Winchester has been significantly instrumental
in the development of World Leading Schools
Association, founded in 2005, the year of Dr. Ralph
Townsend’s appointment to Winchester. This worldwide group of about a hundred schools is committed
to develop young people who can become leaders in
the cross-cultural world of the 21st century.
The opening up of China and constant invitations for
Winchester to participate in educational encounter
with schools around the world caused the Head Man
to create the post of Head of International Affairs in
2008. He appointed Tim Parkinson to it. Tim had
been a Winchester don for seventeen years, latterly as
Head of Economics. He was a popular don teaching a
popular subject, and he was a good tennis coach. His
brief was to explore ways to create an international
educational nexus in which Winchester could
constructively participate. ‘I represent the Head Man
around the world, particularly in Asia,’ he says, ‘and I
live in Hong Kong as my base. Many boys I taught at
Winchester now live in Hong Kong, so I am part of a
strong OW community here. I supervise the growing
number of applications for admission for boys from
this part of the world – all interviews for admissions
from the Asian region are now held in Hong Kong.
I help Lorna Stoddart with her development work
among Asian parents and OWs, and I devise the
academic content of, and help prepare all the students
for, the annual Winchester International Symposium
among its ten member schools around the world.’
Over the past decade there have been concerted
attempts on the part of Winchester to forge links
with schools operating in different educational
systems. Winchester contributes to the global
education community in co-operation with the
World Leading Schools Association (WLSA) by
rolling out accreditation and examination rigour
as the examiner for the Advanced Certificate for
University Entrance (ACUE) at the High School
Affiliated to Fudan University (HSAFU) in Shanghai.
Last year 47 Chinese students achieved places at
universities in the US as a result of this relationship.
46 The Wykeham Journal 2015
Tim explains that Winchester has been significantly
instrumental in the development of WLSA, founded
in 2005, the year of Ralph Townsend’s appointment
to Winchester. This world-wide group of about a
hundred schools is committed to develop young people
who can become leaders in the cross-cultural world of
the 21st century. WLSA’s stated purpose is to seek to
promote human potential across a range of different
dimensions, intellectual, moral, emotional, social,
physical, aesthetic and spiritual. Its member schools
offer an academic curriculum which, according to
their mission statement, encourages curiosity, integrity,
discussion and independent learning and thinking; a
curriculum which, according to the WLSA’s mission
statement, engages with the local community,