning on Friday. Congratulations to Vikings who were the overall winners.
If you would like your child to attend the creche for Speech day then please remember to complete the google form sent out by Gavin last week.
Due to the French Soiree, After School club will run until 4.30pm this Thursday. If you are attending the soiree then please collect your children from the Junior House front door to take them to the soiree, otherwise they will need to be collected at 4.30pm to be taken home. Many thanks.
A reminder that the end of term is on Thursday 8th July and pick up time is 1pm that day.

Parents Cricket

Thank you to all parents and family members who were able to participate in Saturday’s festival of cricket for parents and pupils. It was a day full of excitement, amusement and great sportsmanship from all involved. We are collating written match reports and photos and will share these with all parents when we have them. Much fun was had by all (and there were possibly some stiff bodies on Sunday morning!) Aside from enjoying the fun and frolics of a cricket match, parents and pupils also enjoyed the wonderful refreshments provided by the Friends of Wellesley, with fresh strawberries kindly donated by a Wellesley family. Our thanks go to them and also to Mr Spencer, Mr Longdon, Mrs Baird, our catering team and Mark, the groundsman, for all of the effort that went into making the occasion such a success.

Block 4 Team Building

A fantastic day was had by our Block 4 in Minster on Thursday. The children began with some fishing and managed a great haul! Although, they were all returned to the waters. They were then tasked with erecting a tent and they got to observe how to prepare a rabbit for the pot. Other tasks required all the children to work together to complete them. They included an ‘aquaduct’ and bridging ‘shark infested waters’ to get their team across.
It was a great day out and we really must thank the Southorn’s and their team who made this such a great day for the children.

Team of the Week

Congratulations to the Block 4 pupils for displaying superb teamwork during their recent Team Building activity and for their excellent results in mark reading. They will enjoy cookies and squash one morning break time with Mr and Mrs Franklin.

Wellesley Haddon Dene running club

As a reminder, Parkrun will be starting back very soon on Saturday mornings so we would love to see some Wellesley Haddon Dene pupils and their parents getting their running shoes on to run the 5km courses during the summer holiday. Junior Parkrun has started back already on Sundays; this is a shorter distance of 2km. Don’t forget Wellesley Haddon Dene is listed as a running club so please list that as your running club in any running events you do. To act as motivation, on Sunday Mrs Franklin and Mr Waldie ran in and successfully completed the Sandwich 10k. Go Team Wellesley Haddon Dene!

School This Week

Mark Reading

The second marks of term have been given and the standings are as follows:
1st Saxons
2nd Danes
3rd Romans
4th Vikings
Special mention goes to the following pupils who have achieved the highest set of marks for their year: Greta Grand, Freya Ralph, Grace Flowers, William Franklin, Stanislav Shatokhin and Bonnie Dong. The most improved pupils in each year group were Rufus Hulme, Idris Sheppard, Max Miller, Archie Brown and Scarlett Newman Cousins. The highest scoring tutor group was Form 2.

Speech Day and Prize Giving – Athletics Finals followed by Prize Giving

A reminder that the details of Saturday’s Speech Day can be found here.  We look forward to celebrating together in a safe, outside only environment.

Block 1 Leavers Programme

This week the Block 1 pupils will be enjoying Bubble Football/Zorbing, a cinema trip, an outing to the arcades, a British Sign Language Workshop, the Gaming Vault activity and a whole day hike, as well as pitching their businesses to three esteemed “Dragons” in their Dragon’s Apprentice final. Good luck to our young entrepreneurs. There is quite a treat in store for the winning business team.

JL and Block 4 French Soiree

We are all looking forward to our French Soirée on Thursday 1st July at 16:30.
This is an informal gathering where Block 4 and JL will perform French songs in front of their parents. This will be enhanced by a French style picnic.
Because of the social distancing rules, we will do it in the Orchard garden. Therefore, we will all bring our rug. Of course, this is if the weather allows it. We keep our fingers crossed, this will guarantee a sunny day.

A Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge, presented by The Reading Agency and funded by Arts Council England, encourages children aged 4 to 11 to set themselves a reading challenge to help prevent the summer reading ‘dip’. Each year the Summer Reading Challenge has a new theme. For 2021, The Reading Agency is partnering with WWF for Wild World Heroes, a nature-themed Challenge that will inspire children to engage with environmental issues. Find out more about Wild World Heroes here. 

Through reading books, collecting rewards and learning all about our planet, Challenge participants will help the Heroes make Wilderville a greener place to live. With exclusive incentives to collect and plenty of brilliant books to enjoy, the Challenge is the perfect summer activity to build young readers’ skills and confidence during the long break from school. The Challenge is available in libraries across the UK this summer. Children can also take part online through the official digital Challenge platform wildworldheroes.org.uk. 

We would like to encourage our pupils to participate in this over the summer. There are lots of book recommendations on the Reading Challenge website or you can try the Waterstones recommended reading site for additional ideas.

Mrs Franklin’s Coffee Morning

Please join Claire for coffee this Friday morning after drop off on the front lawn. It will be lovely to see you there.

Codekids

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

Wellbeing

Some parents have asked me about how they can continue with Wellbeing activities over the long Summer break, so here are a few ideas I have put together that you may wish to try.

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).

OW News

Two OWs will be completing the Three Peak’s Challenge in aid of the Kent based charity Holding on Letting Go. If you would like to find out more about their challenge and make a donation, please click here.

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 1.

Senior School News

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. 

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