Exchange report: Ales Rudd
Wellington College, Berkshire

For the first three months of 2008 I was lucky enough to spend a term in the land of the Poms at Wellington College in Berkshire, about 60kms west of London as a late inclusion to the Hilton College Exchange Programme.

Since I was the first Hilton boy to go on exchange to Wellington, I had very little idea of what to expect, except what I had gleaned from the Wellington website. Many thoughts cruised through my head. Both good and bad visions had passed through aplenty by the time I arrived at Heathrow airport, but none of even the wackiest or most eccentric thoughts could have readied me for or matched the amazing experience I was about to have at this school.

On arrival at the school I was warmly greeted by a man who, I was pleasantly surprised to discover, had that familiar South African accent. Mr Wielenga was to be my housemaster for the next three months, and I could not have asked for a better man for the job. Only downside about the man, ex Michaelhouse teacher, but I guess no one is perfect. He gave me an extensive tour of the impressive buildings and grounds of the school and then I was taken to my room, which contained my very own basin, wardrobe, large wrap-around prep desk and internet connection. After the first day it became apparent I was one of the few pupils not in possession of a laptop, which I suppose was not surprising as everything in the school from sports teams to prep were communicated to you by E-mail. There were however plenty of school computers in the house available for the likes of myself.

From form two or grade nine, all pupils are given their own study with
these things. Having your own study means that there is no one to check if you are working, or if your study is a mess. So from a young age your work, your study and time management skills become your own responsibility to control - very different to the rigid structure of Hilton.

The school with its imposing and impressive red brick buildings is set in beautiful and extensive grounds next to the quiet village of Crowthorne. Crowthorne is situated about an hour from London and, with a train station within a two minute walk from the school gates, it made for some amazing adventures. And, yes, I did get lost in the wild frantic excitement and hustle and bustle of London more than once. With a train station so close, an excellent taxi service and the legal driving age of the country being seventeen, by the time you are in grade eleven you are already very much an independent person. With these factors in mind, I was given a lot of freedom to explore and do as I chose with my free weekends which allowed me to visit many places and discover the wide diversity that England has to offer.

Wellington College was built in the 1840s expressly for the children and, in particular, orphans of officers who had fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars, which means that it is not as old some of the other well known English schools, such as Eton or Harrow, but it makes up for it in every other facet. The school is made up of sixteen different houses, with about 70 pupils in each house. Four of these houses were for girls of all ages, ten of them were for boys of all ages, one was for the day pupils both girls and boys and one house was for sixth form girls only (grade 11 and 12). To my delight this was a mere thirty metres away from my house, The Anglesey. All the houses at Wellington are named after Generals from the Battle of Waterloo, where Wellington defeated Napoleon. Although it maintains some of its army traditions, you do not have to have anything to do with the Army these days.

The thing that possibly astounded me most about the school is how freely the pupils were allowed to act, whether it be in the classroom or on the sports field. I was astonished at the number of jokes that were told by pupils and teachers alike, and the amount of “banter” (a popular word at Wellington) between teachers and pupils thereby allowing the classroom to have a very relaxed feel to it, which, in my opinion, promoted a better learning experience as I feel you learn more when you’re enjoying yourself. One of the main reasons I think this works is that you will never find more than 12 pupils in a class at this level. For instance, in my maths class there were only 6 pupils and, no, I wasn’t in ICU, although I have to admit I found myself somewhat stretched as they were revising things I had not yet learnt under the Matric syllabus. This system allows a much stronger relationship and understanding to exist between the pupils and teachers. With this in mind, I even managed to really enjoy Maths (haha!).

The equivalent of the South African Grade 11 is Lower VIth which means that my fellow pupils had done their GCSEs (at Wellington on average about 10 subjects) the year before and this year were due to do AS levels for which most people study just four subjects and then the following year they specialize in on average three subjects at A level. I am glad that in South Africa we only have one lot of public exams!

