Wellington College, Berkshire

For other colleges called Wellington College, see Wellington College.

Wellington College

Motto	Virtutis Fortuna Comes (Fortune favours the brave) Heroum Filii (Sons of heroes)
Established	1859
Type	Independent school
The Master	Dr Anthony Seldon
Second Master	Robin Dyer
Chairman of the Board of Governors	Sir Michael Rake
Founder	Queen Victoria
Location	Dukes Ride Crowthorne Berkshire RG45 7PU United Kingdom
Staff	100 (approx.)
Students	1000 pupils (approx.)
Gender	Co-educational
Ages	13–18
Houses	17
Colours	Black, gold,
Former pupils	Old Wellingtonians
Campus	400-acre (1.6 km2) rural campus
Website	www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk

Coordinates: 51°21′51″N 0°48′24″W / 51.3643°N 0.8067°W / 51.3643; -0.8067

View of the main College buildings from the south front.

Wellington College, the national monument to the Duke of Wellington, is a British co-educational independent school located in the village of Crowthorne in Berkshire.

Foundation in 1859

Wellington College was granted its royal charter in 1853 as the Royal and Religious Foundation of The Wellington College, and was opened in 1859. Its first master^{[Note 1]} was Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury. The college's Visitor is HM The Queen.^[1] Wellington currently has just under 1000 pupils aged between 13 and 18.^[2] The school is a member of the Rugby Group, which also includes Harrow School and Charterhouse School and is also a member of the G20 Schools group. The Good Schools Guide called the school "a serious player in the field of education."^[3]

The Wellington Academy

Wellington has sponsored the founding of a new independent state school in Wiltshire, The Wellington Academy,^[4] which opened in 2009.

Wellington College International

Wellington is in partnership with Wellington College International Tianjin, modelled on the buildings and ethos of the college, and which is due to open in August 2011.

Architecture

The college was designed by John Shaw Jr, who had also previously worked as an architect for Eton College. It is located in Crowthorne, a large village in the Royal County of Berkshire in south-east England. For its time, the design of the college was unusual compared to the popular form, but Prince Albert who helped choose the architect was more interested in Shaw's classical approach, having already seen the architect's design for the old Royal Naval School in New Cross, London.^[5] The main buildings were designed in a style loosely termed "French Grand Rococo",^[6] and the chapel was designed by George Gilbert Scott.^{[citation needed]} There have been many modern buildings, the best of which appropriately follow Shaw's style while still being exciting modern architecture: for example, the new Nicholson modern foreign languages building.

Location

Wellington College is located in a 400 acre (1.6 km²) estate in South East England, in the Royal County of Berkshire, approximately 30 miles (50 km) from Heathrow Airport and close to the town of Reading, Berkshire. The grounds of the college are beautiful and extensive, large enough to hold a top-class golf course and considerable woodland in addition to playing fields which are much more extensive than most comparable institutions. They are also notable in that they contain many unusual ant and spider species, and were frequented by the entomologist Horace Donisthorpe, who collected extensively there.^{[citation needed]} The grounds also contain an area of SSSI.

Recent developments

In addition to introducing girls throughout, the school is in the forefront of educational thinking, firstly through the many conferences it organises, and also by adopting the IB Diploma Programme alongside A level. Lower down the school, the Middle Years Programme – also from IBO – is being introduced as an alternative to GCSE. The school is becoming increasingly popular and despite increasing rapidly in size, competition for places is fierce. The school has pulled itself well into the first division, as defined by leading newspapers.^[7][8]

Masters (headmasters) of Wellington

• 2006- Anthony F Seldon
• 2000-2005 Hugh Monro
• 1989-2000 Charles Jonathan "Jonty" Driver
• 1979-1989 David H Newsome
• 1966-1979 Frank Forman Fisher
• 1956-1966 Graham Henry Stainforth
• 1941-1956 Harry Wilfred House
• 1937-1941 Robert Paton Longden
• 1921-1937 Frederick Blagden Malim
• 1910-1921 William Wyamar Vaughan
• 1893-1910 Bertram Pollock
• 1872-1893 Edward C. Wickham
• 1859-1872 Edward White Benson

