Pastoral Care and the House System
Pastoral care at Wellington College is modeled on the excellent systems in place in the UK, at both Wellington and Eagle House, with suitable adjustments made for our international day school setting. We are actively committed to providing the highest standards of pastoral care to ensure the wellbeing of all our students, with a team of experienced and enthusiastic staff to support and care for them, and to help nurture all their aptitudes.
All pupils, from Pre-Nursery to Year 13, are members of one of the four “Houses”, all of which are named after, and have direct links with the same four Houses at Wellington College in the UK. These are the Blucher, the Orange, the Stanley and the Wellesley. All these names are of key figures involved with the campaigns of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, after whom the College is named, and thus all pupils become part of the long, proud history and heritage of Wellington College. All four Houses have their own distinctive crest and identity, which adorn the walls of the Junior Classrooms and Senior Houserooms. Pupils remain in this House throughout their time at Wellington College, however long that may be, and thus develop a real loyalty to it.
In the Junior School, the classroom teacher plays the central role in pastoral care, aided by the Teaching Assistant. Each year group class has a mix of Houses, so that everyone can take part in the House competitions of various sorts. In the Junior School it is the class teacher who parents would contact to deal with day to day issues. It is in the Senior School (Year 7 upwards) that the House system becomes a more obvious focus of daily life. Senior pupils meet and register every day in their House groups, with their House teachers, in a Houseroom set aside specifically as a base for that House. Each House in the Senior School has pupils from across the age ranges, from Year 7 to Year 13, allowing older and younger pupils to meet, interact and enjoy a shared experience in a way that they would not normally do, to the benefit of all of them.
There are three or four members of staff attached to each House, who between them act as the House Tutors. Each Tutor has a House Tutor Group of 6 to 10 pupils, usually from no more than three different year groups. The intention is that the House Tutor will oversee the academic and extra-curricular progress of their tutees, and is the main point of contact for parents, who should feel free to contact them as they would a class teacher in the Junior School. As well as seeing their tutees every day at registration, there are opportunities twice a week before or after Senior Assembly to meet in House Tutor Groups, and of course the pupils and teachers may arrange individual tutorial sessions at any convenient time that they are both free.
Competition between Houses is fierce at Wellington in the UK, and that will be no different here in Tianjin. There are a great many inter-house competitions throughout the academic year, for cumulative academic success (via the House Points system), to various sports, public speaking, drama, music events and so on. These will culminate in the awarding of The Potter Cup to the most successful house over the year.
