Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 14 November 2025
Dear Parents, I don’t know if you’ve seen Philomena Cunk’s (aka Diane Morgan’s) mockumentary, Cunk on Shakespeare. It has several laugh-out-loud moments: ‘As his reputation grew, Shakespeare became popular with royalty, so he wrote stuff they’d enjoy in the hope of gaining power and influence – like Gary Barlow does now’. Or Romeo and Juliet being described as ‘easily the finest romance of the pre-Dirty Dancing era’. Or Titus Andronicus as ‘basically a posh Friday the Thirteenth’. But perhaps my favourite is ‘School in Shakespeare’s day and age was vastly different from our own. In fact, it was far easier because he didn’t have to study Shakespeare’. I like this idea because it plays into a little mental game I occasionally play (and I recommend that you do the same): ‘I’m glad that I’m alive after (or during) the life and work of X’. I.e. can you imagine being alive at a time when there was no Beatles music, no Austen, no Hendrix, no Bach, etc? The answers I usually come up with involve The Band, Carole King, Paul Simon, alongside the more obvious ones like, yes, Shakespeare. And that’s not just because I used to make a living getting to teach his plays. Each year the chorus of voices gets louder which argues that Shakespeare is too difficult, the language too impenetrable, the whole thing too irrelevant to modern life. In return, you get others saying that it isn’t too difficult if you teach it properly (and stop worrying quite so much about getting everything right the whole time); if you let the language wash over you like music (and get a decent edition or study guide to help you along); and that Shakespeare’s stories and themes remain relevant today, just as they were in the early modern period. Indeed, I recently came across an advert for a course imploring us to ‘explore why Shakespeare is more relevant than ever on this six-week evening course’. I screamed inwardly, because while I agree with the first two points about Shakespeare not being inaccessible, and the language being decipherable with the right support, I don’t really care whether his work is relevant. I’m not sure when the tide turned so significantly that there is an assumption that whatever we learn about, or read, or hear, needs to be relevant. Firstly, relevant to what? My tax return? My ability to cook a meal? Secondly, do I only need to listen to – or learn about – music or whatever that is relevant? Surely one of the joys about learning things is that we are taken away from ourselves, beyond our day-to-day lives, to be introduced to a universe that is interesting, exciting, challenging, and which does not have an immediately applicable purpose. Hence why In Our Time is proudly advertised by Melvin Bragg, and others at the BBC, as ‘never knowingly relevant’. To only be exposed to things that are ‘relevant’ (I repeat my earlier question, relevant to what?) is to stultify ourselves, and others, to limit our horizons to the aforementioned tax returns or Things That We Think Will Get Us A Job. For something to matter it doesn’t need to be relevant.
So while our Year 7s and 8s have been doing a lot of Shakespeare recently, as they have been rehearing and performing Richard II, I am proud to say that they have been doing so for reasons that are not especially relevant. What are the relevant bits? Developing clarity in speech, diction, stage presence, learning lines off by heart, developing focus? All these things will come in handy later in life. And the seemingly irrelevant bits? Just enjoying the language, the camaraderie in working together on a project, immersing oneself in the beauty of something out-of-the-ordinary. All of which, I would suggest, are actually relevant to living a happy and fulfilled life, but which get lost in a world of box-ticking, utilitarianism, and a rather depressing interpretation, and over-reliance on the word, ‘relevance’. Have a great weekend – and make sure you do something ‘irrelevant’! Matt Jenkinson As above, many congratulations to all of Years 7 and 8 for their magnificent performances of Richard II on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The boys really rose to the occasion and produced some memorable performances. They also set a new record: two hours’ worth of original Shakespearean language, and not one prompt required! My thanks to all NCS colleagues who supported the boys along the way, but especially to: Chris Gausden for masterminding the whole production and getting so much out of the boys; Emma Krebs and Elizabeth Hess for coordinating the costumes; Tom Neal for his evocative work on the music; Dave Bustin and Paul Mulford for their work on the set; and all those colleagues who helped to support and supervise the boys along the way. And thank you, of course, to all those NCS families who helped the boys with their line-learning! From Jane Benyon at the Community Emergency Food Bank: “I would like to once again thank your school for the wonderful collection of tinned and dried food and toiletries that the staff and children donated to the Community Emergency Foodbank during your Harvest Festival Service. The food will be given to families in Oxford who are going through a period of crisis and find themselves with not enough money to buy food for themselves and their children. Would you be so kind