Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 24th February 2023
Dear Parents,
Welcome back after what I hope was an enjoyable and refreshing half term break. We returned on Monday to the World Day of Social Justice, a day observed on 20 February each year to focus our attention on all those around the world who have barriers in the way stopping them from living a fair life. It encourages us to think of ways to remove those barriers, or help people to overcome those barriers. As with many of these kinds of observances, every day really should be World Day of Social Justice and that is a point I made to the boys in Monday’s assembly: there is little point talking about something important on a Monday if it is forgotten by the Tuesday.
To mark World Day of Social Justice, our person of the week was Daisy Gatson Bates (1914-99). Born in Arkansas and raised in a foster home, Bates devoted her life to working to end racial injustice. Alongside her husband, she started her own newspaper in Arkansas called The Arkansas Weekly; it was one of the only African American papers solely dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement. When there was a racist backlash to the US Supreme Court’s decision to end segregation in education according to skin colour, Bates’s newspaper published articles to expose those schools which pushed back and continued their racist (and illegal and unconstitutional) policy. From 1957 Bates even drove African American pupils to historically white schools to ensure that they were integrated and protected from the often violent crowds waiting for them outside.
As you can imagine, Bates faced threats of violence and intimidation, but she continued fearlessly and received nationwide (and international) recognition for her work. In 1962 she published her memoirs, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, and she spoke at the famous March on Washington in 1963. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999, just after her death. There are some parts of the supposedly enlightened and civilised world where I suppose it would be difficult to discuss people like Daisy Gatson Bates without receiving a barrage of state-sanctioned abuse or without our library being cleared of books. We are lucky to learn in a school, and live in a society, where that is not the case. But we often make our own luck, so it is by bringing attention to such individuals that this ‘luck’ continues.
Have a great weekend,
Matt Jenkinson
Very well done to the boys in the Drama Club who performed so brilliantly in Toad of Toad Hall on Monday evening. Special thanks to Sarah Brown who wrote the play especially for the boys and who coached and directed them so brilliantly. It is no wonder that all the boys who went for their recent LAMDA exams got distinctions.
Well done, too, to the choristers who sang so well at the Ash Wednesday service in New College Chapel this week. As university term inches towards a close, they are turning their attention towards their performance of Bach’s St John Passion on Sunday 12 March, and then to their US tour at the start of the Easter vacation.
Many congratulations to Alex in Year 5 who has been invited to the Alphabet Poets Awards as a result of his poem, ‘The Musician of the Ocean’, being ranked in the top ten of the Alphabet Poets Poetry Competition. He will present his poem to the Greek ambassador at their residence next week, when the top three poems will also be announced. Good luck!
We are looking forward to the Year 5 parents’ evening on Wednesday 1 March. While the evening formally starts at 18.00, there are usually some colleagues happy to make an early start if parents are at a loose end and wish to arrive a little before that time. Parking is available from 17.15, once the playground is clear of boys heading home after their enrichment activities. Please aim to arrive by 18.30 to allow time to get around all of the teachers. If you would like to talk to a particular teacher for longer than c.5 minutes, please get in touch with that teacher to arrange a mutually convenient separate time.
World Book Day is on 2 March. As ever, we will be joining schools around the country in encouraging boys to come in dressed as a literary character (though not one who looks, say, surprisingly like a prep school boy in home clothes). Please do not go to any great effort or expense for this; imaginative and recycled costumes are often the best ones!
We are looking forward to our Holloway Lecture on Wednesday 15 March at 18.00. Tim Harford will be speaking on ‘How to Live as a Truth Detective’. One of the many challenges of living in modern society is trying to make sense of the information and misinformation with which we are bombarded. We need to be attuned to this to live safe and fulfilled lives as effective citizens, and we need strategies to challenge such misinformation. In this lecture, Tim will give us tips on hunting down the truth around us, avoiding dodgy data and information that has been corrupted, whether accidentally or wilfully. He will give advice on being smart and savvy about numbers and, indeed, many other things in life! Tim will also be signing copies of his first children's book, The Truth Detective. Tim is an economist, journalist and broadcaster. He is author of How To Make The World Add Up, Messy, and the million-selling The Undercover Economist. He is a senior columnist at the Financial Times, and the presenter of Radio 4’s “More or Less”, the iTunes-topping series “Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy”, and the podcast “Cautionary Tales”. Tim has spoken at TED, PopTech and the Sydney Opera House. He is an associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Tim was made an OBE for services to improving economic understanding in the New Year honours of 2019. The lecture, which will last about an hour, is free-of-charge and will take place in the Inorganic Chemistry Lecture Theatre, the entrance to which is not far from the end of Mansfield Road in the University Science Area on South Parks Road. Entry is only for those who have pre-registered, which can be done by responding to the Parentmail form already sent out by the office.
