Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 24th June 2022
Dear Parents,
We are very much at the time of term when we look in various different directions, by which I mean that we are reminiscing and saying goodbye to our leavers and their families, while simultaneously welcoming new boys and their families and looking ahead with excitement to their many years at NCS, while at the same time showing around prospective families who are right at the beginning of the whole process. This brings with it various logistical challenges but, more poignantly, a lot of mixed emotions. Our Wykeham Day last Saturday, which culminated in the liveliest Wykeham Day Dinner in many years, encapsulated all of this, with different generations of pupils (and their parents) represented, catching up with old friends, making some new ones, and all happily under the NCS umbrella. I appreciate that I’m biased, but I thought Saturday represented all that is so special about the NCS community: its creativity, collaboration, positivity, inclusiveness, excitement about the future, and appreciation of its very long history. For what is essentially a very small school, we have a very large wider school community!
We were especially pleased to welcome back to Saturday’s dinner many young men from the class of 2020: the generation that essentially bore the brunt of the beginning of the Covid pandemic and the advent of lockdowns. Having been denied their leavers’ dinner by world events, we were able to put that right just a couple of years later. It was so good to catch up with them, to hear about their senior schools, and to hear reminiscing about their days at NCS. It can be easy to forget, when caught up in the day-to-day realities of school life, that events like plays, matches, concerts forever live in people’s memories. I, too, enjoyed joining in reminiscing about ‘that book we did in Year 7’ or just who played which role in different school plays.
I would like to thank again all of those who made Saturday’s events not just possible, but positively thriving: the NCSPA, my colleagues, the boys, parents, and all members of our wider community who braved the rain to create such a special event. The day began with the Warden unveiling the foundation stone of our new building, just in time for that building to disappear behind scaffolding and screens for the next twelve months. The next time we see it, in just over a year’s time, it will be a gleaming pristine new facility, and a strong architectural symbol about the longevity of our very special school.
I am very sorry to have been away from the gate this week, as I have been isolating in the Head’s lodgings for reasons you can probably very easily work out. I would like to thank you for your kind words and support, and I’d like to pay tribute to my team – especially my deputies, Brett Morrison and Emma Krebs – who are demonstrating that, irritatingly, the place can run very smoothly without me!
Have a great weekend,
Matt Jenkinson
Speaking of our Wykeham Day celebrations, we have been delighted to receive some more recent donations to our Wykeham Bursary Fund. We fully appreciate that you already make lots of sacrifices to send your sons here; if anyone would still like to make a donation to help others access an NCS education, including through our seat-naming campaign, more details can be found at https://www.newcollegeschool.org/supporting-new-college-school
Staffing news: congratulations to Mrs Jo Atkinson who has been appointed to a junior school teaching position at Cranford House. Full tribute will be paid to Mrs Atkinson at the end of term, but I would like to thank her at this stage for her outstanding contributions to NCS life, and especially in taking such good care of Year 3 over the past few years. I am delighted to announce that Mrs Victoria Hayter, who has covered Mrs Atkinson’s maternity covers, will be taking over Year 3 permanently and full-time in September. Mrs Hayter is very well known to us, having taught at NCS over the past few years, and having formerly been an NCS parent, and we are very excited that she will be ‘joining’ us in this permanent role.
Many congratulations indeed to our Year 3 and 4 boys for their performance this week of Oliver!. After a little bit of rejigging due to current circumstances, the boys kept their nerve and performed spectacularly. I would like to thank Mrs Atkinson, Mrs Hayter, Miss Rose, Miss Rubini, Mrs Showell-Rogers, and Mrs Usher for their dedication and determination to get the show staged – and indeed all my colleagues who supported the boys along the way.
Very well done to all of the choristers who sang in Monday’s chorister concert in the antechapel. It was a delightful occasion, with the boys showcasing their talents and progress over the course of the year. You’d never have known that the boys’ musical training had one or two diversions along the way due to Covid restrictions.
We really enjoyed welcoming our next generation of NCS pupils yesterday during our induction morning. We have extended our timings for the induction morning, for older pupils, to give them more time to settle in with their forms and to experience some sample lessons and – as importantly – bond with their new classmates at breaktime. This evening, their parents will be coming in for some welcome drinks, to get to know one another a little better and to meet form tutors and the SLT in an informal manner. It is never too soon to be inducted into the ways of Mini Cheddars and good Italian wine (or elderflower)!
