The Friends of Wellington School CIO (a Charitable Incorporated Organisation), is made up of 20 Trustees, all committee members of the Friends of Wellington School and the Friends of Wellington Prep School. We are registered with the Charity Commission, No 1172572

Every parent or guardian of a current or past pupil of Wellington School can count themselves as a Friend of Wellington School and Wellington Prep School. We work together, to raise valuable funds for student activities, and are organised in two committees, one for each School.  Membership is free and we are always looking for ideas, help and support, be it for an event we are running or as a Trustee. 

We are not to be confused with the Old Wellingtonians’ Association (formerly the WSA) who are the association for former pupils, or the Foundation which is a charity, raising money to fund bursaries and scholarships for the School.

We run events to bring parents together and through that, to raise money for those aspects of school life which are just a little out of reach of everyday departmental budgets. Wellington is known for being a friendly school and for making children welcome. The Friends aim to do the same for parents by running dinner dances, quiz evenings, ladies' indulgence evenings, race nights, murder mystery evenings and even car boot sales. As family events, we run film evenings and bingo sessions for the younger ones, Christmas and summer fairs, cake sales ….. the list is endless,  and we are always looking for new ideas and the people to help make them happen.  

We also run two facebook pages, with the aim of publicising up and coming events, and to ask for help. A link to these is found at the bottom of this page.

The Friends was started in 1957, well before the inauguration of the School’s Foundation and the Corner Capital Fund. As such, together with the Old Wellingtonians’ Association, we were the first organisation to raise money for the School and our largest contribution was £450,000 for the Science Block at the Senior School followed by £45,000 towards the purchase of the site in which the Prep School and Sports Centre now stand.

Nowadays, we operate a “bid” process, where requests are made for items such as choir robes, tents for Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, library equipment, stage lighting, water fountains and garden furniture. The Friends have generously funded the cost of replacing a window in the Chapel, an iconic building in the School, which every student uses and which remains a source of pride and warm memories for many, after they leave. For the opening of the Prep School, playground and picnic equipment was purchased and recent bids have been for balance ability bikes and trikes, drums and cameras, £5000 for the development of the Forest School, as well as prizes for competitions and a contribution to the Leaver’s Disco, gifts to help out Santa and trips to the cinema.  With the development of an exciting sports and outdoor education programme, the Friends have funded a huge range of sporting equipment, including kayaks, dinghies, scrummage machines and cricket nets, protective hockey kit for our young ones, table tennis tables and the Intelligent Trainer PC equipment used to track students strength and fitness.

We aim to spend equally and fairly on all aspects of school life, across all school ages, for both Boarding and Day students. We love it when we are asked to raise funds for a section of the School we have not supported for a while, and are delighted that we are starting to receive bids from our latest additions, Chapel and Price’s Nurseries.

If you would like to find out more about the work of the Friends, please make contact via the Development Office. According to your interests, we will then invite you to meet one of our existing committee members, to find out a bit more about current projects and opportunities.

Many of our Trustees started out as new parents to the School, joining a friendly and hard-working group of like-minded people, as a way of getting to know other parents. And even after their children have left School, we have parents who have chosen to remain as Trustees to this day. We would be delighted to welcome you too to the Friends of Wellington School.