Boarding Houses

Beech House is home to our boarding girls and provides a warm friendly and welcoming environment where young women can achieve their very best.

It is excellently appointed with comfortable living spaces, two kitchens for baking, cooking and communal eating superbly appointed bathrooms and a delightful garden for sunbathing, socialising and barbecues.

The rooms are well planned with individual study spaces for every student. Most are double rooms with some larger rooms for the younger girls to enjoy making new friends.

The girls like to challenge themselves by trying as many of the activities offered by the school, especially at the weekends. They work hard at their academic studies, but enjoy social time with each other and friends across the school community.

The Head of House, together with an excellent pastoral team ensure that the girls consider Beech to be a home from home, a place of welcoming, nurturing, and mutual respect where they will always be able to feel safe and secure. The internal design and décor of Beech House has been adapted to provide different zones and spaces to encourage a happy, vibrant, living and learning environment. We want every student that passes through Beech House, whether for one day, or three senior years to have a supportive, caring experience in which to grow.

There is always a cup of tea and a slice of cake available at Beech House!

Mrs Walsh is the Head of House in Beech. After a first career as a Maths teacher, she joined Wellington to work across all our boarding houses, before taking on her current role to look after our girls.

Lights is the oldest of the Boarding Houses dating from the inception of the School. We are placed in the heart of the campus and have great access to all the school facilities. The rooms have been designed to give boys the space they need to study to their full potential whilst retaining a sense of the boarding house being their home. We are an enormously happy and tight knit community who value extra-curricular activity as a vital aspect of the boys becoming rounded individuals.

Lights is somewhere where boys feel safe, valued and comfortable. It is somewhere where they can relax and be themselves. It is important that they all respect each other, and learn the vital life skills of being part of a group that works together and supports every member. This is a chance for them to make lifelong friendships and meet boys from all parts of the world.

The team in Lights not only want the boys to work hard at their academic subjects, to get the best results possible, but also for them to learn about themselves, by taking on new challenges in the school, and to learn about each other, making them ready to be citizens of a global society.

The resident Head of House, Matron, and the on-site Assistant Head of House are supported by a dedicated group of evening duty tutors.

The House has two kitchen areas for boys to use, for snacks and any food they want in addition to meals in the dining hall. Comfortable social spaces are furnished with sofas, pool table, a large screen to watch television and films, and a playstation console. There are also dedicated areas for students to work collaboratively during prep time, and socialise and play board games and cards at other times. There is a roof terrace ‘Flat Roof’ which is an outdoor social area with some garden furniture and a table-tennis table.

Mr Costello is the Head of House in Lights, as well as Head of Boarding. He is also the Head of our Classics Department, and enjoys coaching our football teams.

Willows House is one of the oldest buildings in school. Led by a Head of House, ably supported by his Assistant Head of House and a Matron, Willows house has a relaxed vibe and the boys enjoy spending time in one of the four large common rooms, playing table tennis, watching a movie in the cinema room or cooking a meal with their friends in one of the two well equipped kitchens.

Most rooms in Willows are twin rooms and each boy has his own study desk in his room and space to store all of the belongings that teenage boys seem to accumulate. Willows is a busy, vibrant and dynamic community of boys. Team spirit, confidence in strong friendships, and a desire to be successful in everything that goes on are qualities at the heart of the House.

The community itself is multi-cultural, but its roots are firmly in a traditional British boarding education with a combination of high academic expectations and broad experiences out of the classroom underpinning all that is done. Boys are lively here, and those who prefer to sit tight in their rooms are encouraged to find something they are good at, or can contribute to, and enjoy the challenge. But life is not always fast paced and relaxation time can be found in one of the four large social spaces with Sky TV and Xbox, and in bedrooms that are spacious and modern.

The ethos of Willows is hard working, but there is an underlying sense of enjoyment and satisfaction that bonds the boys together, and builds friendships that last well beyond the final year of school.

Mr Downes is the Head of House in Willows. He has worked at Wellington for over 15 years, across a range of roles. He is a teacher of Business and Economics, and runs our very successful badminton team.