14
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15
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The Sports Pavilion will at last open in September
Wellington is looking to start branches abroad, and I
2009. Our Performing Arts centre and other projects will
would ask still more parents to help us as are Mark Hanson
follow, I hope, soon after.
in Bahrain, Martin Uden in Korea, where he is Ambassador,
In all these developments, we need your support.
Ahmed Samea in Abu Dhabi, His Royal Highness the Sultan
A world class school demands world class parental
of Selangor, and Simon McDonald from Number 10.
involvement. A greatly enhanced wca with wider participation and involvement from next year on will bring this
India, Singapore, Japan and Thailand are other countries
where we are looking to build contacts.
about. But more is required. Wellington is blessed with its
In January, in a speech that I circulated to all parents,
parents, and going the final step should not prove difficult.
I reminded pupils of a question I posed to them when I
Five, we need dramatically to improve work
joined as Master in January 2006: did they want to belong
experience. We need to give our existing team, who do
to an ordinary school which was in the third division, or
gallant work, far more resources. Things have improved
to an extraordinary, first division school, that could hold
nevertheless since the 1950s. The new school history
its head high ?
includes the reminiscence of a former Anglesey boy: “The
They responded positively, and Wellington is now a
Master asked us to have tea with him in the Lodge, a treat
first division school, leading the standard in many areas,
for all leavers. Having observed my progress at Wellington
with morale high.
over the years, he gave me his considered opinion that my
So this January I put a further question to them: did
best prospect lay in entering the second hand car trade. I
they want to be in a school that was merely in the first
told him that somehow or other I had managed to procure
division, or did they want to belong to a school that was
a place at Cambridge, but I was eager to accept his advice.
world class ?
He seemed pleased. My parents were not.”
I referred, as I often do, to the 1st Duke of Wellington,
Six, we need to clarify further our entry requirements.
to his courage, hard work and leadership. Rightly he was
The quite extraordinary surge in interest in Wellington
described by Queen Victoria as the “finest Englishman
caught us all off guard. We are giving special preference
ever to have lived”.
to siblings, but cannot in every case. We need to improve
our Admissions process still further.
Seven, still more needs to be offered at Wellington
for the child who is not a top musician, academic or
I spoke to them of our founding commitment to
‘Godliness and good learning’, of a commitment to serving
others and serving God. We had become negligent of our
calling and traditions, I said.
sportsperson. Every single child has the right to have all
We are now becoming reconnected, tangibly, palpably
their interests and talents developed, and our unique Eight
and visibly with our tradition and history. There is an
Aptitude model will help achieve this.
extraordinary vibrancy and excitement in this school. A
Eight, we need to do more to make well-being and
positive thinking an ingrained part of our ethos, and indeed
spirituality.
sense that we are in a historical continuum, heirs to a
noble tradition.
Having the leaders of positive psychology
The new chapter in Wellington?? ?s history is opening.
speaking at Wellington, including Martin Seligman and Tal
You are all part of that tradition. If we can excel in the ten
ben Shahar will help, as will having Sam Weller speaking on
areas I have just described, anything will be possible.
the first evening back after half term.
Ninth, we need to lead education more, setting the
standards, starting initiatives and holding conferences at
Wellington, as we do in Politics, which are national quality.
All our academic departments need to become world class.
We will indeed become world class. Only a lack of
ambition and a lack of nerve will stop us. We will not let
that happen.
We must not falter. There is only one way, and that
is upwards.
Finally, Wellington needs to spread throughout the
We will become again the school of which the 1st
world. Already we are linked via Round Square and the
Duke would have been proud. We will, in our Jubilee year,
g20 to some of the world’s great schools. Last month
fulfil our promise.
I was in Beijing consolidating our link with China’s top
school, the High School Affiliated to Renmin University.
We will indeed become Wellington’s College.