From Gerard MacMahon – Master of Wellington College International Shanghai

I am delighted to be joining Wellington College International Shanghai as the new Master. I spent January at Wellington College in Berkshire.  I asked the board of Wellington in Shanghai for this opportunity when I was being interviewed because I think an essential part of what we offer is the Wellington culture and values, and I wanted to have real, first-hand experience of both. My background has been in state schools in the UK, albeit in high performing schools with large numbers of professional parents and with many pupils progressing to Oxford, Cambridge and other top universities each year.  But nevertheless, I don’t have a public school or boarding background, so I was keen to get a better understanding of the life of pupils at Wellington and, in particular, the boarding experience.  I also spent some time at Eagle House, the prep school in the Wellington family.  I am very conscious that most of our pupils are below senior school age and therefore our links with the Nursery School, Pre-Prep and Prep at Eagle House are every bit as important as our links with Wellington itself. I was incredibly impressed by Wellington College.  I don’t think anyone can fail to be impressed by the environment, but the most impressive aspects were things that I wasn’t expecting.  The one that I would pick out was the absence of complacency and the way in which all the senior leaders I spoke to, both academic and non-academic, were self-critical and willing to discuss and address weaknesses.  I think that is a sign of a confident school.  No organisation is perfect, but the best schools know themselves well and, within the school environment, are willing to discuss and address the things that need to be improved.   I hope we will be the same at Wellington in Shanghai. The timing of my stay at Wellington was perfect, as on the first day Julian Thomas, who has been Master since September, spoke to his teachers about what it means to be a Wellingtonian.  I was pleased to find myself agreeing with every word.  You may have heard of the “Five Is” of the Wellington Identity by now, they apply equally to Wellington Shanghai, they are what we want a Wellington pupil to be and to become:

• Our pupils should be Inspired. We should encourage a zest for life and for learning. We should want them to be inspiring others.
• Our pupils should be Intellectual. By which we mean they should be inquisitive and be critical thinkers, not just vessels for receiving a curriculum. And we mean intellectual in the broadest sense. Pupils can be intellectual in their approach to sport and drama, as well as to maths or science. Ideas should be encouraged.
• Our pupils should be Independent. This is an aspiration for them both personally and academically. We want to develop independent young adults, but we also want to encourage independent thinkers, who challenge convention. Aiming to help children become intellectual and independent, means going against spoon-feeding and teaching to tests or assessment criteria. It is also one of the reasons we prioritise the co-curricular experiences of pupils and the Academy programme.
• Our pupils should have the space and the support to be Individual. We want to help our boys and girls develop as people in every sense. Schools find it easier to manage a culture of conformity, and children are often desperate to conform and to fit in, so this is a big challenge. We have to be aware of the atmospheres we allow or encourage around children. We need to challenge when we see a child is discouraged from being themselves or from being different, we need to challenge the peer pressure that forces conformity.
• Our pupils should be encouraged to be Inclusive. Our children are mostly very fortunate to be able to come to Wellington. Many of them are from very wealthy families. So we have a particular need not to accept elitism or any sense of entitlement, we should challenge it where we see it. We want to encourage a sixth “I” – internationalism. We have a multi-national, multi-cultural pupil body, we want our pupils to see themselves as citizens of the world first, for whom differences of race and nationality are to celebrated rather than seen as a reason for division. We should model these attitudes as teachers and staff.

  We have the advantage over Wellington College UK that we can influence the experience and attitudes of pupils for a decade before they reach senior school.  I will try to support our teachers in every way I can to help our pupils be inspired, intellectual, independent, individual and inclusive. Julian Thomas, who is visiting us in a couple of months, has spoken about moving away from school league tables as they give a very partial view of a school’s success, but his message is not that results are unimportant.  He is saying that Wellingtonians will get excellent results, and that those results will be very public - only a click away from the college homepage on the website, but that the college will judge itself on the wider experiences and achievements of its students in sport and the arts, in service, and as well-rounded young men and women. In our context, without a long history of public exam results, we will need to ensure that we maximize our pupils’ academic achievement, so that existing pupils do better than they expected and so  potential parents understand the quality of the Wellington offer – an outstanding experience, strong values as well as great exam results. I want to move on to what I expect for Wellington College International Shanghai.  My ambition is for us to aim to be, and to become, the best international school in Shanghai. What does it mean to be “the best”? What will Wellington College International Shanghai be like?   We will see pupils of all ages being allowed to be and being encouraged to be inspired, intellectual, independent, individual and inclusive.  In time, we will see our pupils being as inspired, intellectual, independent, individual and inclusive as their age allows.  We will see interesting lessons, with teachers taking intellectual risks.  We will see pupils enjoying a busy, full day, full of learning and enrichment.  We will have a rich and vibrant co-curricular experience.  We will be known for the quality of our performances in drama, dance, music and sport. We will see teachers who feel professionally inspired and supported.  We will have a school environment (including resources, facilities and IT infrastructure) that supports excellence in teaching and learning.  We will recruit outstanding teachers.  We will retain outstanding teachers.  We will provide career development opportunities for teachers and support staff.  We will be a learning environment for adults as well as children, with high quality training to support our school improvement.  We will become a cornerstone of the Shanghai community.  We will know how our pupils are progressing and be able to communicate that effectively to pupils and their parents.  We will use student data effectively to understand our successes and weaknesses.  We will be self-critical and honest with ourselves.  We will aim for excellence in all aspects of our work, including the food we provide for students, the experience on the school bus, and the achievements on the sports field.  We will build real and lasting links across the Wellington family, across the city and across China and around the world.  We will almost always enjoy our work; and pupils will almost always enjoy their schooling. I don’t think there are any significant barriers that stand in our way.  But where we identify barriers, we should aim to address them.  We must embody our commitment to excellence in everything we do.  We shouldn’t be satisfied with things being “good enough”. It is a great privilege for all of us to be working in this outstanding environment and to have a corporate context that focuses on educational success in the very broadest sense, rather than on profit. I hope you and your children will enjoy being part of Wellington with me as Master.  I hope you will continue to as excited as I am by the opportunities Wellington offers, and I hope you will want your children to experience our drive to be the best. Gerard MacMahon Master Wellington College International Shanghai