The Week Ahead 20170630

Our first full academic year comes to an end. It is hard to know where to start this week’s Week Ahead, there is so much to reminisce upon. We have come such a long way since our opening last year and I feel that we can all head off for our summer break with a profound sense of achievement and pride. The team around me have worked tirelessly to bring a vision to life and it has been a year filled with exciting challenges and a determination to keep our mission on track. This year, the partnership between the families and the College has strengthened significantly. We have established an active parent representative group who have demonstrated great dedication in bringing events to the setting. Our Winter Market and Summer Carnival were testament to that dedication and were great successes. Alongside the events the parent representatives have worked closely with Yuki and I to ensure that the communication links between the parent body and the team here at the College are open, transparent and responsive. We look to the future; next year, we will have a team of parent representatives who will be the voice of 14 classes and 278 families. We are excited to see what next year brings and are very grateful for the continued support that is offered. As I write this, I appreciate that we can no longer consider ourselves as new; it is, indeed, time to make the move to establish ourselves as a mature setting. I feel that in many ways, we already are. Feedback from parents recently has compared us to schools and nurseries that have been around in Shanghai for many more years than we have. I have also received emails from parents stating their commitment to working in continued partnership with the College to ensure that we are successful in all aspects of College life. I feel that this reflects the energy and efforts of all involved in Wellington College Bilingual Shanghai. We have made an astounding start, quadrupling in size since opening 15 months ago and I look to the future with a sense of great anticipation. In the new academic year, we see the introduction of music and movement which will be led by Miss PeiHua and Miss Sarah. Working together the team will offer a truly bilingual experience for the pupils; Miss Sarah has extensive experience at delivering Kindermusik programmes in Beijing and Miss PeiHua is a competent musician specialising in traditional Chinese instruments. Both are early years’ educators who imbue all that is Wellington College. They promote the values and identity whilst appreciating the needs of young learners. What’s more, they have no objection to pretending to be dinosaurs or wearing the occasional dusting of glitter. We say goodbye to some of the teaching team and a welcoming hello to those who join us in August. Through the parent information sessions, you will have been introduced to the team and will get to meet them in person during the meet and greet session scheduled on Thursday 17^th August (08:30 – 11:30 for new families and 13:00 – 16:00 for returning families). It takes a special something to be a member of the team here at Wellington College Bilingual Shanghai and I’m sure that you will be delighted with the team of educators working with your child.   

THANK YOU…… Thank you really isn’t enough. I have watched the evolution of the setting over the last year and have had the privilege of watching the families grow with us. I have gone from chasing people for a ‘good morning’ to being greeted happily every day. I now enter a room to a chorus of greetings. I watch and listen to children singing every day – now generally unprompted in their words. I am surrounded by pupils who are physically bigger, emotionally more mature and socially more confident. I hear English. I see smiles.