From the Headmaster’s Study
There has been no sense of this term slowing down to a finish, as you will see from all of the information in this edition of the Wellesley Weekly. The pre-prep nativity performance balanced tradition with a child-centred focus perfectly and we were all treated to some superb acting and very catchy songs. The two showings were supported by all pupils on Thursday and a significant number of parents, grandparents and extended family on Friday, all of whom gave rave reviews. My congratulations to all of the pre-pre pupils and enormous thanks to Mrs Brown, Miss Hopkin, Mrs Reed and Mrs Spencer for helping to make it such a success.
The Form Plays on Saturday evening offered something slightly different (a more detailed review is available below) and our pupils provided great entertainment, demonstrating such confidence and courage to perform on stage. My thanks also go to our team of staff for their support, good humour and sportsmanship – many of whom had to watch the pupils “impersonate” some of our teachers up on stage throughout the evening. To give you a flavour of the evening, one of the pupils impersonating me wore cricket whites and a wig with little tufts of hair on the side but a large bald patch on top…
We very much look forward to seeing those of you who can make it for our service of 9 lessons and carols on Wednesday morning.
Gavin Franklin
School Last Week
Christmas Craft Morning
The children in Reception and JB enjoyed a morning of craft with their teachers, family and friends. Christmas carols and smells filled the Junior House. We welcomed parents and prospective families who participated in a range of activities including: decorating Christmas shortbread, making candle centrepieces and penguin Christmas cards. There was a lot of glitter and fun had by all!
Form Plays
The annual form plays took place on Saturday evening. As always this was a thespian treat, with excellent and highly entertaining performances from all the tutor groups. Some of our longer serving staff reflected on the event as “one of the best” that they have ever seen “with consistently strong – and amusing – performances from ALL tutor groups”. It was wonderful to see our youngest performers, form JL in particular showing their talents on stage. The acts were again punctuated by interludes from Mr. Latteur, where we were treated to a feast of groan-inducing jokes. The evening concluded with an Antipodean offering by Miss Tuit and Mr Robinson, our two departing gap students, who led us in a rendition of an Australian version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”. Thank you to the tutors for helping to make the evening such a success and to Mr Spencer for masterminding the extravaganza: a fun time was had by all.
Sunday Outing
The boarders outing on Sunday was to the pantomime at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. They had a very enjoyable afternoon watching ‘Mother Goose’. Many thanks to Mr. Hallam and his accompanying staff for organising this trip.
School This Week
Wellesley Voice
We are happy to announce the 3rd edition of the pupil led ‘The Wellesley Voice’ Newsletter has now been published and circulated to the student body. Please find a electronic copy here.
Team of the Week
Congratulations to the pupils who have helped Mr Franklin by acting as guides for prospective parents and pupils and visiting families to Wellesley. They will be rewarded with cookies and squash in the Headmaster’s drawing on Tuesday break.
Mark Reading
The fourth and final marks of term have been given and the standings will be announced in the final assembly on Wednesday. Special mention goes to the following pupils who have achieved the highest set of marks for their year: Melody Flowers, Grace Flowers, Margot Grand, Mercedes Rubio Pro and Joe Dawson.
The most improved pupils in each year group were Tate Sheppard, Anaia Beckett, Stas Shatokhin, Henry Barker and Manuel Sanchez-Carrillo, while the highest scoring tutor group was form 1L.
Music on Monday
Monday Music today was provided by Henry Barker playing “Deck the Halls” on the piano, well played Henry, a very festive finish to the term.
Uniform List update
Please note that the uniform lists, which are available to see online, have been amended to include 2 pairs of trainers for all pupils. One pair for indoor use (non-marking soles) and one pair for outdoor use. From January please can you ensure your child/ren has/have 2 pairs of trainers in school. With the wet, muddy fields the children need to have a clean pair of trainers in school so that they are allowed to use the Sports Hall and Squash courts. Their outdoor trainers will be used for Games and Playtimes.
‘Nativity’ on DVD and USB drives
Jonathan Mount is producing a DVD of the Nativity. Please click here to place your order. The password to enter the Wellesley section is in the Weekly email from the office.
Middle School Play
Auditions are under way for the Middle School play, ‘What a Knight!’. Rehearsals will take place throughout next term before the performances at the end of term.
Christmas Cards
In P.S.H.E. this week, the whole school has been making Christmas cards for people who are lonely or going through difficulties at Christmas. We try to teach the pupils that Christmas is first of all a time to give and that everyone, no matter their age, can do something kind and thoughtful for others. This Monday, Madame Laurans and Mrs Franklin took a pupil from each Block to deliver the Christmas cards to Margate Hospital, and Porchlight who help the homeless. At the hospital wards, the pupils got the chance to hand over the cards to patients themselves. It was a very heart-warming sight.
Christmas Approaches
The Christmas tree is in place in the Old Hall and we are now looking forward to the Christmas Feast on Tuesday evening, followed by the end-of-term party for the children. A reminder that day children should bring their best uniform into school to change into on Tuesday for the Feast; collection will be at 8.30 pm for Block 3, Block 4 and JL and 9.00 pm for Block 1 and Block 2.
Carol Service
On Wednesday, all pupils should come to school wearing their best uniform. We look forward to seeing parents here in Chapel for the Carol Service, which starts at 11.30 am. The service will be followed by coffee and mince pies in the Dining Room.
Fencing
Congratulations to Henry Barker who achieved a bronze medal and trophy for his efforts in an U12 Stennick competition at Sandwich. Well done, Henry.
Scientist of the Month
The scientist of the month for November is Steven Shi from Block 1. Steven has shown much improved effort in science resulting in some outstanding marks in his end of term (Common Entrance Level 2 paper) exams. Well done, Steven.
Lent Term
Boarders return to school at 5pm on the evening of Wednesday 8th January and day children return at 8.20am on Thursday 9th January. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.
Christmas Quiz
In order to continue to offer care and support to those with incurable illness, Pilgrims Hospices in east Kent are hoping to raise £11 million over the next year. One easy way in which to support them is to enter their 2019 Christmas Quiz. Forms are available from school or you can enter online.
Website Galleries
We were alerted to the fact our gallery pages were taking rather a long time to load. As a result we have altered the way they first appear and hope that this significantly increases the load speed.
Holiday Events
CodeKids are running a couple of Christmas Holiday events:
Friday, December 20: Lego Robotics
Children use the Lego WeDo 2.0 to design robots to solve real world problems. They learn to control their robots using block based code.
Location: The Malthouse, St Stephen’s Rd, Canterbury CT2 7JA
No prior coding experience necessary. If your child has been to one of these workshops before, then their learning will be extended further and they will not have to repeat the same content as before.
Click here to book.
Menu
This week the kitchen will be serving Menu 1.
Matches last Week
| Monday 2nd December | |
| Hockey v St Lawrence College: U13 | Lost 4-2 |
| Wednesday 4th December | |
Rugby v JKS: U13 Rugby v St Lawrence: U11 | Lost 3-8 Lost 3-2 |
| Monday 9th December | |
Rugby v St Lawrence College: U13 Rugby v St Lawrence College: U12 | Lost 3-7 Lost 8-13 |
Matches Next Term
Please always refer to the website calendar as it is the most up-to-date place to check for fixture changes and locations.
Wednesday 15th January
Netball Dover College & SLC Triangular: U11 (a)
Rugby v Duke of York’s: U13 (a)
Rugby v St Lawrence and Ashford: U11 & U10 (a)
Saturday 18th January
Netball v Kent College: U13A (h)
Rugby v JKS: U13, U11 & U10 (a)