| Wellington College | |
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| Location | |
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Dukes Ride , Berkshire ,RG45 7PU England | |
| Coordinates | 51°21′51″N0°48′24″W / 51.3643°N 0.8067°W /51.3643; -0.8067 |
| Information | |
| Type | Public school Privateboarding andday school |
| Motto | Virtutis Fortuna Comes ('Fortune favours the bold') Heroum Filii ('The children of heroes') |
| Religious affiliation | Church of England |
| Established | 1853; 172 years ago (1853) |
| Founder | Queen Victoria |
| Department for Education URN | 110125Tables |
| Chairman of the board of governors | William Jackson |
| Master | James E. L. Dahl |
| Second Master | Cressida Henderson |
| Staff | 175 (approx.) |
| Gender | Co-educational The school has a 50%-50% split of girls and boys |
| Age | 13 to 18 |
| Enrolment | 1140 pupils |
| Houses | 18 (16 boarding, 2 day) |
| Colours | Yellow Light blue Orange |
| Song | Heroum Filii |
| Publication | The Wellingtonian |
| Alumni | Old Wellingtonians ("OWs") |
| Campus | 400-acre (1.6 km2) rural campus |
| Affiliations | G30 Schools HMC The Rugby Group |
| Website | www |
Wellington College is aco-educationalpublic school providing education forboarding andday pupils in the village ofCrowthorne, inBerkshire, in theUnited Kingdom. Wellington is aregistered charity[1] and currently educates roughly 1,100 pupils aged between 13 and 18.[2] The college was built as a national monument to the military victory againstNapoleon, and the political service asBritish Prime Minister, of the firstDuke of Wellington, in whose honour it is named.[3] It was established byRoyal Charter in 1853.[4]Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1856, and inaugurated the school's public opening on 29 January 1859.
Many former Wellington pupils fought in the trenches during theFirst World War, with a large number volunteering for military service immediately after leaving school.[5] In all, 707 Wellington old boys lost their lives in the conflict. A further 501 former pupils were killed in action in theSecond World War.[citation needed]
The school is a member of theRugby Group of 18 British public schools and is also a member of theG30 Schools group. For the academic year 2023/24, Wellington charged boarders up to £18,310 per term, or £50,930 per annum.[6]
In March 2023, the school was awardedArtsmark Platinum by theArts Council England.[7] Since 2020, the school has continuously been listed byThe Schools Index as one of the world's leading 150 schools and one of the top 30 UK senior schools.[8]
Wellington College was granted aroyal charter in 1853 asThe Royal and Religious Foundation of the Wellington College, and was opened in 1859. Its first Master, which is the title of the headmaster, wasEdward White Benson, who later becameArchbishop of Canterbury. The college'sVisitor was QueenElizabeth II.[9]
Originally, the school educated sons of deceased officers who had held commissions in the Army. In 1952 a Supplementary Royal Charter extended the privilege of eligibility to the orphan sons of deceased officers of theRoyal Navy,Royal Marines andRoyal Air Force. By the 1960s, the school was considering becoming co-educational, but for some years the lack of financial resources prevented it from doing so. The first girls were admitted into theSixth Form in the 1970s, and the school became fully co-educational in 2005. A recent change to the scheme of reduced fees early in 2006 extended the privilege to the orphan children of deceased servicemen or servicewomen of His Majesty's Armed Forces irrespective of rank, and to the orphan children of persons who, in the sole opinion of the Governors, have died in acts of selfless bravery. However, only a minority of the children at the school now come from military families.
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On 6 September 2013, readers ofThe Week magazine voted Wellington College "The Most Forward-Thinking School in the UK", and four days laterTatler magazine chose Wellington College as the "Best Senior School in Britain", at its Schools Awards evening in London.[10] In 2024, Wellington College was again featured inTatler magazine, with the Master, James Dahl, being nominated for "Best Head of a Public School".[11]
Following reports, in the early 2000s, that some pupils at Wellington College had been subjected tobullying,[13] the then-new Master of the College,Sir Anthony Seldon, an author and historian, introduced 'wellbeing' classes to the curriculum, in conjunction with a team at theUniversity of Cambridge. He felt that it was important to help his pupils find the best ways to be happy, and explained the reasons for introducing the subject to the curriculum.[14]
Wellington has sponsored the founding of a new independent state school in Wiltshire,The Wellington Academy,[15] which opened in 2009, at the instigation of the former Master of the College, Sir Anthony Seldon.
Wellington is in partnership withWellington College International Tianjin, in the city ofTianjin in mainlandChina, modelled on the buildings and ethos of the college, and which opened in August 2011. Wellington is also partnered withWellington College International Shanghai and Huili School Shanghai in the city ofShanghai, and Wellington College International Hangzhou and Huili School Hangzhou in the city ofHangzhou (also in mainland China), Wellington College International Bangkok inThailand, and Wellington College International Pune inIndia.[16]
The college buildings were designed byJohn Shaw, Jr., who had previously worked as an architect forEton College. For its time, the design of the College was unusual compared to the popular form, butPrince Albert, who assisted in choosing the architect, was more interested in Shaw's classical approach, having already seen the architect's design for the oldRoyal Naval School inNew Cross, London.[17] The main buildings were designed in a style loosely termed "French GrandRococo".[18]
The chapel, only half its originally intended size, was designed bySir Gilbert Scott.[19] There have been several modern buildings, the best of which follow Shaw's grand rococo style: for example, the new Nicholson modern foreign-languages building. In 2019 the GWA Performing Arts Centre was opened, housing an auditorium with 900 seats for use by pupils and to raise funds for the Wellington College Arts Fund.[20]
The college was used as a filming location for the Netflix seriesThe Crown as a stand-in forKensington Palace (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) in seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5 first as the home of Princess Margaret and then of Diana, Princess of Wales. One of the college's original mottosHeroum Filii is visible in a scene of the Queen arriving at the palace, and the college's official motto,Virtutis Fortuna Comes, is visible in a scene of the Queen leaving the palace.
