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Wellington College, Berkshire

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Wellington College
Address
Map
Dukes Ride

Crowthorne
,
Berkshire
,
RG45 7PU

England England
Information
TypePublic school
MottoVirtutis Fortuna Comes
(Fortune favours the brave)
Heroum Filii
(Sons of heroes)
Established1853 (opened 1859)
FounderQueen Victoria
Chairman of the Board of GovernorsSir Anthony Goodenough KCMG
The MasterDr Anthony Seldon
Second MasterRobin Dyer
Staff100 (approx.)
GenderCo-educational
Age13 to 18
Enrollment900 (approx.)
Houses17
Colour(s)Black, gold,    
Former pupilsOld Wellingtonians
Campus400-acre (1.6 km2) rural campus
Websitehttp://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/

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View of the main College buildings from the south front.

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For other monuments to Wellington, see Wellington Monument (disambiguation).

Wellington College, the national monument to the Duke of Wellington, is an English co-educational public school located in the Berkshire village of Crowthorne. The school 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 (Headmaster) was Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury. The college's Visitor is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.[citation needed] Wellington has approximately 900 pupils aged between 13 and 18.[citation needed] The School is a member of the G20 Schools group. The Good Schools Guide called the school "a serious player in the field of education."[1] Wellington has sponsored the founding of an independent state school in Wiltshire, The Wellington Academy [2], which opens in 2009.

Architecture

The college was designed by John Shaw Jr, who had also previously worked as an architect for Eton College.[citation needed] 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.[3]

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, and are also notable in that they contain many unusual ant species, and were frequented by the entomologist Horace Donisthorpe, who collected extensively there.[citation needed] The grounds contain an area of SSSI. The main buildings were designed by John Shaw Jr in a style loosely termed "French Grand Rococo",[4] and the chapel was designed by George Gilbert Scott.[citation needed]

Former pupils

Main category: Old Wellingtonians

The school has a diverse and extensive range of distinguished former pupils, including historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Christopher Lee, writer George Orwell, author and explorer Hannibal Foggpoet Gavin Ewart, composer John Gardner, world champion motor racing driver James Hunt, Opposition 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[citation needed], the brothers Max and Thom Evans[5].

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.[citation needed] The school has one of only around 20 racquets courts in the UK,[6] and until recently three Eton Fives courts.[citation needed] 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.[7][8]


Chess

Chess at Wellington is lead by Grand-Master John Rawlinson. His best apprentice, is a young man named George Wilson. His tactful ways around a chess board and notorious 'psych-outs' to put off other players, inlcuding the infamous moving of chess pieces with his tongue or the red george tactic, has meant that he is one of Wellington's top and most promising students.

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 Commanding Officer of the Wellington College CCF is Lieutenant Colonel Eddy Heddon (REME). The College also traditionally has two teams of Field Gun runners, and two runs are made annually at the College Speech Day.[9]

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,[10] 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,[11] in conjunction with a team at Cambridge University lead by Nick Baylis. The move continued a long tradition of pastoral care at Wellington, including religious education and PSHE programmes.[citation needed] The school also achieved recent fame in winning the Daily Mail Schools Cup at both under-15 and under-18 level in 2008.[7]

In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading private 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.[12] 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.[13]

Houses

There are 17 houses at Wellington. Most contain boarders and a small number of day pupils, although there are those two which only accept day pupils, Wellesley and White Cairn, both introduced in September 2007.[14] 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 College.

House Colours Emblem Gender Boarding/Day Type Housemaster
Anglesey Maroon/Blue Star M Boarding Out-house Bart Wielenga
Apsley Blue/Black Pineapple F Boarding Out-house Maggie Chodak
Benson Pale Blue/Silver Rose M Boarding Out-house Iain Henderson
Beresford Light Blue/Black Horseshoe M Boarding Out-house Tim Head
Blücher Black/White Feathers M Boarding In-house Mark Boobbyer
Combermere Blue/White Dragon F Boarding In-house Delyth Draper
Hardinge Green/Brown Anchor M Boarding In-house Charles Oliphant-Callum
Hill Purple/Silver Skull and Crossbone M Boarding In-house Simon Lockyer
Hopetoun Yellow/Blue Moon and Star M/F Boarding Out-house Glen Waugh & Mrs Judy Waugh
Lynedoch Navy Blue/Black Iron cross M Boarding In-house Gareth Pearson
Murray Purple/Black Moon M Boarding In-house John Rawlinson
Orange Orange/Black Double-headed dragon F Boarding Out-house Linda Raabe-Marjot
Picton Pink/Brown Eagle M Boarding Out-house Nick Gallop
Stanley Red/Blue Unicorn M Boarding Out-house Neill Lunnon
Talbot Maroon/White Iron Cross M Boarding Out-house Paul Boscher
Wellesley Pink/White F Day In-house Eunice Gillan
White Cairn (renamed Raglan) White/Pink Pelican M Day Out-house Graeme Owton

The Orange was previously a boys' house, but was changed to a girls' house in 2005, with the boys in the Orange mostly relocating to the newly-rebuilt Beresford out-house. The Combermere has also been turned from a boys' house into a girls' house, with the boys moving out of the Combermere and joining the Hardinge. The Hopetoun is just completing its transition phase, becoming girls-only in September 2009. The Anglesey is also set to undertake the same change in September 2009.[15]

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.[16]

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.

References

  1. ^ http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/wellington-college-2.html
  2. ^ http://www.thewellingtonacademy.org.uk
  3. ^ Paul Johnson. "John Shaw, Junior (1803-70): A Brief Biographical Introduction". Victorian Web. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  4. ^ "History". Wellington College. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  5. ^ Gallagher, Brendan (11 February 2009). "Thom and Max Evans named in Scotland's Six Nations team to face France". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
  6. ^ "Racket Courts". The Tennis & Rackets Association. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  7. ^ a b "O'Donovan puts on a fine performance as Wellington make history at Twickenham". The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  8. ^ Huw Baines. "Wellington College record historic double". Scrum.com. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  9. ^ "Combined Cadet Force". Wellington College. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  10. ^ "School takes bullying 'seriously'". BBC News. 2005-04-11. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  11. ^ "True happiness is a lesson well taught". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved 2006-05-08.
  12. ^ Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees - Times Online
  13. ^ The Office of Fair Trading: OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement
  14. ^ "Houses". Wellington College. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  15. ^ "Ten Year Development Plan". Wellington College. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  16. ^ "The Old Wellingtonian Society". Wellington College. Retrieved 2008-09-07.

See also

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