Wellington College Launches New Academic Courses Programme
Recently described by The Good Schools Guide as “an academic Disneyland for clever teenagers,” Wellington College is a place where curiosity sits at the heart of learning. This Michaelmas Term, that commitment to intellectual exploration takes a new form with the launch of the Academic Courses Programme: a structured series of short, university-style courses designed to give students a clearer sense of progression, purpose and commitment in their academic extension. The programme marks a distinctive development [...]
Fireside Talk: Protecting Africa’s Wildlife
One of the defining strengths of Wellington’s Fireside Talk programme is its ability to place students at the heart of important conversations. The final event of the academic year exemplified this perfectly, as Upper Sixth student Talitha hosted an engaging discussion on wildlife conservation with Old Wellingtonian Charlie Mayhew OBE, founder of Tusk. “When students understand the world, they are far more likely to act in it.” This idea sat at the heart of [...]
Wellington Greenpower Team Secures Double Podium Finish and Goodwood Qualification
Visitors to the Design, Engineering and Technology (DET) Exhibition during Speech Day could hardly have missed the growing fleet of Greenpower racing cars proudly on display. The programme, led by Head of DET Robert Winter and John Carrington, continues to provide students with an exceptional hands-on engineering experience, combining design, manufacturing, teamwork and problem-solving with the excitement of competitive motorsport. The Greenpower cars on display had only recently returned from competition, where Wellington students [...]
Lower Sixth Student Wins Imperial College Science Challenge Following International Mathematics Success
Wellington College is celebrating another outstanding academic achievement after Lower Sixth student Federico was awarded First Prize in the Imperial College Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) Science Challenge. The annual competition, organised by Imperial College London’s Royal College of Science Union, invites students to explore and communicate complex scientific ideas through essay writing. Federico’s prize-winning essay tackled the complex subject of climate tipping points and the risks posed by global warming. Demonstrating both [...]
New Third Form Academic Scholars Announced
What does it mean to be an Academic Scholar? At Wellington, academic scholarship is not simply about attainment. It is an attitude of mind. It is about curiosity, independence, intellectual confidence and the capacity to think deeply with others. It is the pupil who asks why? The pupil who keeps thinking after the lesson has ended. The pupil who reads, debates, explores and challenges ideas, not because they are told to, but because they want to [...]
Tirion Wins Prestigious Malim Prize with Ambitious Time-Travel Novel
Wellington College is delighted to celebrate Third Form student Tirion’s outstanding success in winning the prestigious Malim Prize for her original and deeply reflective piece of creative writing. Awarded to a Third Form student each year, the Malim Prize recognises exceptional independent project work and forms a key part of Wellington’s academic extension programme, encouraging students to explore intellectual curiosity beyond the classroom. Tirion’s ambitious project stood out for its sophisticated storytelling, historical depth [...]
Third Form Academic Scholars Celebrate Curiosity and Independent Research
At the Third Form Academic Scholars’ Presentation Evening, pupils had the chance to show what happens when young people are given the space to explore big ideas across a wide range of disciplines. Last night students, staff and parents gathered for the culmination of the Third Form Academic Scholarship Programme. Throughout the year, pupils have attended weekly sessions designed to spark curiosity and introduce them to new ways of thinking, from linguistic puzzles, philosophy [...]
Emir Wins National Write on Art Competition
Wellington College is delighted to celebrate the success of student Emir, who has been named one of the winners of the prestigious Write on Art competition, organised by Art UK in partnership with the Paul Mellon Centre. The national competition invites young people to respond creatively or critically to a work of art that inspires them. Emir’s winning essay explored Man Under a Pyramid (1996) by renowned German artist Anselm Kiefer, a powerful work that reflects themes of history, memory, [...]
Rethinking the Human: Interdisciplinary Voices in an Age of AI
What does it mean to be human in an age of AI? This urgent question lay at the heart of this year’s Upper School Scholars Programme, culminating in a wonderful black-tie dinner last week. Scholars pursued their own research questions, shaped by their intellectual interests and ambitions, producing detailed and academically rigorous investigations into the theme. Alongside this, they were encouraged to think creatively through the “unessay”, a non-traditional form that transforms research into [...]