Please find below the link to buy tickets for the next NCS Chamber Choir and Choral Society concert, with the Instruments of Time and Truth. It will take place on Saturday 25 March at 19.00 in New College Chapel. The programme will feature J.S. Bach’s Markus-Passion (BWV 247), reconstructed by Malcolm Bruno. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/j-s-bach-st-mark-passion-tickets-525465450307
From Mr Bishop: The return from half term has been an exciting one as the NCS hockey teams have got back into the swing of training and matches. To kick things off the senior boys played the first two rounds of the keenly competitive house matches. After two rounds we have the rare but exciting prospect of all four teams being able to make the final. The highlight of the day in those first matches was Edward M of Year 8 and his wonder goal following a high-class reverse stick cross from Didrik. On Tuesday afternoon the U8 and U9 boys made the trip over to Ashfold for some football matches. Four great games were played out and, despite the results not going our way, they were close and hard fought. I was particularly pleased with Olly L and Gianni V from Year 4; these boys were outstanding in their efforts all afternoon and really deserve their joint “Player of the Match” awards.
On Wednesday afternoon we returned to hockey and, once again, Ashfold were the opposition. In the U11 games the boys were facing their IAPS final opponents and once more a very high class and tense game was played out. A 2-2 draw was a fair result. The B team again secured a well-deserved 3-1 win with Henry T on the score sheet with another brace. The C and D teams both lost narrowly but the coaches would like to mention Nathanael from Year 6 and Issac from Year 5 for their brilliant performances. Away at Ashfold I had the pleasure of umpiring a cracking game played out by the D team. Being the first game of the afternoon it was eagerly anticipated and did not disappoint. The final score of 4-0 to NCS was the result of a dominant display that saw our goalkeeper Isaac T only making one save all game long. The defensive partnership of Cooper S and Vedant M was solid and kept out the Ashfold attackers. At the same time the B team played out a fantastic 1-1 draw with Edward M scoring again thanks to a brilliant Benji W assist.
The A team game was an end-to-end affair with both teams scoring some excellent goals. With the score locked at 3-3 Ashfold managed to find that little bit of luck to sneak the result 4-3, but this was an outstanding result against one of the stronger teams we’ll face this year. The C team held out at 0-0 for a long time and, as the game progressed, it seemed we could create a winning chance; however fatigue started to play its part and with boys playing a lot of hockey we just ran out of steam, eventually succumbing to the Ashfold attack. On the whole this was a really pleasing fixture, both home and away with some excellent results from all ages.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 28 February 2023
14.15 U9 A-C Hockey vs Dragon. Away
Wednesday, 1 March 2023
8.15 School Council meeting, library
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Revd Fr Benedict Manning CO, The Oxford Oratory
12.00 U10 A St Edward's Hockey Festival. St Edward's
14.00 A13 A-C Hockey vs Thorngrove. Away
14.00 U11 A-D Hockey vs Thorngrove. Bradfield College
18.00 Year 5 parents' evening
Thursday, 2 March 2023
World Book Day
14.00 U8 & U9 Hockey House Matches. Iffley Road
Friday, 3 March 2023
10.00 Year 3 trip to Ashmolean (rtn 11.50)
Monday, 6 March 2023
14.00 U13 A Stowe School Hockey Festival. Away
17.30 Junior Recitals, Sports Hall
Tuesday, 7 March 2023
14.00 U9 A&B Hockey vs WHS. Away
Wednesday, 8 March 2023
Year 8 HPV catch-up
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: The Revd Alice Watson, Chaplain, The Queen's College, Oxford
14.15 U11 A-D Hockey vs WHS. St Edward's
14.00 U13 A-D Hockey vs WHS. Away
18.00 Year 8 parents' evening
Thursday, 9 March 2023
9.45 Year 6 trip to Natural History Museum
14.00 U8 & U9 Hockey House Matches. Iffley Road
Friday, 10 March 2023
ABRSM music exams (all day)
14.00 U11 Hockey House Matches. St Edward's
Saturday, 11 March 2023
End of University Term