the wellington college year book 2010/2011
94
TheWellington
experience
is not just
for the pupils
wca
W
ellington is one of the
most dynamic institutions
anyone is ever likely to be
part of, and parents are
very much a part of it. The
wca (formerly known as the Wellington
College Association) is where parents, often
accompanied by grandparents, godparents,
aunts and uncles, come together with staff,
ows and other friends of the College. It is
an opportunity to immerse themselves in the
College’s life and community: the Wellington
experience isn’t just for the pupils?!
Firstly, we put on a number of educational
and cultural events to make full use of the
College’s world class educational and cultural
facilities, as well as the considerable pool of
expertise among staff, parents and ows. We
also feature visiting speakers, many of whom
are high profile: highlights of last year included
talks by explorer Ranulph Fiennes and artist/
conservationist David Shepherd. Wellington
believes in ‘life-long learning’ and last year in
response to parent requests to know more
about the famous ‘happiness lessons’ we run
for the pupils, we put on a seven week course
of well-being classes for parents. It was so
popular that we ran another one in January,
and the third will begin in October.
We also provide parents with plenty
of opportunities to meet each other and
members of the staff in a relaxed atmosphere;
this happens over at a number of formal and
informal social occasions ranging from reading
groups to garden parties, as well as local and
overseas trips. Highlights of last year were
the trips to Marrakesh, Rome and the First
World War Battlefields. During 2011/2012
parents will find themselves bonding over the
cultural delights of St Petersburg, dancing
the night away at the Great Gatsby ball in
November and Burns Night in January, and
following the story of Operation Market
Garden during a parent led trip to Arnhem
next summer. As well as these ‘headline’
events wca is always well represented
at match teas and there are regular small
events to suit every interest, such as golf
days, walks, lunches and the reading group.
We welcome suggestions as to how we
could further diversify and always encourage
parents who would like to run an event, a
lecture or a course themselves. One of the
strengths of such a committed and talented
parent body is that if we don’t have expertise
in a particular area ourselves, we will be sure
to know someone who does.
Denise Cook, the head of wca, has been
a teacher at Wellington since 1998 and a
parent since 2004. She runs wca with the
help of the wca Committee, which consists
of a cross-section of parents from different
year groups and houses. On taking over
wca in 2008 Denise set up a College-wide
network of parent representatives, with the
aim of having a wca parent rep for every
year, for every house, as well as whole year
group, College and ow representative. As
wca is paid for by subscription from all
current parents it is important to ensure
that everyone knows what is on offer and
we publicise events through a hard copy
‘Fixtures List’ twice a year, with regular
updates via ‘The Week Ahead’ as well as on
our web pages.
The start of the wca year is the New
Parents’ Reception, which takes place early
in the Michaelmas term and gives new parents the chance to meet their individual reps,
put names to faces and find out how to get
involved in the coming term’s programme of
events and activities. Often parents whose
children are arriving from small prep schools
can find the sheer scale of Wellington quite
daunting, and aren’t sure in a mainly boarding
environment how to make the connections
that happened naturally in the context of
the prep school set up, where parents tend
to be more involved on a day-to-day basis.
Perhaps wca’s most important function is to
ensure that everyone feels welcome from day
one, and there is always a friendly face and
someone to chat to over Wellington’s sumptuous match teas on Saturday afternoons?
!
wca are delighted to welcome you to
the Wellington family, and look forward to
seeing you soon at a wca event. Whatever
you decide to get involved in, you can be sure
of friendly faces and a very warm welcome.
You can contact Denise on:
wca@wellingtoncollege.org.uk