Networking: connecting schools internationally, nationally and locally

Our aim is to make Wellington College as connected as any school in Britain. Wellington College is an unusual type of independent school. It was founded by Queen Victoria in 1859 as the national monument to Britain's greatest military figure, the Duke of Wellington. It stands in 400 acres of land and has wonderful and historic buildings, which has helped us enormously in our networking.

Internationally, the college is linked to the ‘Round Square’ group of schools, founded by Kurt Hahn, a key influence behind the International Baccalaureate. It aims to bring young people together from around the world to help in projects dedicated to service and leadership.

Wellington has bilateral relationships with a number of individual schools, including the high school affiliated to Renmin University, in Beijing, and also helps run an informal group of 25 schools similar to itself in North and South America, South Africa, Australia, India and the Far East. It is further trying to found branches in the Gulf, India, and the Far East, as well as Africa.

Nationally, Wellington was one of the first independent schools to join the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and is finding the relationship of increasing value. We have sponsored an academy, Wellington Academy, which will begin in Wiltshire in 2009.

We enjoy fruitful relations with the Association of School and College Leaders and the National College of School Leadership, and are starting our own MBA in association with the Institute of London and the Ninestiles Federation. Ninestiles is one of several state schools with which we work closely, and we also take part in an ISSP partnership with state schools in Bracknell Forest and Wokingham. With Wokingham, we run our ‘Every Adult Matters’ project, which is dedicated to extending the principles of wellbeing to all adults working in our schools. I am a governor of our local primary school, Crowthorne Church of England School, and a number our staff are also governors of local state schools. At an independent school level, we enjoy fruitful relations with the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and with the Independent School Council.

Wellington hosts 10 conferences a year for heads and teachers from state and independent schools. This term, we ran a joint conference with Uplands Primary in Sandhurst on ‘Habits of Mind’ with Professor Art Costa, a conference on leadership and spiritual intelligence, and another on gaining entry to universities in the United States. Next term’s conferences are on the teaching of happiness with Professor Martin Seligman, and on ‘Modern Languages and Schooling’ in 2025. We also run the annual conference for the student leaders, run by our own head of school. The next such conference is on 26 September 2008.

I believe we could use Skype and video conferencing far more in the future to help us work together, rather than go through the expensive, time-consuming and environmentally damaging process of travel. I am sure that in 10 years time we will look back with amazement at how little we have used this technology to help to bring us together.

Wellington is learning much from its partnership and networking with others internationally, nationally and locally. My sense is that we are only at the beginning.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Anthony Seldon is an authority on contemporary British history and headmaster of one of Britain's most historic independent schools. He became the 13th Master of Wellington College in January 2006, having been Headmaster of Brighton College since September 1997. He is also author or editor of over 25 books on contemporary history, politics and education.

Dr Seldon’s books include Churchill’s Indian Summer, which won a Best First Work Prize, The Thatcher Effect, Major, A Political Life, the authorised biography of the former Prime Minister, Conservative Century, and the standard academic history of the Conservative Party, Blair's Britain, 1994-2007 (with Peter Snowdon) and Blair Unbound: The Biography Part II, 2001-2007. He has been historical consultant on the memoirs of several former Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries.

After gaining an MA at Worcester College, Oxford, and a PhD at the London School of Economics, he qualified as a teacher at King’s College, London, winning the top teaching prize in his year. He also has an MBA. His first teaching appointment was at Whitgift School, in Croydon, in 1983, where he was head of politics and in 1989 he returned to his old school, Tonbridge, and became head of history and general studies. In 1993, he was appointed deputy headmaster and, ultimately, acting headmaster of St Dunstan’s College, in South London.

Dr Seldon appears frequently on television and radio, and writes for several national newspapers. He founded, with Professor Peter Hennessy, the Institute of Contemporary British History, the internationally respected body whose aim is to promote research into, and the study of, British history since 1945. His recent education booklets include Public and Private Education. The Divide Must End (SMF, 2001) and Partnership Not Paternalism (IPPR, 2002).

 

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