Wellington College China: 10th Anniversary Celebration

Joy Qiao, Founder and Chair of Governors of Wellington College China (WCC), addressed all staff at the 10th Anniversary celebrations stating:

International education and bilingual education have developed prosperously in China in the last decade from 2009 till 2019. From the first year to the tenth year, our original intention and aspiration that we are going to provide the best quality education have never changed!

Wellington College in England was founded by Queen Victoria in 1859 as a national monument to Britain's greatest military figure, the Duke of Wellington, who also served the country with distinction twice as Prime Minister. 160 years later, Wellington College is one of the most highly regarded schools in the United Kingdom and also one of its greatest educational institutions, providing pioneering, innovating and transforming education for girls and boys. This vibrant and popular co-educational day and boarding school has reached new heights in today's rapidly changing and interconnected world. Since its foundation Wellington College China has established schools and kindergartens in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou to provide education for children aged three to eighteen, and is recognised as one of the most influential international education groups in China and beyond.  

2009-2019

The Holistic Cultivation of Future Leaders

10th anniversary celebrations▼

Taking "Inspired, Intellectual, Independent, Individual and Inclusive" as the Wellington identity, "Courage, Respect, Integrity, Kindness, Responsibility" as the core values, Wellington College China aspires to create a caring, learning community that develops well-rounded individuals who can thrive within an ever-changing world. Upholding the concept of "Holistic Education", WCC provides world-class facilities and faculty, designed curriculum settings, teaching guidance, and family-school communication, so as to care for all aspects of pupils' growth with a pupil-centred belief. Pupils from WCC have achieved great performance in academic results and university admissions. Among all of our graduates in Tianjin and Shanghai, nearly 20% of them attend the world's top 20 universities and more than 40% attend the top 50 universities. The average IB score for Wellington College International Shanghai pupils in 2019 has risen to 36.6 points (against the global average of 29 points) with 72% of all IGCSE grades being A*-A, and in Tianjin 34% of pupils attained A*-A grades at A Level in 2019 and 62% achieved A*-A grades in IGCSE in 2019.

2009-2019

Cultural Diversity in a Mutually Respectful Environment

WCC pupils' school life▼

At WCC, we respect, understand and support cultural diversity, and strive to create an equal, inclusive and mutually respectful atmosphere in schools for employees, pupils and parents with different nationalities and backgrounds. The cross-cultural communication between Chinese and foreign employees has always been well under way, while the school-family partnership has been effectively strengthened, and parents cooperate with WCC schools to help increase children's engagement and wellbeing in school life together. Among all kinds of events like sports competitions, dramas, festival celebrations and charity activities, great contributions have been made to the WCC community by committee members from the Friends of Wellington and Friends of Hiba along with other parents from the WCC schools, and tens of thousands of pupils, teachers and parents have organized or attended all sorts of school-family events every year.

2009-2019

Best of both worlds with original aspiration

Interaction between WCC teachers▼

Competitive salaries, a welfare system, regular promotion and training, and a people-centred and innovative culture ensure WCC schools' staff turnover rate of 8.7%, which is significantly lower than the norm in the market of 20%, with nearly 90% of employees highly agreeing they are proud to work for WCC. WCC is committed to ensuring staff are supported with high quality and impactful professional learning. Founded in 2018, The Bridge | China focuses on structured training for teachers and contextually relevant research in order to allow education across the group to be world leading. The IoL also engages in projects with Chinese education systems and international leaders in education; for instance:

• Shanghai Municipality Education Commission's research programme into a comparative analysis of leadership in Chinese, bilingual and international schools• Pudong Wellington Curriculum and Research Alliance with the support from Shanghai Pudong New Area Education Bureau • Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes with Durham University • Inspiring Learning Conferences and series of workshops which have also won the industry's praises

Held in April, the Wellington College China Festival of Education has become an annual landmark event in the international education industry. Thousands of audiences attend the festival in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tianjin discussing topics such as "Early Years", "Wellbeing", "A Developing Romance", "Exploring Education" and "Multilingualism". Serving as an open platform, WCC's Festival of Education connects experts with parents and teachers, allows worldwide educators to meet, and encourages people to think about education for the future generation.

"A Chinese saying goes: it takes 10 years to grow a tree, 100 years to form a good education. We look back to the past 10 years' achievements with great pride, but at the same time we know we've only just embarked on the long and exciting journey of building the world's best bilingual education group. Thank you for all your devotion and let's look forward to our next 10 years. Together we will achieve amazing things."

Joy

Founder and Chair of Governors of

Wellington College China

Happy 10th Anniversary!