End of Year Letter From the Master

As we approach the halfway point of the school year, I thought it would bring some seasonal cheer to relive some of the highlights of a busy, successful term.

Academic Success

Our pupils have once again shown how much can be achieved through hard work, ambition and the unwavering, 360° support of parents and staff. We have had academic success, with an IB average of 37.4 in the summer. This score would place the school among the very top ranks of international schools in China.

Our graduates, armed with such strong results, moved on to some of the world's top universities. Of the 64 leavers, there were 325 total offers, including 45 from QS Top 20 universities. Notable successes include offers from Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, and LSE. The US saw record offers from Top 30 schools, including Ivy League institutions. UK applications received offers from all top 10 universities, with consistent Oxbridge success. Globally, there were 100% offer rates from HKU, Tsinghua, PKU, and top Australian universities, plus 80% from the University of Toronto.

Holistic Growth

You will see from the infographic the scale of our pupils' involvement in sport, the performing arts, academic competitions, and awards. These latter categories represent just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the commitment of pupils and their teachers.

The scale of the opportunities open to young people at Wellington is genuinely humbling to me. With over 185 CCAs each week, as well as the WeX and Team programmes offering pupils further chances to learn new skills, children can really begin to curate a purposeful, intentional course of extra-curricular studies that can both help to support applications to even the world's best universities and, of course, enrich any young life. 

As the school begins an exciting new collaboration with Shanghai Jiaotong University in a longitudinal study on the importance of a holistic education, I am reminded again of how the world's leading schools marry academic excellence with a genuinely all-round, profoundly enriching programme of learning and wellbeing outside the classroom. We are working every day to make the lives and learning of our pupils a deeper, more profound experience.

Service-Learning and Community Impact

The work of our pupils in service-learning projects has been monumental, whether in the schoolwide Edventures week back in September, October's wonderful IFF or through charity projects aimed at supporting rural communities with computers, casual dress days for longstanding causes such as Heart to Heart, cancer awareness and local mental health charities. 

The Year 3 'Endangered Animals' exhibition and fundraising project, for example, was bolstered further with support from our parents. I can't move on from service-learning without a word for our first two Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) Gold Award winners. Rundi and Lena, both now in Year 13, achieved what only 44 young people in China have managed in the past two years: completing the full DoE programme. It is an outstanding example of determination, vision and resilience. Our younger pupils, just starting out on what for many is a life-affirming challenge, must surely be inspired by their example.

Sports and Performing Arts Highlights

Equally inspiring were the performances in the pool and on the stage this term. Our swimmers, already a formidable squad of Aqualions, produced an outstanding team swim to win the national ACAMIS finals in early December. Having claimed second place last year, winning this national competition for the first time is a testament to what this programme, like others within the school, is building. Individual performances complemented the overall team results with records galore, both citywide and further afield, including Malaysian national records for Shannon in two disciplines. 

Our footballers, basketballers, and volleyballers all contributed to a very successful season in these disciplines, too, stepping up to compete in top-division matches against some long-established regional rivals. All have demonstrated the school's values and commitment in their training and conduct, whether in victory or in defeat. We can be very proud of their contributions.

In our concerts and productions, once again, Wellingtonians showed why performing arts are so cherished by the community. We shared a wonderful concert with our friends from Wellington College in England, marvelling in the sound and skill of an a capella group. Our musicians continue to showcase their enviable talent and this term's Young Musician Competitions were once again a real highlight of talent, reflecting the dedication of our staff and pupils alike. We have also had mesmeric dance shows, year-group and schoolwide performances, and, of course, drama in the form of a timely production of 'A Christmas Carol' by Years 7 and 8.

Parent-School Partnership

Parents will know that I place great store in building open, respectful and deep relationships with our parent body. There is no stronger alliance in raising a child than that of a home-school partnership. We are all here for one thing – educating your child in a nurturing, ambitious and safe environment, one in which each child can be both an individual and feel an integral part of a collective. To facilitate trust and dialogue between parents and the school, we have run almost 50 workshops and launched a series of weekly Meet the Master sessions. All of these, along with our existing parent-teacher conferences and individual meetings, have allowed us to share more of what we do and why we do it. We were thrilled to be able to welcome record numbers of parents to the International Friendship Festival and Concert – a wonderful celebration of diversity and community at the end of October.

Finally, I would like to take this chance to thank you for your ongoing support for our pupils and staff. We all belong to a very special community here at Wellington, and I feel privileged to have joined the team this year. On behalf of all my colleagues, I would like to wish each and every one of you a happy, peaceful holiday until we meet again on 5^th January.