Wellington College Belfast

History

Wellington College was founded in 1989 after Annadale Boys and Carolan Girls merged. The school is named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The school moved to its current location on Carolan Road in 2002, which included 2 new rugby pitches, a gravel pitch, an astro pitch and a running track.

Derrick Woods (1989-1995)

Woods was the Head of Annadale before the merger, and carried on into Wellington. The current building has a Hall named after him.

Jacqueline Weir (1995-2000)

Jacqueline Weir served from 1995 to 2000.

Ronnie Hassard (2000-2004)

Hassard oversaw the schools move from its former building, nicknamed Cardboard City, to the current building. He left in 2004 to become Principal of Ballymena Academy, where he retired from in 2014.

Heather Reid (2004-2009)

Reid was previously Vice-Principal from 1998-2004.

Ian Drysdale (2009-2010, Acting)

Drysdale became Acting Principal for the 2009-2010 school year.

Matthew Pitts (2010-2014)

Pitts left in 2014 to teach at Bangor Academy.

Ian Drysdale and Maurice Girvin (2014-2015, Acting)

Both Vice Principals at the time became Acting Principals from September 2014 to February 2015.

Nicola Connery (2015-2016)

Nicola Connery became Principal in February 2015, after being Vice Principal at Strathearn for the previous seven years. After a year and 6 months, she returned to Strathearn to become principal there.

David Castles (2017-present)

David Castles became Principal in January 2017, after being the founding Principal of Heyford Park Free School from 2013-2016.

Uniform

The Wellington blazer takes its blue colour from that of the British Army during the 19th century which was the uniform worn by the Duke of Wellington during his service. The sports kit for Wellington was changed in May 2011.

Extracurricular activities

Wellington offers a number of extracurricular activities to its pupils. These normally run after school or during lunch time, and are generally overseen by members of the teaching or library staff. In some cases a specialist in a particular subject may be invited to take a course (e.g. In January 2008 Neil Best and Rob Dewey helped with rugby training) Activities include;

Awards

Future Chef 2011

Christopher Marshall, (a then year 10 pupil) represented Wellington in the Northern Ireland Future Chef competition 2011. He won the Northern Ireland competition on Wednesday 2 February 2011. He was then entered into the Future Chef Final and travelled to London on 21 March 2011 for the competition, getting the chance to meet Ainsley Harriott and Brian Turner.

Mathematical Olympiad 2011

Dale Walmsley, (a then year 12 student at Wellington) was awarded a gold medal and a book prize in the UK Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad. Dale was the only student from Northern Ireland to achieve a gold medal and book prize in the Olympiad. This accolade means that he is ranked within the top 50 mathematicians of his age in the UK. Mr Cantley, head of the Mathematics department at Wellington at that time, stated that everyone at the College is absolutely delighted by Dale’s achievement. Mr Cantley, who taught Dale since third year, stated that Dale is a truly remarkable young mathematician, having obtained an A* in GCSE Mathematics at only 14, an A* in both GCSE Additional Mathematics and A Level Mathematics at 15 and first place in the 2010 Northern Ireland GCSE Additional Mathematics examination.

2011

2012

2014

2011

Teachers involved:

Christopher Lynn, Jordan Knocker and Mitchell McKee were in the team. The boys conducted an experiment on how to cut down litter in the school. In October 2010, they found out they had got through to the final in the RDS in Dublin. In January, the three boys went to Dublin with science teacher Stephen Wilson, as David Cardwell was unable to attend on the first day and Yvonne Johnston had work in school. David Cardwell was in Dublin for the second and third day of the competition and Yvonne Johnston attended the exhibition on the final day. The boys' exhibition was on feature in the school foyer from January 2011 to April 2011, after which it was placed safely in storage. The exhibition was re-displayed in Science Lab 102 in August 2011.

2012

Teachers involved:

In May 2011, Science Club members were given a new leaflet on the upcoming 2012 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Yvonne Johnston would like the event to go ahead and several pupils showed interest. Four out of five groups got through to the Final in January 2012. One group out of the four won an award, a Highly Commended award. On 17 January 2012, Lynn said he is likely to return after mentioning a project to Yvonne Johnston.

"Snail slime and muscle power-the secret of their success", "Changes in diversity and population size of woodlice species following disturbance", "All washed up" and "Remembering what we forget" were the 4 projects that got through to the Final.