Wellington College: London, UK

One of the world's top coeducational day and boarding schools founded in 1859, just outside London, combining innovation with 150 years of history.

‘supercurriculum’ aims to reach beyond the limits of traditional subjects and disciplines. Breaking down the boundaries between curricula, extra-curricular and co-curricular, we encourage students to make connections between everything that they do, to see links between subjects and activities and to bring an inter-disciplinary awareness to their whole Wellington experience.

At the heart of our supercurriculum lie the IB’s approaches to learning; we are helping students to be confident and fluent in their: organization, collaboration, communication, information literacy, reflection, thinking and transfer. To support these goals, all students follow an inter-disciplinary course, Insight, in the 3rd Form, extending both their range of knowledge and skills.

All sixth formers, regardless of whether they are A level or IB students, follow a Theory of Knowledge course encouraging them to make connections and to ask important questions about knowledge. For the lower sixth, all those lessons are taught in the library. All sixth form students also complete an extended dissertation. Those studying the IB Diploma write an Extended Essay; A level students complete an Extended Project Qualification.

Wellington students experience a rich programme of lectures, talks and visits from experts from around the world. All are expected to attend several each term, including our own series of 10-minute lectures, entitled WellingTEN. In addition, all Wellington students attend termly lectures in Philosophy, Astronomy and History of Art. This aspect of our ‘supercurriculum’ gives students an experience of subjects beyond the limits of the curriculum of many schools. The lectures are delivered by outstanding visiting experts: top academics, leading thinkers and some of the best speakers in the country.

We believe that the experience of listening to experts is an amazing opportunity in its own right; however, it is also a fantastic preparation for the learning paradigms of university life and encourages all students to think on a broad canvas and to have open minds and open hearts.