Dear Wellington Community,
I hope this letter finds you and your families savoring the last few weeks of summer while looking ahead with excitement to the start of school. It is my honor to welcome you to Wellington’s forty-fourth school year! I cannot wait to see our students, faculty, and families over the coming weeks at athletics pre-season practices, orientations, welcome back events, and—of course—our first official day of school on August 19.
Prepare for the Start of School
Important dates and details will be shared over the coming weeks. Visit our Back-to-School webpage for key deadlines, orientations, welcome events, required forms, and division-specific information. We encourage you to bookmark this page, as it will serve as your central resource for preparing for the new school year.
As we prepare for a successful return to campus, we realize just how much we miss your children. Please encourage them to send a note and a photo from their summer, either by mail or email. I would love to post these in my office. As these last long days of summer unfold, I hope you will take a moment to scroll down and read a few updates about our campus and program for the 2026-27 school year.
Thank you for all you do for Wellington, and, as always… Go, Jags!
Eliza McLaren
Head of School
Summer Updates from the Head of School
New Colleagues
Three new leaders joined Wellington on July 1: L’Tanya Evans, Assistant Director of Admissions for Early Childhood and Lower School; Marty Frazier, Head of Upper School; and Rachel Yantis, Chief Advancement Officer. Please join me in welcoming these outstanding administrators to our community. Learn more about them here.
I am excited to introduce our new teachers, a wonderful group joining us from across the country, in my August update.
Campus and Construction Updates
It has been an active summer on campus. Construction on the Fishinger Road side, which began right after graduation, is moving quickly: the annex building and playground have been removed, the 1918 building is coming down, and extensive interior renovation work is underway in the 1950s building. The transformation will culminate in a new entrance and a new home for the Upper School in late 2027, featuring renovated academic spaces, enhanced visual and performing arts facilities, and welcoming outdoor and community gathering spaces.
Meanwhile, much of the 1990s addition has been transformed this summer and will open for student use this school year. The space includes five upgraded Upper School classrooms and the new Upper School Visual Arts Center. By January, we expect to open the renovated Makerspace and Upper School Faculty Room as well. On the academic building's second floor, two large renovated classrooms for Middle Schoolers and an upgraded physics lab for Upper Schoolers will also be ready this year.
When you return, you will also notice an improved outdoor classroom and gardens, new turf on Roberts Field featuring our new Jags logo (be on the lookout for new Jags gear soon), refreshed entry areas, an extended sidewalk for carline and bus pickup, a new 12-passenger van for expanding transportation services, and a pilot of flexible instructional furniture in three Upper School classrooms.
These transformative updates are not possible without the steadfast support of the Wellington community. We are excited to share more with you in the coming months, including how you can participate in The Bold Leap Campaign. Learn more about our campus and construction updates here.
Faculty Focus: Foundational Skills & Deep Learning
This year, Wellington teachers are placing special emphasis on helping students build strong mastery of foundational knowledge and skills while ensuring classroom learning is engaging, relational, application-based, and intellectually rigorous. When students receive personalized support and challenge in the foundations, teachers can design richer projects, pose more nuanced questions, and coach students through increasingly complex thinking and problem-solving. To deepen this work, faculty in grades 4–12 will engage in a year-long study of "Neuroteach" by Glen Whitman and Ian Kelleher, while our Early Childhood and Lower School faculty will study "As We Begin" by Tia Henteleff. Both books explore the science of how students learn best and will help strengthen our instructional practices across the School. We are also excited to welcome both authors to Wellington during the year to work directly with our faculty on the neuroscience of teaching and learning.
Institutional AI and Educational Technology Roadmap
We will also continue building our institutional AI and educational technology roadmap this year, with equal parts openness and discipline. We will use technology where it genuinely strengthens and personalizes learning — but never as a substitute for the human connection, mentorship, and thinking that remain at the center of a Wellington education. In an age when tools can generate answers instantly, Wellington will remain a place where students learn to think deeply, develop durable skills, and build strong character.
Summer Reflection: Preparing Students for the Future Has Always Been the Wellington Way
This summer, my family took our annual trip to Maine, where we hiked, swam (brrr!), read, and enjoyed time together. Our daughter also spent four weeks at sleepaway camp where, without parents or technology, she had the kinds of formative experiences we hope for our children—developing new skills, building character, and becoming more confident, capable, and independent. Our son, meanwhile, hiked mountains and trails this summer that would have been daunting for him just a year ago.
There is something wonderfully humbling about watching your children grow up.
These experiences reinforced for me the importance of Wellington's work in the years ahead. At a time when technology and artificial intelligence are rapidly reshaping how people learn, work, create, and communicate, I believe more than ever that one of education's highest callings is to teach young people how to think, not what to think. Parents, teachers, schools, camps, and technology all have important roles to play. But each is at its best when it challenges and creates space for thinking rather than replacing it—allowing children to develop the confidence, judgment, resilience, and independence that come from wrestling with ideas, solving difficult problems, and discovering, I can figure this out.
At Wellington, students develop strong foundational literacies; higher-order skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity; and enduring character traits including resilience, adaptability, initiative, discernment, and a commitment to lifelong learning. We believe the future will belong to the intellectually curious—to those who ask meaningful questions, think critically, reason independently, and exercise sound judgment with and without technological assistance.
That belief is not new. For generations, Wellington has combined academic excellence with rich opportunities for students to apply their learning, solve authentic problems, build meaningful relationships, and develop a strong sense of self. As the world changes, those commitments endure.
In late June, while digging through an old filing cabinet in the Head of School's office, I came across the 1989 Wellington Covenant and a companion document outlining the Objectives of a Wellington Education. I found the language both striking and timeless:
Enlist the courage to confront and surmount difficulties.
Accept responsibility for my actions.
Base my relationships on integrity, compassion, mutual respect, and trust.
Enjoy life.
Among the ten objectives, one stood out in particular nearly four decades later: students would "prepare themselves for tomorrow's world by using computer knowledge in a problem-solving environment."
While in Maine, I had the opportunity to reconnect with former Wellington Heads of School David Blanchard, who was Head of School when those objectives were written, and Rob Brisk, whose leadership helped sharpen Wellington's focus on student engagement and authentic learning experiences.
Our conversation served as a reminder that Wellington was thinking deeply about future readiness long before terms like 21st-century skills became commonplace. They understood that strong communities are places where achievement, honesty, hard work, integrity, and care for others are recognized and encouraged. And they knew that schools have a responsibility to prepare young people for a future that cannot be fully predicted.
In that sense, preparing students for tomorrow's world has always been the Wellington way.
Today, Wellington's definition of future readiness remains both timeless and relevant: teach the foundations exceptionally well and give students meaningful opportunities to apply what they know. Reading, writing, mathematical reasoning, scientific thinking, creativity, empathy, resilience, and courage matter as much as ever. New technologies may change how we work and learn, but they do not change the importance of these enduring human capacities.
Our goal is not simply college readiness or career readiness. It is life readiness—the knowledge, judgment, relationships, and sense of purpose that enable young people to build meaningful lives and contribute to something larger than themselves.
Thank you for your belief in Wellington and in our enduring vision for what education can be. We can't wait to welcome everyone back to campus soon.