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DIALOGUE: “The Master”ful Performance
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Interview with David Cook, Headmaster
Wellington College International Tianjin


altAfter successfully opening in August 2011, Wellington College International Tianjin continues to prosper under the guidance of Headmaster David Cook. Almost fully enrolled for this year, and with plans to expand offerings in the future, the school has already made a name for itself locally and is now striving to reach the same level of notability as its namesake in Great Britain. Through it all, “The Master”ful performance of its Headmaster and staff have laid a foundation to ensure that Wellington will be an integral part of Tianjin for years to come. We recently had a chance to sit down with David Cook and get his thoughts on how things have been going at the school and the plans for the future.

How would say this first year has gone?

When I look back, I can’t believe how far we’ve come in what has been a relatively short period of time. Going back to Monday 22 August 2011, we’ve grown significantly in numbers since then. We’ve had to recruit more teaching staff. I think we’ve achieved more than I could have ever dreamt possible in the first year. If you’ve been around the school, there’s a tremendous atmosphere. The walls are full of displays. All in all, and I’ve been the head of two previous start-up schools, this one has gone better than any of the others. It’s gone incredibly well.

Do you still see that there’s room for it to grow?

Certainly, in terms of the student roll and teaching body. We’re heading to over 250 students now. We started in August with about 180. So that side of it, we can go on looking at increasing numbers. One of the great things at the moment is that we are a relatively small school where everybody knows each other. There’s a wonderful intimacy and I hope we can maintain that as our numbers get larger. We’ve made a great start, but we’ve got areas we want to grow into. We want to offer the IB Diploma Programme. We’ve made a good start with A-levels. Again, we want to expand the number of subjects and utilise the facilities we have here to their fullest capability.

You have around 250 students now, what is the maximum capacity of the school?
The maximum capacity of the school is 1000 to 1200. This depends on whether we can start a boarding programme here. We’d very much like to have boarders here. At Wellington UK, the background is boarding. I think one of the strengths of the staff here is that we have a boarding approach where the school is in effect a home and you are educated in a large number of areas and that’s what Wellington is all about.

Are there facilities on site for boarding?
We would probably have to adapt existing facilities. What I would prefer would be to have a building very close to the core campus rather than to adapt a building. There’s a building I’ve got my eye on and it would be wonderfully converted into a boarding facility. It couldn’t be better positioned as it’s literally across the street. A site like this is wonderfully situated for boarding.

What do you think has been some of the highlights of your inaugural year?
I’ll never forget the first week. Everything went better than could be expected. It’s the first time that’s happened. Dr. Anthony Seldon, the Headmaster of Wellington UK came out and we named the Seldon Theatre after him. I remember everything about that week because everything fell into place in a way that I never would have thought possible. It was hard work, but it was effort well rewarded. It’s one of those things we’ll all look back on and be able to say “I was here” when Wellington started. The most pleasing aspect of it is the wonderful community between the teachers and the parents.

On your website, it says Wellington is already recruiting for next year. How long does that process usually take?
In terms of students, there’s now a very steady stream of prospective parents and students visiting. With the staff, we’ve already started recruiting for next year because clearly we’re going to grow again. We will bring the very best teaching staff here, which is what we’ve already done. That is one area where the name Wellington, has proved a wonderful asset in terms of attracting the staff we need to be able to implement the academic programmes we follow and the extracurricular activities we have.
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What groups are you recruiting for?
At the moment, we’re full up for 4-year groups. Next year, I’m anticipating another class group throughout the whole school where we double all the grade levels. What we did here, we started up the school from age 3 all the way up to 17 year olds. It’s a new experience for me. Before we had done it staggered, but at Wellington, we did it all in one go. I think it’s another major feat of Wellington in that the school was open to everyone from day one. The range of subjects and activities that we’ve offered at every age group is a remark to the quality of the teaching staff here. It takes time so the build-up has to be gradual.

What are some of the changes you’ve been considering?

We are looking to consolidate the use of The Nest. It’s a wonderfully designed building that we want to use to consolidate our year one and two students. It will become the designated building for our early years. For the rest of the school, we are expanding our curriculum. We’ll be offering Spanish, Business Studies, Economics, and expanding our A-level offerings. We hope to become full members of CIS which is the Council of International Schools. We want to emphasise that we are a community school to the parents of Tianjin.

How involved are parents involved in the school?

On our website, we speak of a partnership with the parents and the school. We see that as being crucial to the development of Wellington. We teach them an ethos and values at Wellington that are confirmed at home. We look to the parents to reinforce these values at home which can be from helping them with homework to developing their English. After that, it goes to actively seeking their involvement in the school by coming to meetings and taking part in events. There is the “Friends of Wellington” which is a group for parents and teachers to be involved in this together.

How successful do think the school has been and are there plans to grow in the future?
Wellington UK has always had this desire to set up Wellington’s all around the world. We’re very happy with the way the school has been going. I think the next logical step is to keep growing in China. The next one will be in Shanghai. We’re very grateful to the Tianjin government for helping us here and we look forward to working with others to keep growing in the future because we would really like to have Wellington’s elsewhere in China and all of the world.



by Richard Olsen II
 
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