An exciting start to the new academic year

We are extremely excited to unveil our new website, which is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work, allied with a great deal of reflection on what is important about Wellingborough and what makes it so good. We hope you like it!

The website launch comes at a time of great change, both within the world and the School. Covid-19 has caused us all to respond to circumstances that have greatly affected the way we live and work, and we are still very much within its thrall. At Wellingborough, our remote learning provision in the summer term of 2020 was superb, as evidenced by the progress made by children and the appreciation shown by their parents. This success was possible owing to a staff that, very much like the School itself, understand the primacy of the welfare and achievement of our pupils and keep that at the centre of all that we do.

Recent events have, to an extent, overshadowed the leaps forward that we are taking within Wellingborough. Project Chrysalis, the plan to restructure the School and to review every aspect of what we do, ceases to be a plan as of 1 st September 2020, as the changes take root and we embark on the next phase of our long and prestigious history. As I write this introduction, the final pieces are being in put in place to usher in this new age, work that has not been postponed despite the best efforts of coronavirus. The growth of the Senior School to include Years 7 and 8 is indicated by the renaming and re-signing of the Prall Building, named in memory of our benefactor and longstanding former colleague, Mickey Prall. Fryer’s House has been entirely refitted in order to become home to Year 8. The Lower Prep sign highlights the new through-approach for our youngest pupils, which will take them from Nursery to Year 6 – stepping along the way through the new playground for Years 3 and 4. Learning Development has also benefitted from a change of location, brought together and redecorated in a set of rooms that is now the envy of the rest of the School.

Site alterations are accompanied by further staff developments. Following on from the appointment of a Director of Learning & Teaching in 2018 (and what a prescient move that was!), September 2020 sees the introduction of a number of new roles. Our Deputy Head (Operations) will ensure the smooth running of the School within our new model. The Head of Sixth Form has a broad remit to ensure that our oldest pupils are enabled to go on to whatever they want to do at 18. Heads of Year 7 and 8 will take care of pupils as they enter the Senior School. The Head of Lower Prep will ensure that every child gets an excellent start to their education.

And there is still more to come. Lockdown did, unfortunately, prevent us from beginning work on the Sixth Form Centre but that is still very much planned to start next summer. A number of academic changes will ripple through the age groups in the next three years as a result of our review and our appreciation of the need to keep the curriculum current and vibrant.

As this exciting chapter begins, I invite you all to browse our website and see how the School has always relished the challenge of adapting itself so that the pupils here enjoy the best possible education.

Mr A N Holman, Headmaster

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