While I was at Wellington, I opted to study French and Maths,(in the hope that I wouldn’t have so much to catch up on when I got back to Hilton) and Economics and Physical Education, all of which were eye openers, even though some of them are common to South Africa. We had two teachers for each subject so in essence you are taking two subjects in one. For example when I say I took economics, I had one teacher for Macro and one teacher for Micro so every subject was studied in a lot more depth than I was used to.

There was never any shortage of fun. These costumes were for the lower 6th dance.

While I was at the school I couldn’t fail to be impressed by the amazing sporting facilities that Wellington possesses. With over 22 rugby fields, 3 gyms, 2 dance studios and …. (I could go on but you get the idea), as well as being culturally and academically strong, the most prominent feather in their cap was their sport, especially rugby, with their U/15 and 1st team being the strongest in the UK, having won both the U/15 and U/18 Daily Mail Cup. These two competitions are apparently the largest schoolboy rugby competitions in the world so you can imagine how pleased Wellington College was this year when it became the first school in the history of the competition to win both tournaments. With Cups like that and hammerings of schools such as Harrow 66-0 and the like, you can’t argue with their sporting prowess. With a sporting tradition like that, it was only natural that the boys and girls should engage in sport so fully, and because of this I was introduced to a huge number of different sports. Keeping in mind what Mr Guthrie had told me before the exchange, I had a little dabble in everything. Within less than a week at the school I was playing rugby at a local club as it was not a rugby term at Wellington, football, badminton, rackets, squash, having cricket coaching in the indoor facilities - everything, I mean I was even dancing. I use the even because if you saw me on the dance floor you’d know why. But the amazing thing was that every girl, boy or teacher went out of their way to get me involved in things.

Culturally, there was a lot going on at the school. There were numerous interesting talks from outside speakers. The school production of “Les Misérables” was amazing and very professional. The various houses put on their own concerts or shows. In my house, The Anglesey, we had a supper evening for the parents where each year group had to produce a skit or sing or amuse the audience in some form or other. As you can imagine, we all had good fun practicing and performing. All the profits from the evening went to a school in Zambia.

The Master of Wellington, Dr Seldon, is very keen on the all-round wellbeing of the pupils and they therefore receive what the pupils call “happiness lessons”. Dr Seldon considers this a contributing factor in the dramatically improved exam results at the school. I think the fact that he and the heads of department often sit in on the classes unannounced may also have something to do with it.

Many of the school’s rules were based on the fact that the teachers trusted the pupils to do everything in moderation - something that I would have thought quite hard to make work in a school environment full of teenagers. But it does seem to at Wellington. Much like other English schools, booze is allowed, but only in the presence of a master. Any boy is allowed to be in the girls’ houses, and to “chill” in their kitchen or common room. By having this relaxed atmosphere, it has taught the boys and girls to respect these privileges and do everything in moderation.

The term I spent at Wellington was so amazing in all aspects that I can’t begin to say which was the most important part of it. Was it the friends, the friendliness, the camaraderie, the humour, the “banter”, the independence, the different teaching styles, all the different sports, the girls or what? All the thoughts milling in my head now as I write this, are purely good ones. There was not a dull moment in my whole experience. I can safely say that whatever doubts I had before about the experience, left my head on entry and never once came back.

It was the time of my life and I can’t express how much I would encourage any Hilton boy to try for this exchange. I warn you only of one thing though, the hardest part was leaving. So you’d better make the most of it while you’re there.

Finally, I would like to thank all the teachers involved in this exchange: Mr Guthrie and the other staff involved in the selection procedure, Mr Wielenga who, together with Mr Guthrie and the respective headmasters, made the exchange between Wellington and Hilton possible, and who kept me on the straight and narrow at Wellington, but in the nicest possible way, and who made my Economics lessons such fun (is that possible?!). My thanks also go to all the teachers who taught me at Wellington as well as all the sports coaches (good luck to Richard Halsall who has just left Wellington to become the England Cricket Team fielding coach) and lastly, but very importantly at this stage, the teachers at Hilton who are now helping me to catch up on everything that I missed while I was away having the experience of a lifetime.