Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 10 January 2025
Dear Parents,
A very warm welcome back to NCS for the start of Hilary 2025 – which, I note, is my fiftieth term at NCS. I hope you all had happy and restful breaks with family and friends, during which I imagine there were a fair few family traditions going on. When I was growing up, there was a particular tradition that developed in my family and it centred around opening Christmas presents; it was a tradition I told the boys about in chapel on Wednesday morning.
I was very lucky that both my sets of grandparents lived in Oxford very close to one another: 1,127m (or 15 minutes’ walk) door-to-door, from Blenheim Drive to Stratfield Road. So when it came to Christmas Day, my siblings and I got to see both sets of grandparents, and both sets of grandparents got to see their grandchildren. This meant that we split the day in two: the first half of the day was spent on Blenheim Drive, the second on Stratfield Road. But when, then, should we open our presents? Which grandparents would get to see their wide-eyed grandchildren pulling apart the wrapping paper? The solution was a simple one, and one that was attractive for me and my siblings: we had two sets of presents and two sets of present openings. The first presents, opened at around 10 or 11 in the morning, were called ‘main presents’ and were opened at Blenheim Drive. The second presents, opened at around 5 or 6 in the evening, were called ‘tree presents’ and were opened at Stratfield Road. They were called ‘tree presents’ because they were put under the Christmas tree ready to be opened later: tantalisingly there but untouched for much of the day. My grandparents are no longer with us, so we don’t jump between houses on Christmas Day, but we have kept on this family tradition: we still have ‘main presents’ and ‘tree presents’, and we still open them at different times of the day.
When I was much younger, and a bit more excitable about Christmas presents, this tradition had benefits and drawbacks. The benefits were that both sets of grandparents got to experience the joy of their grandchildren’s present opening, and we got two sets of presents rather than one. The main drawback was that we had to exercise considerable patience when it came to not opening the second set of presents. We could see them, we could see their shape and try to work out what was beneath the wrapping paper, but we had to wait for hours to actually open the presents and enjoy them. Young children are not always known for their patience, and I was no exception. But this family tradition was actually developing in us one of the most important virtues: this virtue of patience.
A recent column in The Times suggested that ‘you can find out many of the most important things about a society by asking: what would you prefer, $100 today or $150 in a year’s time?’. This was a measurement of patience, or of the ‘willingness to defer gratification’ – to delay pleasure. Research has suggested that the more patient a nation, ‘the richer, healthier, better educated and faster growing’ it is. On an individual level, if we want to be healthy in the long-term, we have to resist eating lots of sweets in the short-term. If we want to be well-educated in the long-term, we have to resist the lure of the iPad or smartphone and do our prep in the short-term. Self-discipline, a work ethic, investing, saving and looking to the future, are better for us – and for society as a whole – than getting into debt and consuming whatever we want, whenever we want it, or doing whatever we want, whenever we want to do it. If we look at the most successful societies throughout history, we could argue that they were built on patient investment in long-term developments: scientific, technological, intellectual, cultural, economic. Patience also arguably leads to a reputation for reliability, for taking the long-view with wisdom, for encouraging investment from others who are looking to benefit from that wisdom. I am acutely aware that I am saying this in an institution that is six and half centuries years old, so has exercised its own fair share of patience, and asked for patience from others.
It would be difficult to argue that we are currently living at a time that values the long view, patient investment and delayed pleasure. In our ‘now, now, now’ society, we want money now, we want success now, we want stuff now. Employers bemoan their young employees, just starting out, who demand to know why they haven’t been promoted after a fortnight. Many creators of children’s television have realised that, to get and keep young children’s attention (and therefore advertising money), they need to provide programmes with extremely short scenes, flashing lights, instant visual gratification. Those creators don’t really care that they are damaging children by not working to expand their attention spans, to develop their patience – bring back the original Thomas the Tank Engine! There are many adult programmes too, which don’t pass muster unless there is frenetic action, constantly changing scenes, to keep us occupied, and not to challenge us to develop our patience. There are some comedies like Friends that had built in to them a gag hit rate: if people weren’t laughing at a joke every twenty seconds, then the episode wasn’t good enough. There was no room for the slow-burning development of humour, of a carefully built joke – and therefore no room for the development of the viewer’s patience. I want to be entertained now. I want to laugh now. And if I don’t, I’ll go somewhere else, and take my money with me.
In the school context, we sometimes need to work hard to persuade people that it’s ok for learning to take time, not to panic if there aren’t perfect grades right at the beginning. Patient learning, reviewing and improving, listening to advice, looking for sustainable growth in the long term – these all build resilience, and it is resilience that will be one of the transferrable skills that will be of most value when the boys enter their senior schools at 13, their universities at 18, and their workplaces at 21 (or maybe a bit older). This all comes back to our idea of patience. Short-term pain over long-term gain. Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace. Patience encourages us to exercise self-control, to get into productive habits, to think carefully about the long term. It also encourages us to value patience in others, to put our trust in those who think carefully and methodically about long-term issues, rather than offering us seemingly attractive but flawed short-term solutions.
So at the start of this Hilary term, I encouraged the boys to focus on their patience, on developing their patience skills. Patient and sustainable growth, looking to the long-term, is better for us all than instant, short-term, and rather hollow gratification. They, and the societies they inhabit, will be happier and more successful as a result.
Have a great term,
Matt Jenkinson
Congratulations to Xander in Year 8 who kicks off our ‘awards season’ with a sports scholarship to MCS!
Congratulations, too, to all those boys in chamber choir who took part in the Messiah concert in chapel at the very end of last term. It was a joyous evening and it added another a staple to the boys’ choral repertoire! The choristers, too, rounded off their Christmas season with a fabulous performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the University Church.
The Hilary calendar is available online at https://www.newcollegeschool.org/whats-on
Some parents’ evening dates for your diaries: Year 3 and 8S parents’ evening – Weds 15 January (i.e. next Wednesday); Year 4 parents’ evening – Weds 29 January; Year 5 parents’ evening – Weds 26 February; Year 8 parents’ evening – Weds 5 March; Pre-Prep parents’ evening – Weds 19 March at 17.30. With the exception of the pre-prep parents’ evening, all other parents’ evenings formally start at 18.00, though 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 18.00. Parking is available from 17.00, once the playground is clear of boys heading home after their enrichment activities. Please aim to arrive before 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.
Upcoming Events
Monday, 13 January 2025
Internal Chorister Auditions
14.15 U13 Pre-Season Hockey, St Edward's
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
14.15 U9 A-C Hockey vs MCS, Away
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
8.15 Charity Committee Meeting (CLC)
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Revd Dr Mariama Ifode-Blease, St Edmund Hall
14.30 U13 A & B Hockey vs Abingdon & Cothill, St Edward's
14.00 U11 A-D Hockey vs MCS, Away
18.00 Year 3 and 8S parents' evening
Friday, 17 January 2025
13.00 U13 A Hockey County Cup, North Oxford
Sunday, 19 January 2025
Start of University Term
Monday, 20 January 2025
Guizhou Education Programme at NCS (all week)
19.00 NCSPA Meeting (CLC)
Tuesday, 21 January 2025
14.00 U8 & U9 Hockey House Matches, Iffley Road
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
8.15 School council meeting, CLC
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Chazan Rebecca Blumenfeld
14.00 U11 All Cross Country Relays, University Park
14.00 U13 A-D Hockey vs Summer Fields, St Edward's
17.15 Music Scholars' Concert (Recital hall, Gradel Quad)
Friday, 24 January 2025
13.00 U11 A County Cup Hockey, North Oxford (ends 16.00)