Wellington College International

ROUNDUP 2021

As another challenging year for education drew to a close, we asked the Masters of our Wellington College International schools to look back at the highlights of the year.

Julian Jeffrey, Master of Tianjin, the oldest school in the international Wellington family, told us:

The most prominent feature of the year has – happily – not been dealing with the consequences of the pandemic’s baleful impact, but rather a series of celebrations of the achievements of our pupils. In many ways an unparalleled year, with record public examination results for a fourth consecutive year and university offers from Oxford, Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania, Imperial, UCL and many other world-leading institutions.

Our younger pupils have also thrived, making consistent and rapid progress. Language acquisition in particular has made great strides following recent developments in our English support model, with superb results.

This year has been about reconnecting with our Wellington community too. Servicelearning and charity projects, such as the innovative Eric Liddell project, have found ways to support young people in Hongqiao and across Tianjin. We have also been able to host events again, including the Festival of Education, Graduation, and the Summer Fair. All provided wonderful moments of togetherness and gave a glimpse of how our school is flourishing despite the challenges of the COVID era.

Shanghai has a new Master, Brendon Fulton, whom we warmly welcome to the Wellington Family. Brendon wrote:

WCI Shanghai had a busy year, welcoming parents back for the many and varied academic, sporting, and performing arts events. The Early Years children thrived back in the school environment, and a transition afternoon with parents was very well received as we work closer together as a whole school. There were also some wonderful performances including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Chicago, and Chinese New Year and Lent concerts, with each demonstrating our exceptionally talented pupils and dedicated staff.

The Senior School hosted ‘IB Lecture Day’, where industry leaders and IB Wellington Scholars presented to their peers on a variety of topics. Another stand-out day was year 9’s immersive learning event, offering the pupils the opportunity to understand global political issues from different perspectives.

Speech Day rounded up an excellent year, as did the announcement of our new dual language programme for Early Years and Lower Prep. Exciting times ahead!

Chris Nicholls has been Master of WCI Bangkok since its inception. Bangkok has had a rather stop-start COVID experience, but the College has gone from strength to strength nevertheless. Chris wrote:

In 2019/20, we had no Olympic-level Swimming programme. In 2020/21, we did. In 2019/20, we had no professional-level Golf programme. In 2020/21, we did. 2019/20: no theatre. 2020/21: an incredible theatre venue. 2019/20: no Scholarship students. 2020/21: we awarded places on our Governors’ Scholarship programmes to some phenomenally talented young people.

Wellington College Bangkok was great in 2019/20. But this year it was so much greater, in so many ways. We placed first in international competitions for Art and for History. We more than held our own against the Harrows, Shrewsburys and Brightons on the sports field (when we were permitted to play).

And remote Learning? We ate that for breakfast. Each morning the recipe was just a little better than the day before. When you’re Wellington, you never stop striving. And We Are Wellington!

Hangzhou opened the same year as Bangkok (2018), and from September 2021 will relocate to beautiful new purpose-built premises. Master, Kathryn Richardson, told us:

2020/21 has been an exciting year. The progress of our pupils has been truly remarkable, and there have been achievements and many special memories created across the curriculum.

Our pupils have performed exceptionally well in debating competitions, the Spelling Bee worldwide competition, ASDAN maths awards and many other events. Performing Arts has been a highlight, with successful Christmas and Chinese New Year performances, our first school musical, and the formation of our school orchestra and choir. We also had a very memorable Christmas Fair, Summer Carnival, and an excellent International Day.

Our Sports Department has excelled too, taking part in more competitions than ever before and winning many events. The year concluded with our first sports awards evening attended by pupils, parents, staff and a renowned sports guest. This year the school has also made strides to become community focused, forging closer connections with our parents and developing opportunities for us to connect further with the local community. We look forward to even greater things in the coming year!

WCI back in Crowthorne could not be prouder of our family of schools either.

And an equally important part of that family are the Huili Schools; Shanghai and Hangzhou. Huili Schools (part of the Wellington College China group of schools) offer a sectorleading bilingual education following the Chinese National Curriculum, followed by iGCSE and A level/IBDP. Huili shares the values, ethos and unrelenting drive for excellence of Wellington. The quality of education is evident as Huili students have been successful in a range of competitions from AI to debating. Most recently Huili Shanghai students won the Shanghai schools debating competition (in Mandarin). This was a super achievement considering the pupils were Y9s competing against 6th form students across the city.

With almost 2,500 pupils already enrolled within the existing Huili schools and a strong and growing reputation within their own cities and beyond, WCC are proud to announce that in August 2022, they will be opening Huili School Nantong, the newest, largest and most ambitious and exciting project yet from Wellington College China.

Each school in the family has shown incredible resilience and determination to succeed to even greater heights this year, from university admissions to language acquisition in Early Years. Despite being grounded in the UK due to COVID, WCI has still been working closely with our partners and schools to support them, and to build an ever stronger, richer network for all to thrive. We look forward to an ever brighter future together.