Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 9 January 2026
Dear Parents, Welcome back after what I hope was a very happy and restful Christmas vacation with your friends and family.
Almost forty years ago, I watched the BBC’s six-episode adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I have watched a lot of television since then, but some of my most vivid childhood TV memories come from that broadcast in 1988. This is, in part, because the White Witch (played by Barbara Kellerman) and her wolves were so terrifying that, when the end credits rolled and I went to bed, six-and-half-year-old me climbed the stairs ready for some nightmares. The BBC thought it could frighten children on Sunday evenings in the ’80s. Maybe they thought it taught us resilience; maybe they were right.
I must have watched the show intently then, and revisited it since, because when I watched it while writing this, there was barely a scene or line that went by without it feeling incredibly familiar. It is difficult to think about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe without thinking of Christmas. This might be because the final episode was first broadcast just a week before Christmas Day in 1988. There is also plentiful snow in the story and – spoiler alert for those who have not yet read or watched it – Santa Claus appears to help with the White Witch’s demise when ‘Christmas returns to Narnia’. It was a joy to wallow nostalgically in the programme this Christmas, then, and to read a little bit more about it as it marked the fortieth anniversary of its creation. (There was a gap of three years between the first scenes being shot and the show being broadcast.)
For those who haven’t encountered it yet, or need a reminder: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of the young Pevensie siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy – who, evacuated from London during the war, discover the magical world of Narnia inside a country house’s old wardrobe. Narnia has been frozen in an endless winter by the tyrannical White Witch. The children join forces with the great lion Aslan, who represents hope and rightful rule. They navigate disloyalty, bravery, and sacrifice – especially the redemption of Edmund after he betrays his siblings to help the White Witch. Ultimately, they help Aslan break the Witch’s power, restore peace to Narnia, and return home.
The ‘special effects’ of a programme from the 1980s of course look dated when compared with the CGI available to directors and producers today. But I would not swap them for the world – they remind us that charm and magic can come through some clever televisual tricks and a little bit of imagination. The BBC programme cost £3m to make in the mid-’80s; a huge sum at the time for a children’s programme to be broadcast on a Sunday evening. We might imagine, then, what the cheaper programmes looked and felt like. When a special effects-ridden film of the story was released by Walt Disney in 2005, I went to the cinema to watch it, but didn’t find it half as enjoyable or enchanting as the adaptation from my childhood.
The four child actors Sophie Wilcox (Lucy), Richard Dempsey (Peter), Sophie Cook (Susan) and Jonathan Scott (Edmund) are, of course, well and truly grown up now. Wilcox has two teenage children and runs a hotel in Scotland. Cook is a psychiatrist. Scott is an art curator. Dempsey is a full-time actor, the only one of the four who has remained in the profession. Looking back at their time on set, and when the programme was first broadcast, the four have mixed feelings. On the one hand it was truly magical for them: young actors seeing Narnia’s snow first hand, visiting beautiful places, and getting paid £1,000 each (almost £3,000 in today’s money) for their work.
More than ten million people in the UK watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1988. There were about 57 million people in the country then. So that’s almost 1 in 6 of the whole population, sitting down on a Sunday evening to watch the programme. It was an experience that bound us all together. Unlike the streaming culture of today, we had to wait a week between the release of each episode: we had to be patient and the anticipation built as we approached Sunday tea-time. The acting may not have been the best in the world, but it really wasn’t that bad, and it doesn’t matter anyway. The whole production remains magical, and just a few notes of the background music can transport me back almost forty years to my childhood, being in turns mesmerised by the otherworldly land of Narnia and terrified by Kellerman’s White Witch. And without me really knowing it, the children of my generation were being taught core values like justice, integrity and fairness, the pursuit of goodness, and the hope of Christmas coming to Narnia.
I hope that you all get to experience and exercise those values yourselves, as we return to NCS for this Hilary term.
Matt Jenkinson
Many congratulations to all those who were involved in the Chamber Choir and Choral Society’s Christmas concert in New College Chapel, performing Respighi's Lauda per la Natività del Signore and Britten's Ceremony of Carols. As ever, the event was a triumph! As was the choristers’ tour to China last week. The boys sang in Shanghai and Beijing, to audiences totalling around three thousand people. The reviews were glowing, and there was also enough down-time for the boys to enjoy the cuisine and to see the sights, including the unforgettable experience of singing on the Great Wall.
Please find attached the most recent edition of The Eco-Nomist. Enormous thanks to all of those boys who have contributed so thoughtfully, and to Nick Hanson for bringing the edition together so beautifully.
Some parents’ evening dates for your diaries: Year 3 and 8S parents’ evening – Weds 14 January; Year 4 parents’ evening – Weds 28 January; Year 5 parents’ evening – Weds 25 February; Year 8 parents’ evening – Weds 4 March. 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. Please note that the full Hilary term diary is available at https://www.newcollegeschool.org/whats-on
From Nick Hanson: a reminder that boys have until Monday to submit their entries to the eco-photography competition on the theme of winter.
Upcoming Events
Monday 12 January 2026 9.00 Internal Chorister Auditions Tuesday 13 January 2026 14.15 U9 A-C Hockey v MCS, Away Wednesday 14 January 2026 8.15 Charity Committee Meeting (CLC) 9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Mr Robert Quinney, Organist and Tutorial Fellow in Music, New College 14.00 U11 A-D Hockey v MCS, Away 14.00 U13 A-D Hockey v Abingdon, St Edward's 18.00 Year 3 and 8S parents' evening Thursday 15 January 2026 16.00 Chamber Choir workshop with Oxford Opera Company Friday 16 January 2026 14.00 U13 A Hockey County Cup, North Oxford Sunday 18 January 2026 Start of University Term Monday 19 January 2026 14.00 U13 B-D Hockey v d'Overbroeck's, St Edward's Wednesday 21 January 2026 8.15 Eco Committee Meeting (CLC) 9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Mr Nick Thomas, author, journalist and former NCS parent 13.00 Rehearsals for Scholars' Recital (New Space) 14.00 U13 A-D Hockey Hockey v Summer Fields, St Edward's 14.15 U11 House Cross Country, uni Parks 18.00 Music Scholars' Recital (New Space) Friday 23 January 2026 14.00 U11 A Hockey County Cup, North Oxford