From the Master

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Wellington College International Tianjin!

This website is probably your first acquaintance with Wellington College International Tianjin. Our stated goal is quite simple: to establish Wellington College International Tianjin as the leading international school in China, with a reputation centred on academic excellence, internationalism, leadership, responsibility, service to others, and outstanding pastoral provision and extra-curricular education. Despite having only opened as recently as August 2011, we believe we are already well on the way to achieving our goal.

China has in recent years become one of the leading centres of international education, with many fine schools. Wellington College in Tianjin is already recognised as being amongst these schools. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, there are the wonderful state-of-the-art facilities on our campus in the very centre of Tianjin, purpose-built and encompassing everything required for academic and extra-curricular excellence in 21st-century international education. Secondly, there is the link with the highly prestigious Wellington College in the United Kingdom and its preparatory school Eagle House. The rich heritage and traditions of Wellington UK define the ethos and values of Wellington in Tianjin, as well as permeate all aspects of our day-to-day educational provision. This is in every respect a partnership, made all the more exciting by the way in which Dr Anthony Seldon, the inspirational Master of Wellington College, has placed the College at the forefront of educational innovation and thought. The result has been an enviable vibrancy at Wellington College in the UK, with staff and students embracing change as an educational ideal, all of which we have replicated here in our academic programmes, our staff and student exchanges and our expectations of all teachers.

Wellington College in Tianjin is the first of many ‘Wellingtons’ around the world, giving us a unique, and leading, position in what is destined to be a genuine community of schools. Community is a very important concept for us all at the College, based on the family, that vital element in Chinese culture, as it is indeed for all cultures worldwide. In our pastoral care and our determination to involve parents as much as possible in the life of the College we seek to promote the family as a cornerstone of our educational community.

By choosing to send your children to Wellington College in Tianjin, you as parents have made a commitment to the College. In order to realise our aims as a school, and more particularly for your own children, we need your total  support. School education is in reality a partnership between pupils, teachers and parents, whereby the learning processes initiated at school are maintained, indeed encouraged, at home. A great part of education is about developing the right work practices and values, a central feature of the College’s Mission Statement and our unique Wellington Eight Aptitudes model of education, and this is where parents can play a vital, if not definiing, role. Good habits at home are invariably translated into good habits, be they academic, social or disciplinary, at school.

All through my career in education, I have advocated a ‘hands-on’ approach to education, wanting to know all pupils and parents alike, whether directly through the classroom, I have always believed a head should teach, or by supporting the wide variety of extra-curricular activities we offer at Wellington. There will always be the warmest of welcomes when you enter the College by the North Gate. No website, however innovative, can ever convey fully the essence of any school , and Wellington is no exception. So please do come and see the College. I can promise you will not be disappointed!

Best wishes,

David Cook