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Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 18th February 2022

Dear Parents,

Hilary can be a rather peculiar term: it doesn’t have Michaelmas’s identity as the ‘motor’ of the year, joining a brand new school year with the joys of a prep school Christmas; it doesn’t have the sunshine, cricket and post-exam demob happiness of Trinity. It sits in the middle, waiting for January to end and for Spring to, well, spring. For many of our boys, it is the season of pre-tests, auditions, and scholarship assessments. For our Year 8s Hilary is the home of the mocks: the time and space where they can start their process of revision, make mistakes in a safe space, and see what they need to do to improve their work over the coming weeks and months.

I am very proud of the way in which our Year 8s have approached their mocks this week. Some of our boys have their ‘real’ exams a little sooner than others, but they all took the process seriously, and enjoyed (?) a dry-run of the slightly more formal assessments coming up later. The mocks are very much there to hone revision technique, look over core topics, practise key skills, and as I mention above, make errors at a time and in a space where they can be easily remedied. The conductor and cellist Benjamin Zander argues that our response to every mistake should be a bright-eyed and smiley ‘how fascinating!’. This seems rather impractical to me, but I take his point that errors are there to help us open up to progress, not to close ourselves down. It is a point often lost in a city like Oxford that we are all human, that we all make mistakes; it is how we learn from them that can define how we progress from that point on.

Breaktime games; building rockets in Reception; Fruit batteries in Year 6 Science; Ancient Egyptian mummification in Year 3 Greats

As we come to the end of this half term, then, I think there are a lot of pupils, parents and colleagues who deserve a bit of a rest. While I fully appreciate that most jobs don’t stop for half-term, I hope that you are still able to spend some quality time with your families. Who knows, we might even be able to travel a little more, or go to a few more events. It is all relative now, and we are inching rather than galloping back to the old normal, but I wish you and your families all the very best in that process.

Have a great weekend and half term,

Matt Jenkinson

We have had a fantastic action-packed Charity Week in aid of ‘Toilet Twinning’. My thanks to all those boys who took part so enthusiastically, and to Mrs Showell-Rogers for organising so many excellent activities for the boys, including some innovative ones for this term. Year 8 strutted their skills on the basketball court on Wednesday in their match against the teachers; the lively fanfare certainly helped make for a very exciting match in which the Year 8 boys nearly won. Thank you to the Year 5 boys (Dominic, Hugo, Jack, Laurence, Alex M and Thomas B) who honed their magic skills into a dynamic act that they performed to Years 1 and 2, amongst others. Another thank you goes to Mr Mulford who creatively made a make-shift toilet (with seat) for our chicken toss competition and for all his help with set-up of events this week. The highlight of the week was the 'Croissant Cafe', in place of Form Time, where boys could enjoy a second breakfast over music and games. Combining all of this with a hoodie day and home clothes day, and a total of over £770 was raised. Many thanks for all of your support!

Charity week fundraising

As part of charity week, we had our 'bake off' competition, with cakes baked and decorated with the theme of the 'natural world'. There were many very impressive entries and the boys clearly loved deconstructing them once they had been judged. Congratulations to Eddie for being the overall 'silver spoon' winner; Jacob M for being the pre-prep winner; Kian for being the winner of the Year 6-8 category; Aloysius winner of the Year 3-5 category; Rowan M for being the pre-prep runner up; and Ashwin and Isaac T for winning the team prize.

Please find attached to the newsletter Parentmail the activities brochures for next term. Sign-up opens on Friday 4 March. Full instructions are available in the brochures.

I am sad to say that Mrs Maria Williams has decided not to return to NCS when her leave ends at the end of this academic year. We will miss Mrs Williams greatly and wish her all the very best for the future; we will be sure to organise some opportunities for us to say our thankyous and goodbyes in Trinity. I am delighted to announce that, in her stead, Mrs Pip Usher will be continuing in the Year 4 Form Tutor role. We are looking forward to Mrs Usher continuing with us, and to her building on the already impressive contributions she has made to NCS during her time here so far.

We have our Year 5 parents’ evening on Wednesday 2 March. The evening officially begins at 18.00, though a few colleagues are usually available a little earlier if you would like to make a head start. Please arrive as early as practicable (ideally by around 18.30) so we can finish the evening by 20.00 and we can get everyone home at a sensible time. If you have any issues that you think would require longer discussion than possible in a five-ish minute meeting, please do book a separate appointment. We will be following our usual Covid-19 protocols for these events. They will take place in the sports hall, with the bi-folds open for as much ventilation as possible. Please therefore wrap up warm because it can get a little chilly. Please also take a lateral flow test (leading to a negative result) before arriving, wear face coverings, and respect social distancing, especially when sitting to chat to teachers.

It is World Book Day on Thursday 3 March. We will have our usual costume parade in assembly. It would be wonderful if the boys could come to school in the customary literature-inspired costumes, but please do not go to any great trouble or expense. If we could minimise the number of Alex Riders or the like, that would also be great.