I hope that the boys have a wonderful week throughout Activities Week, as we resume residential trips for the first time in a couple of years, alongside some shorter trips closer to home. We look forward to hearing about their exploits on their return. And my thanks, of course, to all those colleagues who are going above and beyond to accompany and support the boys in these activities.
Last week I talked about the boys’ careers education as they work their way up the school. We were very pleased to add to this over the course of the week, with a Year 8 legal careers workshop with James Phythian-Adams, and some presentations to Years 7 and 8 by Danielle Clayton, Finance Director of Vaxx, and Daniel Smith, Founder of Barbury Hill. Many thanks to all our speakers for taking the time to come in to speak with the boys, and to Mr Morrison for arranging it all.
If all of that wasn’t enough, our Year 8 boys took to the stage to present their TED Talks at the end of this week. These talks represent the culmination of a year of the boys’ independent research projects or ‘special subjects’. The boys are given rather wide latitude when it comes to choosing a topic, though it has to be analytical rather than descriptive. Year 7 have been working on their special subjects too, in the form of mini-theses. The special subject is a fantastic way for the boys to hone their independent research, presentation and communication skills, while giving them some space within the school week to explore one of their passions that isn’t already directly covered by the curriculum. My thanks to Miss Krebs, Dr Gausden, Miss Rose and Mr Hanson for guiding the boys along the way, and to Mr Cui and Ms Ulett for recording the Year 8 TED Talks for posterity.
From Mme Phillips: On Monday, Timon and James from Year 8 went to St Michael's Primary School in Marston, Oxford, to deliver their third and final language lesson in their role as Senior Language Ambassadors. As for their first two lessons, they impressed the staff there and captivated their young audience (Year 4 & Year 6 classes). Both boys are clearly teachers in the making! James delivered a cultural lesson on the Chinese Terracotta Army. His presentation and delivery in front of thirty Year 6 boys and girls was perfect: his PPT slides had been carefully put together to suit his audience and capture their interest. He then went around the classroom, showing miniature terracotta sculptures that he had brought from home and answered questions. An inspector would have rated his lesson excellent! Timon was just as impressive. As if he had been teaching for years, he clearly set out his expectations and spent a lot of time making sure pupils were able to understand the written tasks, after an excellent presentation which included interactive games to help pupils consolidate the new German vocabulary. His group was quite a quiet cohort and he himself reflected how challenging that was when teaching a language. However, the class were very engaged and really enjoyed the experience. Ben also taught two engaging lessons earlier on in the year, a linguistic one and a cultural one, both of which were delivered in a professional and inspirational manner. Mrs Brown and myself are very proud of our Senior Language Ambassadors, and are looking forward to training next year's cohort!
Some of our thirteen Junior Language Ambassadors have also been sharing their language knowledge in-house. Thomas and Noah from Year 5 popped down to Reception on Thursday to share their Spanish language knowledge by reading ‘El Libro de los sentimientos’ - The Feelings Book. What a treat that was for everyone. There was a lot of giggling. Bravo. Last week, Luca shared his Italian language knowledge by reading a bilingual book to the Year 2s, and Gary read ‘Aliens love underpants’ in Mandarin to a class of mesmerised Year 1s! Back in Hilary Term, Hugo had read ‘Chapeau’ in French to the Reception class during the QED week. Well done to all of them!
From Mr Bishop: The last two weeks of fixtures have been as exciting as I can remember. The U11 and U13 teams have played some wonderful games of cricket and the U13 tennis team has entertained us with some sublime play on the courts of Cokethorpe and NCS. Last week the U11 A&B cricket teams, along with the U13 tennis team made the journey over to Cokethorpe. The U11 A team, despite losing some early wickets, rallied well and manged to between the wickets when boundaries were hard to come by. Our hosts managed to secure the win inside the distance and for the loss of only one wicket. This was a difficult lesson to learn but one I’m sure we’ll benefit from. In the B team game, the roles were reversed and NCS ended up winning the game thanks to superb team work in the field. The hard work in training paid off as catches were held and boundaries stopped. The U13 tennis team narrowly lost the fixture but once again they played some super tennis and each set was a close-run thing, so narrowly missing out only served to spur the boys on for Monday’s match against Cranford House. In this fixture NCS won after the top three pairs drew their end but the game was won after some excellent doubles and singles games on the double court side of the draw. I was particularly impressed with Tolly in the singles and Edward in the doubles. On the cricket pitch the U13 A team were victorious against Sibford. After asking our guests to bat first we managed to bowl them out for 65 runs inside the allotted overs with Rishaan taking 5 wickets in the match; he was backed up with the ball by Ashwin who once again proved brilliant with his off spin in taking another 3-wicket haul. Harry D scored a quick fire 34 runs with Timon on 16 to secure the win inside 10 overs. The B team, playing a tough Winchester House, were in great form and they amassed over 120 runs in their 20 overs. This was a good target for the NCS bowlers to have a go at and they certainly did not disappoint. After Dan and Jasper had gone to work with the bat it was the turn of Finn, Henry and Xander to have a go with the ball. I was really pleased to regularly hear the clatter of stumps and the cheer go up as one after another the WHS batters fell to the accurate and hostile NCS 2nd XI bowling. Another good win for the NCS cricket teams.