Wellington College stands on a 400-acre (160 ha) estate inSouth-East England, nearReading andSandhurst. The grounds of the college include two theatres, a9-hole golf course, a science block, a language learning centre, extensive woodland, an indoor swimming pool and games courts, and many playing fields, particularly those forcricket andrugby.
The grounds include a separateMandarin language centre, with apagoda and Chinesewater garden. The centre is believed to be the largest of its kind in the UK.[21]
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The woodland area of the college is listed as alocal nature reserve calledEdgbarrow Woods.[22] The grounds also contain aSite of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), known asWellington College Bog.[23]
In 2024, 66.3% of pupils scored A*-A for their A-Level examinations, with 44% achieving 40 points or more in their IB examinations. In the same year, 65% of pupils scored 9 or 8 grades in their GCSEs. In 2024, the school had an average IB score of 38.4 and the College’s best ever return of A* grades at A-Level: 31.7%. Over 20 pupils scored three A* grades or better.[24]
Wellington College was one of the 21founding members of theRugby Football Union, and pupils at the school have historically played schoolboyrugby to the highest standard. In 2008, the College became the first school to win theDaily Mail Cup at both U15 and U18 level in the same year, beatingMillfield School andSt Benedict's School, Ealing in their respective finals atTwickenham on 2 April 2008.[25]
A number of Old Wellingtonians play professional rugby union, including:James Haskell (England),[26]Paul Doran-Jones (England),[26]Max Lahiff (Bath Rugby and Bristol Bears),[27] brothersMax Evans[28] andThom Evans (Scotland),[28]Sam Aspland-Robinson (Harlequins),[29]Rory Brand (London Irish), who was the College's first recipient of the Jimmy Higham Scholarship,[30] andMadison Hughes (USA 7s).[31]
The school has one of only around 20racquets courts in the UK,[32] one of 27real tennis courts in the UK and until 2005[33] threeEton Fives courts, now a café bar as part of the sports club.[34]
In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools found guilty of running anillegal price-fixing cartel, exposed byThe Times newspaper, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.[50] Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.[51]
However, Jean Scott, the then-head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and were unaware of the change in the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."[52]
There are 18houses at Wellington. The majority are composed of boarders with a small number of day pupils also, although two, Wellesley and Raglan, are day-pupil exclusive.[53] Each house is either an 'in-house' or an 'out-house': in-houses are located within the main school buildings and quads while out-houses are located elsewhere on the college grounds. Each house has aspects distinguishing it from other houses, such as its own colours, insignia, andcrest (with the crest of each house being incorporated into one of each of the stained glass windows of the college chapel). Each house was named in honour of a significant figure in history, usually although not exclusively figures associated with theDuke of Wellington.
| House | Colours | Insignia | Gender | Boarding or Day | Named after |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anglesey | Maroon and Blue | A Star | F | Boarding | Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey |
| Apsley | Blue and Black | A Pineapple | F | Boarding | Apsley House |
| Benson | Blue and Silver | A Rose | M | Boarding | Edward White Benson |
| Beresford | Medium Blue and Black | A Horseshoe | M | Boarding | William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford |
| Blücher | Black and White | A Fleur-de-lis | M | Boarding | Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt |
| Combermere | Gold and Brown | A Lion | F | Boarding | Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere |
| Elizabeth | Gold and Red | A Crown | M & F | Boarding (Sixth Form only) | Elizabeth II |
| Hardinge | Green and Brown | An Anchor | F | Boarding (No Third Form) | Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge |
| Hill | Purple and White | A Skull and Crossbones | M | Boarding | Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill |
| Hopetoun | Yellow and Blue | A Moon and Star | F | Boarding | John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun |
| Lynedoch | Navy Blue and Black | An Iron Cross | M | Boarding | Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch |
| Murray | Purple and Black | A Moon | M | Boarding | Sir George Murray |
| Orange | Orange and Black | A Double-headed Eagle | F | Boarding | William, Prince of Orange, later William II of the Netherlands |
| Picton | Pink and Brown | An Eagle | M | Boarding | Sir Thomas Picton |
| Raglan | Red and Grey | A Panther | M | Day | FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan |
| Stanley | Maroon and Light Blue | A Unicorn | M | Boarding | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby |
| Talbot | Maroon and White | A Maltese Cross | M & F | Boarding | Sir Wellington Patrick Talbot |
| Wellesley | Pink and White | A Pelican | F | Day | Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington |
The Orange, Combermere, Hopetoun, and Anglesey were all formerly boys' houses but converted to girls' houses between 2005 and 2011. The Talbot is currently converting from a boys' to girls' house.[54]
The Old Wellingtonian Society is thealumni society for the college and was founded in 1890. The Old Wellingtonian Society was set up to further the interests of the college and its past and present members, and to keep former pupils in touch with each other and with the school.[55]
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