On Wednesday 16 March, as part of College Day, the foundation stone to our new School/College building will be blessed in the weekly school service. The stone will then be placed in the College Cloisters until it is laid in the building later in the year. You are warmly invited to this special service which is a significant marker of the building’s progress. As usual, there will be refreshments afterwards in College. You may remember that we are currently running a seat-naming campaign for the new auditorium in aid of our bursary fund. We are very grateful to all those who have supported the campaign so far; it would be wonderful if we could name all the seats. Full details of how to support the fund are available on our website via https://www.newcollegeschool.org/supporting-new-college-school A form for gift aid is at the foot of the webpage.

On Friday 18 March at 19.30 New College Choir joins the choirs of Christ Church Cathedral and Magdalen College in the Sheldonian Theatre for a spectacular concert. The choirs will perform Handel’s Coronation Anthems, with Oxford’s period-instrument ensemble, Instruments of Time & Truth. And to make the programme even more memorable, the three directors of music, Steven Grahl, Robert Quinney and Mark Williams, take the solo parts in J.S. Bach’s Triple Harpsichord Concerto in C. This is an exciting and rare opportunity to hear the three foundation choirs performing together – 90 singers in all – and to witness the three directors of music displaying their keyboard skills. Booking for the Three Choirs Concert opens next Monday 7 February via Tickets Oxford: www.ticketsoxford.com/events/three-choirs-concert or 01865 305305, or in person at the Oxford Playhouse Box Office.

From Mr Bishop: This week saw a brief but very enjoyable return to the football pitches for the U9 boys. They travelled across to Ashfold School in Buckinghamshire and played three very entertaining games. In the B team game we found ourselves playing against some rather large boys! The NCS team fought like lions to keep themselves in the game. Samuel J was at his tenacious best and ran for every loose ball with furious determination. Arron A from Year 3 also impressed with the power he can generate when kicking the ball. Despite losing the game I feel the boys enjoyed their afternoon a great deal. On the C team pitch, Mr Morrison’s group played some brilliant football and took the game 5-0 with Felix T getting his first hat-trick. Olly L and Luca P also deserve special mentions for their efforts on the pitch in a great team performance. On Mr Mainstone’s pitch the A team ran out 3-2 winners despite going 1-0 down in the early stages. This game showed superb team spirit as the boys worked hard for one another and showed much-improved fight and determination as they came from behind to win. Tom D was at his hard-running best and dominated the midfield areas to give the strikers time to shoot and score. George T also deserves a special mention as Mr Mainstone tells me his winning goal was quite a spectacle to behold! Well done to the U9s.

Also facing Ashfold were the U13 hockey teams and the boys were in a confident mood on the way over in the coach. On the back of some good performances the week before against The Dragon and Summer Fields we felt this could be a positive day. After the first round of games the D team had narrowly lost 1-0 and the B team had suffered a 5-2 defeat. Things were not going to plan and our opponents were certainly coping with the windy and slippery conditions better than we were. There was a very encouraging highlight however, as George W played very well in his second team debut and set up the goal of the day as he played a brilliant ball to Carter that covered the length of the pitch. After this breath-taking match it was the turn of the A and C teams to try their luck. In the A team game, at the break we were 2-1 down and felt we could get back in front, however a simple error in front of the Ashfold goal saw attack turn into panic defending and the ruthless Ashfold striker scored a great goal to take the score to 3-1. A late rally from the captain Timon, did see us get back to 3-2 but a little too late I’m afraid and the score remained in favour of our hosts. To finish the half term was a great C team game: the match was exciting and showed great skill from both schools. Despite going 1-0 down the NCS team never gave up and with only minutes to go, the calmest man on the pitch, Ben T, slotted home a brilliant goal to take away a well-earned draw.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, 19 February 2022

Start of Half-Term

Monday, 28 February 2022

Return from Half-Term

MCS Academic Scholarship starts

14.00 U13 All Hockey House Matches, St Edward's

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

9.30-11.50 Year 5 Visit to the Synagogue in Jericho

14.15 U9 A-C Hockey v Dragon, Away

Wednesday, 2 March 2022

9.00 Chapel. Speaker: The Revd Kate Harford, Chaplain of Oxford Brookes University

8.15 School council meeting, library

12.30 U10 A Hockey Festival, St Edward's

14.00 U13 A&B Hockey v Thorngrove, Bradfield

14.00 U11 A-D Hockey v Thorngrove, Bradfield

18.00 Year 5 parents' evening

Thursday, 3 March 2022

World Book Day

Friday, 4 March 2022

14.00 U11 All Hockey House Matches, St Edward's

Monday, 7 March 2022

Abingdon academic scholarship starts

14.00 U13 A Stowe Hockey Festival, Away

17.30 Junior Recitals Sports Hall

Tuesday, 8 March 2022

14.15 U9 A&B Hockey v Winchester House, Away

14.35-15.30 Year 5 Visit to New College Chapel for organ demonstration

Wednesday, 9 March 2022

9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Ms Dinti Batstone, Vice-Chair of Campaign for Gender Balance

14.00 U13 A-D Hockey v Summer Fields, St Edward's

17.30 Year 8 parents' evening (please note change from date in parent handbook)

Saturday, 12 March 2022

End of University Term

SLT/Governors’ Strategy Day Red Room

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