Following days of glorious weather it was obvious the Old Boys’ cricket match would suffer the wrath of the rain gods. However, we were determined the day would go ahead and we managed to fit in 15 overs per side of brilliant and entertaining cricket. The old boys batted first and scored a gentle 81 from their 15 overs. Getting in on the wicket taking act was Carter, Leo and our captain, Patrick. When it came to the school’s turn to bat our 1st XI suffered a quick-fire loss of our opening bat Harry. The innings was extremely fast paced and lots of fun to watch with runs scored, wickets falling in front of a record crowd. The turning point I feel was the run out by Jack R, who clearly had his Weetabix given the speed he throws the ball now. In the final over with NCS running out of batters, Harry D returned to the crease and did his best to score the 17 runs needed for the win. In the end the boys ended up 2 short and the Old Boys ended up the deserved winners on the day. In the rain-affected parent & son doubles tennis tournament there were 5 hardy partnerships who braved the conditions. In the end, thanks to some super organising, the eventual winners were James W and his father, Al. Many congratulations.
This week the U11s played in an excellent game against Sibford, with both teams scoring over 100 runs in a very tense match. Half way through the NCS innings when we were chasing a total that had sometimes proved too much this season, we looked like we may be struggling to find the runs. However Xander S turned up an unbeaten 36 runs and swung the game our way so the boys ended the season with a fabulous win with only 3 balls remaining of the match. The U13 team were also busy with their annual match against local rivals Christ Church. Having won the toss, we decided to bat and managed to score 159-4 from our 20 overs; our biggest total this season. This included an opening stance of over 100 runs between Harry D (75) and Timon B (36). This was no mean feat and one I’ve not seen before from NCS players. When we bowled we were at our ruthless best and restricted our guests to below 80 runs and thus won the game in comfortable fashion. Wednesday saw Kitebrook turn up to face us; both the Kitebrook A and B teams had not lost a game all season long. This statistic proved to be short lived at the end of the afternoon with both NCS teams winning by impressive margins. Special mentions deserve to go to Dan C and Finn L in the B team and once again Ashwin was superb for the A team with another impressive knock with the bat (22) and another 3 wickets for only 2 runs from his 3 overs: figures any bowler would be proud of and struggle to beat too! Away from the cricket pitch we need to congratulate Luca P from Year 8 as he competed in the local Run Jericho event and managed to finish an amazing 8th place in the senior 5Km race. In the shorter junior race Yoav was a brilliant 4th place overall. A good number of NCS boys were also racing and we are very proud of them all.
Monday, 27 June 2022
Activities Week begins
Years 5-8 depart for IOW Little Canada Centre
Year 4 depart for Malvern Hills
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
No School Service
Summer Banquet for Pre-Prep and Year 3
Year 4 return from Malvern Hills
Friday, 1 July 2022
Pre-Prep activities week outing
Year 5 - 8 return from IOW Little Canada Centre
Monday, 4 July 2022
18.00 Year 8 Play Reading: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New College Cloisters
19.00 Summer Drinks Evening, New College Cloisters
Tuesday, 5 July 2022
11.00 Prep Sports Day, Iffley Road
Wednesday, 6 July 2022
8.15 Charity committee meeting
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: The Chaplain
10.00 Year 8 soloists and readers rehearsals, University Church (10.00-11.45 and 13.00-16.00)
19.00 Leavers' Concert, University Church
followed by a reception at NCS
Thursday, 7 July 2022
14.00 Pre-Prep Summer Show and annual certificates, School Hall
17.30 Leavers v Parents Cricket Match
Friday, 8 July 2022
9.00 Final Assembly
10.45 Prizegiving for Years 3-8
12.00 End of Term 12.00 noon