Wellington College, Shanghai welcomes Ms Eleanor Prescott as Head of the Senior School

I will leave WCUK after 4 incredible years here, as a teacher and as a Housemistress. No stranger to change myself, before coming into education I had a 10 year career in Investment Banking, working in Debt Capital Markets for Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America. In 2009 I switched careers after completing a Post Graduate Certificate in Secondary Education. I have always loved languages, travel and exposure to different cultures so I am delighted to be teaching Spanish and French in Shanghai and hopeful that my Mandarin will go from before basic, to workable! Wellington College is an extraordinary institution and is, without a doubt, the most exciting place to be in education. Led by Dr Anthony Seldon in UK, the school has become a centre for pedagogy and best practice globally. What makes Wellington so special, and what we will be bringing to Shanghai, is the philosophy, adapted by Anthony from the eminent Harvard psychologist, Robert Gardiner, and built around the Eight Aptitudes. Grounded in the idea that every child, and indeed every person, has multiple intelligences and it is our challenge as educators to develop all of them.  Too many schools are focused on just one or two aspects of how children learn, typically the logical or the linguistic skills which though critical are not sufficient. Wellington genuinely seeks to expand and push the boundaries of every child (and teacher) that comes to our school. We care about the moral and spiritual values our young people have. We expect them to reflect on their beliefs and to question the moral judgements that they make and give them ample opportunity to do so. Developing one’s moral aptitude is just as likely to happen on the sports field as it is with the ‘great questions’ in life. We want to develop the personal and social capabilities of our young people; the world they are born and will work in requires us to do this if we are to equip them well for life. Equally so the cultural and physical domains; their lives will be enriched through the pursuit of these and it is through the extended Wellington programme that they will have every chance. We are committed to continuing development of our staff too and the idea that one must always be open to new ideas and potentially better ways of doing things. We want to continue to learn as we ask our students too and it is reflected in our teaching of students in terms of how to learn rather than simply what to learn to pass exams today. We cannot know now what they will need to know in 40 years time, we must teach them, therefore, how to be open to new knowledge and learning, when it comes, to remain adaptable. This means we encourage student-centred learning; letting them discover knowledge for themselves rather than just feeding it to them. Curiosity and Courage lie at the heart of our core values and we encourage young people to open their minds and their hearts to the world in which they live. We are there to support them; to allow them to take risk and, on occasion, allow them to fail. To present to them a world without risk is to do them a great disservice as it they will be ill equipped for the challenges that their generation must face. We are educating future global leaders; theirs is the responsibility to govern wisely, ours is the responsibility to show them how. The ties will remain strong between Wellington Berkshire and all members of the Wellington family. I know that the students here in the UK are excited as the prospect of closer links with both Shanghai and Tianjin, as I hope parents in China are too. It is going to be a dynamic, lively, all-encompassing school; one that draws the whole community in. I am very much looking forward to joining our Headmaster, David Cook, at the centre of it and to experiencing   one of the greatest cities in the world: Shanghai.