Wellington Students Compete at the UKSDC National Final at Imperial College London
A group of Wellington College students recently travelled to Imperial College London to take part in the national final of the UK Space Design Competition. The residential competition brings together students from across the UK for an intensive weekend of collaboration, engineering design and presentation, all centred around a fictional space industry challenge. This year’s Request for Proposal, titled Apollo’s Brace, challenged students to design a next generation lunar project combining a luxury resort with a lunar [...]
Fireside Talk- Professor Yang-Hui
At Monday’s Fireside Talk, Professor Yang-Hui from the University of Oxford, took us on a fascinating journey into how artificial intelligence is reshaping mathematical discovery and what that means for the future of the subject. The talk explored three complementary approaches to doing mathematics. First, a bottom-up approach, where AI excels at formal logic, pattern-spotting, and automated proof-checking, tasks that would take humans years to complete. Second, a top-down approach, where intuition, creativity, and experience still matter most, [...]
Peter Frankopan Prize for Academic Extension
Great School was alive with energy and intellectual excitement on Tuesday evening as Fifth Form Academic Scholars presented their work at the Peter Frankopan Prize for Academic Extension. A real buzz of curiosity filled the room as parents, pupils and staff moved between project stands, watching scholars confidently present challenging ideas, explain complex theory with impressive clarity and respond thoughtfully to probing questions from visitors and judges alike. Following the completion of ten-week extension [...]
Oxbridge Success: 21 Students Secure Offers
We are delighted to celebrate an exceptional year of Oxbridge success, with 21 offers secured in total from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. This year’s offers span over a dozen academic disciplines, including Medicine, Law, Engineering, Mathematics, English, Geography, Natural Sciences, Economics, Classics, Biochemistry, History of Art, Modern and Medieval Languages and Land Economy, highlighting the academic breadth, ambition and intellectual curiosity of our students. Wellington College [...]
Storytelling, Solidarity and the Human Face of Migration: Professor David Herd as Academic in Residence
Wellington College was delighted to welcome Professor David Herd of the University of St Andrews as Academic in Residence for an intellectually rich and deeply moving two-day visit. A leading scholar of contemporary literature and human rights, Professor Herd’s work explores refugee experience, immigration detention, and the power of storytelling as a force for social justice. He is co-founder of the Refugee Tales project and author of Writing Against Expulsion in the Post-War World. [...]
Recognising Scholarly Achievement Across the Upper School
We are delighted to celebrate the achievements of our newly appointed Academic Scholars, whose awards recognise a consistently scholarly approach to learning, a genuine intellectual curiosity and a strong commitment to academic enrichment. The following pupils have been awarded Academic Scholarships following teacher recommendations, their active engagement in the Upper School Academic Scholars Programme, and the quality of their written applications: Amelie S Aurelia W Clemmie L Emma M Gaia B Gil H Jamie G [...]
Fireside Talk – Sir Charles Dunstone
Last night we were privileged to hear from Sir Charles Dunstone, who shared open and insightful reflections from an extraordinary career. From timing the wave and knowing when to get out, to staying relentlessly customer-facing, and even walking us through every decision behind Five Guys’ new lettuce burger, students were completely hooked! His message landed powerfully: in an AI world that can optimise everything rational, the human edge lies in questioning the status quo, spotting what [...]
Olivia Wins University of Exeter Neuroscience Essay Competition
We are delighted to celebrate the outstanding achievement of Olivia, who has been named Winner of the University of Exeter Neuroscience Essay Competition for her exceptional essay exploring the causes of dementia. Olivia’s winning essay demonstrates an impressive depth of understanding, critical thinking and academic maturity. Focusing on dementia—specifically Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for 60–70% of dementia cases—Olivia tackles one of the most complex and pressing challenges in modern neuroscience. In her essay, Olivia thoughtfully evaluates [...]
A Culture of Intellectual Curiosity in Action – Fireside Talks
A fantastic finale to our 2025 Fireside Talks. Historian Tim Bouverie captivated our students with sharp, vivid insights from Allies at War, revealing how Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin managed to fight a common enemy while disagreeing on almost everything else. He unpacked the Grand Alliance as a partnership built on rivalry as much as cooperation – fractious and suspicious, yet united by one urgent goal: defeat Hitler. He captured the tension between military necessity and political [...]