Former pupils

Main article: List of Old Wellingtonians

Notable former pupils include historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, language school pioneer John Haycraft, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Sir Christopher Lee, writer George Orwell, author Rupert Croft-Cooke, poet Gavin Ewart, composer John Gardner, world champion motor racing driver James Hunt, Leader of the House of Lords Lord Strathclyde, journalist and television presenter Peter Snow, the UK Pop Idol winner Will Young, and BRIT Award-nominated singer Nerina Pallot, and the rugby union players James Haskell and the brothers Max and Thom Evans.^[9]

Sport

Wellington College was one of the 21 founding members of the Rugby Football Union, and historically, pupils at the school have excelled at rugby union. In 2008, the College became the first school to win the Daily Mail Cup at both U15 and U18 level in the same year, beating Millfield School and St Benedict's School, Ealing in their respective finals at Twickenham on 2 April 2008.^[10][11] In 2009 the 1st VII claimed the Rosslyn Park National Schoolboy 7s title for the ninth time.^{[citation needed]} The school has one of only around 20 racquets courts in the UK,^[12] and until recently three Eton Fives courts, now a café bar as part of the sports club.^[13]

Combined Cadet Force

The Wellington College Combined Cadet Force, or CCF, has existed in its various forms since 1880.^{[citation needed]} Commissioned members of the teaching staff who serve as CCF officers are attached to The Duke of Wellington's Regiment.^{[citation needed]} The college also traditionally has two teams of field gun runners, and two runs are made annually at the college speech day.^[14]

Press

Like many of the major public schools, Wellington College is no stranger to press attention. The school has in the past been the subject of reports on bullying,^[15] although media attention has become mostly positive since the arrival of Anthony Seldon as Master.^{[citation needed]} In April 2006, the college attracted widespread publicity when it became the first school in the UK to introduce 'happiness lessons' to the curriculum,^[16] in conjunction with a team at Cambridge University. The move continued a long tradition of pastoral care at Wellington, including religious education and PSHE programmes.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003 Paul Doran-Jones, James Haskell and a female student were suspended from Wellington College after a camera was set up to secretly record Doran-Jones and his girlfriend having sex in a boys' dormitory, breaking the no sex rule.^[17]

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, exposed by The Times, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.^[18] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.^[19] However, Mrs Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and that they were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."^[20]

Houses

There are 17 houses at Wellington. Most contain boarders and a small number of day pupils, although two, Wellesley and Raglan, accept only day pupils.^[21] Each house is either an 'in-house' or an 'out-house'. In-houses are located within the main school buildings and quads, whilst out-houses are located elsewhere on the grounds. Each house has aspects which distinguish it from other houses, such as its own colours and emblem, as well as different locations around the college.

House	Colours	Emblem	Gender	Boarding/Day
Anglesey	Maroon/Blue	Star	F	Boarding
Apsley	Blue/Black	Pineapple	F	Sixth Form Boarding
Benson	Pale Blue/Silver	Rose	M	Boarding
Beresford	Light Blue/Black	Horseshoe	M	Boarding
Blücher	Black/White	Feathers	M	Boarding
Combermere	Gold/Brown	Lion	F	Boarding
Hardinge	Green/Brown	Anchor	M	Sixth Form Boarding
Hill	Purple/Silver	Skull and Crossbone	M	Boarding
Hopetoun	Yellow/Blue	Moon and Star	F	Boarding
Lynedoch	Navy Blue/Black	Iron cross	M	Boarding
Murray	Purple/Black	Moon	M	Boarding
Orange	Orange/Black	Double-headed dragon	F	Boarding
Picton	Pink/Brown	Eagle	M	Boarding
Raglan	Red/Silver	Panther	M	Day
Stanley	Red/Blue	Unicorn	M	Boarding
Talbot	Maroon/White	Iron Cross	M	Boarding
Wellesley	Pink/White	Pelican	F	Day

