Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 6 June 2025
Dear Parents,
One of my pastimes is reading about education in the general press and gently seething. Sometimes I seethe a little less gently. There are lots of armchair education experts out there. Most people have been to a school or two; many of them think they are therefore qualified to tell schools what to do. (This is, I confess, sometimes surpassed by ‘real’ educational ‘experts’ who spend their lives overcomplicating things that are really rather simple, and then telling schools what to do … but that’s for future newsletters.) Anyway, because it’s exam season at the moment, the media is full of stories about revision – usually the lack thereof.
A few weeks ago one major paper carried the story of a journalist struggling with their child’s revision. Well, the child was struggling with the revision, the journalist was struggling with the child. Said child was sitting beneath an avalanche of notes, revision guides and past papers, and doing nothing with all these resources. The child was overwhelmed and afraid, so they just shut down. The journalist therefore brought (bought?) in a rather expensive tutor who focused on some core learning and revision skills, to counter this cognitive overload: breaking large topics down into smaller chunks, that kind of thing. Then, a few weeks later, another newspaper carried another story of a journalist struggling with their child’s revision. Faced with impending GCSE exams, said child was not revising, but evading and deflecting the issue. The solution? Regular routines, keeping things positive and collaborative, goal-setting, clear revision timetables, breaking large topics down into smaller chunks (there it is again), and engendering autonomy in the child as they ‘learn how to learn’.
Anyone who works in education will, I hope, be rolling their eyes at this point. It’s what good teachers have been doing with pupils for years; it isn’t rocket science, even if the aforementioned journalists are presenting these ideas as though they are novel or new. The second journalist in the above paragraph wished that they had started this process a lot earlier than GCSEs, which might provoke another round of eye rolling. Exactly. There are different reasons to assess children at different ages and we must keep striving to get the balance right; the British system writ large is a long way from perfect. But one of those reasons is to get children familiar with the assessment and exam process, so things don’t come as a nasty surprise when consequential public exams hove into view, and so pupils and parents aren’t scrambling when it’s a little bit too late, and when there are all the other joys of teenagerdom to be dealing with. So while assessment weeks at NCS aren’t the most exciting or joyous weeks of the school year, they are pretty important ones. There are many reasons why our pupils go on to excel at their senior schools and universities, and one of them is the prep put in at their prep school.
Have a great weekend, with all those revision materials neatly filed away for a while,
Matt Jenkinson
Taking into account all of the above, well done to all of our boys who have been sitting their assessments over the past few weeks. We are very proud of the way in which they have approached these assessments. Thank you to all of my colleagues who have been setting and invigilating papers, and who are now working their way through the marking!
What can I say about the Sheldonian Concert at the end of last half term? It was a fantastic evening and it showcased so much of what is special about NCS. Thank you to all families who came along to support and who helped prepare our actors, musicians and singers ‘behind the scenes’. It was also a wonderful opportunity to showcase the Oxford Children’s Chamber Orchestra (OCCO), which meets at NCS on Saturday mornings. I can only apologise for the number of ‘earworms’ in All the King’s Men, which may have been going round and round in your heads over the half term break.
Thank you to all of the boys in pre-prep, and to my pre-prep colleagues, who led our chapel service so well on Wednesday. It was great to hear their readings and to see how much they progress in just a few short years.
It is our chorister open day tomorrow, Saturday 7 June, in New College chapel at 16.00. There will be an opportunity to speak to the New College Organist, Robert Quinney, and to meet other New College/NCS colleagues, as well as current chorister parents. There will, of course, be plenty of music – culminating in a relatively short family-friendly evensong at 17.45. We would like to particularly encourage Reception and Year 1 families who may be considering the choir for their son to attend the open day. Auditions are held in the January after the boys begin Year 2. If you would like to attend, but haven’t already signed up, please email choir@new.ox.ac.uk.
We are looking forward to our Year 6-7 recital next Monday. Parking is available while there are spaces in the playground, from around 17.00. As always, please make sure the playground is clear of pupils finishing up their enrichment activities before driving in.
Our chapel service on Wednesday 2 July will begin at the same time as usual (9.00), but will be our ‘Year’s End’ service. It will last around 45 minutes and will follow the same structure as our Spring Service (and, indeed, the carol services on which that service’s structure was based). There will be appropriate readings from Years 3 to 8, some communal hymn singing, and some performances from choirs throughout the school. All parents are very warmly encouraged to attend, especially those Year 8 parents for whom this will be their sons’ last NCS chapel service. Handkerchiefs at the ready.
Upcoming Events
Monday, 9 June 2025
14.00 U13 B Cricket v d'Overbroeck's, Home
15.45 U11 A Tennis v MCS, Away
17.15 Senior Recital (Years 6-7), Auditorium
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
8.30 Kangaroo Mathematics Challenge (until 9.30) TBC
14.00 U9 Cricket v Summer Fields, Away
14.00 U8 A-C Cricket v Summer Fields, Home
14.00 Year 6-8 careers talks
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
8.15 School Council Meeting
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Peter Brathwaite, Distinguished Visitor, Queen's College
11.00 Sports Day, Year 3-8 (Field)
Thursday, 12 June 2025
9.00 Year 8 Geography Field Trip to WESET wind and solar farm leave (until 13.45)
14.30 Pre-Prep Instrumental Concert
Friday, 13 June 2025
Risk-taking behaviour workshops (Yr 7 10.10.-11.50, Yr 8 2.00-3.30)
Saturday, 14 June 2025
Wykeham Day
11.00 Wykeham Day Concert: James Gilchrist and Robert Quinney, New Space (tickets required)
13.00 School Fête, Playground (ends 15.00)
17.45 Wykeham Day Evensong, New College Chapel
18.30 Wykeham Day Dinner (sign-up only)
Monday, 16 June 2025
14.00 U13 Yr 7&8 Cricket House Matches, Home
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Provisional date for ABRSM exams
16.00 Year 8 - Deadline for uploading Special Subject to AllShare
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: The Chaplain
10.00 Year 3 Ashmolean Shang Gallery
14.15 U11 A & U13 A Cricket v CCCS, Home
14.15 U13 B & U11 B S Cricket v CCCS, Away
14.15 U13 A Tennis 5 Pairs v CCCS, Home
Thursday, 19 June 2025
9.00 Induction for new pupils and 'move-up morning'
14.00 Year 8 TED Talks, session 1 (auditorium)
Friday, 20 June 2025
Last day of VMT music lessons
10.00 Pre-Prep Sports Day
14.00 Year 8 TED Talks, session 2 (auditorium)
19.30 Year 7 and 8 social
Saturday, 21 June 2025
University term ends