The Orange, Combermere, Hopetoun and Anglesey were previously boys' houses, but have changed to girls' houses in between 2005-11.^[22]

The Old Wellingtonian Society

The Old Wellingtonian Society is the alumni society for the college and was founded in 1890. The Old Wellingtonian Society was set up to further the interests of the college and its past and present members, and to keep former pupils in touch with each other and with the school.^[23]

The Old Wellingtonian Society maintains a register of names of all who have passed through the college since the school's opening in 1859 and the addresses of all living alumni.

See also

• List of notable Old Wellingtonians
• List of Victoria Crosses by school

Notes

1. ^ The headmaster is known as "the Master"

References

1. ^ "Visit by Her Majesty the Queen". Wellington College website. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/news/general-news/visit-by-her-majesty-the-queen-. Retrieved 10 August 2010. 
2. ^ "Wellington's History". Wellington College website. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/history. Retrieved 16 March 2011. 
3. ^ http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/wellington-college-2.html
4. ^ http://www.thewellingtonacademy.org.uk
5. ^ Paul Johnson. "John Shaw, Junior (1803-70): A Brief Biographical Introduction". Victorian Web. http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/shaw/bio2.html. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
6. ^ "History". Wellington College. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/page.aspx?id=6. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 
7. ^ "Results". London: The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/parentpower/league_tables.php?t=independent_secondary_schools&page=5. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
8. ^ "Results". London: The Telegraph. 2009-09-15. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/6192713/A-level-league-table-independent-schools-entering-25-or-more-candidates.html. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
9. ^ Gallagher, Brendan (11 February 2009). "Thom and Max Evans named in Scotland’s Six Nations team to face France". London: The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/scotland/4591458/Thom-and-Max-Evans-named-in-Scotlands-Six-Nations-team-to-face-France.html. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 
10. ^ "O'Donovan puts on a fine performance as Wellington make history at Twickenham". The Mail on Sunday. http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/dailymailcup.html?in_article_id=554528&in_page_id=1957. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
11. ^ Huw Baines. "Wellington College record historic double". Scrum.com. http://www.scrum.com/39_52509.php. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
12. ^ "Racket Courts". The Tennis & Rackets Association. http://www.tennisandrackets.com/rackets-clubs.html. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 
13. ^ "Fives Courts". Wellington College Sports Club. http://www.wellingtoncollegesportsclub.co.uk/page.aspx?id=5571. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 
14. ^ "Combined Cadet Force". Wellington College. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/page.aspx?id=94. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 
15. ^ "School takes bullying 'seriously'". BBC News. 2005-04-11. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4430145.stm. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 
16. ^ "True happiness is a lesson well taught". Times Educational Supplement. http://www.tes.co.uk/2224724. Retrieved 2006-05-08. ^{[dead link]}
17. ^ "Three suspended over school porn video". http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-5016838-three-suspended-over-school-porn-video.do. 
18. ^ Halpin, Tony (2005-11-10). "Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article588559.ece. 
19. ^ The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement
20. ^ "Private schools send papers to fee-fixing inquiry". The Daily Telegraph (London). 1 March 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1455730/Private-schools-send-papers-to-fee-fixing-inquiry.html. Retrieved 15 March 2011. 
21. ^ "Houses". Wellington College. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/page.aspx?id=19. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
22. ^ "Ten Year Development Plan". Wellington College. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/page.aspx?id=487. Retrieved 2008-04-23. 
23. ^ "The Old Wellingtonian Society". Wellington College. http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/page.aspx?id=106. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 

External links

• Wellington College website
• Website for Old Wellingtonians
• Website of Old Wellingtonian Lodge #3404
• Profile at the Good Schools Guide
• The Wellington Academy website
• Wellington Academy International Tainjin