as to pass on our sincere thanks to all those involved and assure them that every tin and packet donated will be much appreciated by the families that receive it.” We are looking forward to our Junior Recital, next Monday 17 November at 17.15 in the auditorium. Parking is available in school from 17.00, once the playground is clear of boys leaving their enrichment activities. Our Year 6 parents’ evening is on Wednesday 26 November. The official start time is 18.00 though a few colleagues may be available from slightly earlier if you would like to make an early start. Parking is available, first come first served, from 17.00; please be very careful when driving into the playground in case there are still one or two boys leaving their enrichment activities or aftercare. We would very much appreciate it if parents could arrive in good time to make their way around by 20.00, to enable colleagues to get home at a sensible time. If there are any appointments which might require a longer slot than c.5 minutes, please could separate arrangements be made with individual teachers? Many thanks. On Sunday 14 December at 18.00, the New College School Chamber Choir and Choral Society will present their annual Christmas concert in New College Chapel. This year, we are performing alongside members of The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in a festive programme including Respighi's Lauda per la Natività del Signore and Britten's Ceremony of Carols. Tickets are now on sale via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ncs-christmas-concert-respighi-britten-tickets-1741687266499. Tickets at a discounted rate are available for NCS parents: simply use the promo code 'Respighi1379' at the checkout.
As the evenings darken, I would like to make my regular plea for parents and carers, picking up their children, to observe some straightforward protocols to make the area as safe as we can for the boys and their families. Please avoid driving up and down, and parking on Savile Road if at all possible. We understand that this is not practical for families with younger boys, but many of our older boys (certainly once they are in Years 7 and 8) are able to meet their parents a little further away from school, including on Mansfield Road. We are very grateful to those families who already use Mansfield Road to ease congestion on Savile Road, and to reduce the need to turn around at the end by the school gate. We are also very grateful to parents and carers who take very careful responsibility for their children once they are off the school site; this includes ensuring that their sons do not wander off or run around at the end of Savile Road. As you will know, we do have staff members at the gate at drop-off and pick-up times to help the boys to depart in a calm and measured way, and the more we can do to perpetuate that the better. I have previously requested that parents and carers greet the boys on the school side of Savile Road; this is to reduce the temptation for boys to see the person picking them up and then running across the road, when there are likely to be cars around. The same goes for in the morning: please drop off your sons on the school side of Savile Road, or make sure that you cross the road with them. Finally, we strongly recommend that families with young cyclists, especially those in younger years, walk their bikes down the pavement on Savile Road until they reach a less congested part of the area, and it is safer to resume the cycling part of their journey. I hope this does not sound too preachy, but we do all have responsibility to keep the boys safe on their journeys to and from school. I would appreciate it very much if this section of the newsletter could be copied and pasted to any family members or other carers who do drop-off and pick-up, so they can see the importance of good traffic safety habits on Savile Road.
Year of Reading, from Chris Gausden: Following our performance of Richard II this week, some readers at NCS may be keen to sample the Bard further. Lots of publishers have produced excellent adaptations of his work that are perfect for whetting the appetites of prep-school-aged pupils. Boys in Years 6 and above may enjoy browsing the Manga Shakespeare series. These books combine an abridged version of Shakespeare's text with an eye-catching Manga-style graphic novel. Entries in the series include: Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest and Richard III. Boys in Year 5 and below may enjoy Marcia Williams's Mr William Shakespeare's Plays in which seven Shakespeare plays are reimagined as comic book strips. Entries from both series can be found in the NCS library.
Upcoming Events
Monday, November 17, 2025 UK Parliament Week begins U13 A-D Football vs MCS, venue TBC 17.15 Junior Recital (Years 3-5), Auditorium (parking from 17.00) Tuesday, November 18, 2025 14.00 U8 Football vs Summer Fields, home 14.15 U9 Football vs Cothill, away Wednesday, November 19, 2025 8.15 Eco Committee meeting, Creative Learning Centre 9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Mr Andy Shedden, Registrar, Winchester College 14.15 U11 A-D Football vs MCS away 14.00 ISEB pre-tests (tbc) 14.00 U13 Football training, home Thursday, November 20, 2025 14.15 U8 & 9 Cross country house matches, uni parks Monday, November 24, 2025 14.15 U13 A-C Foorball vs d'Overbroeck's, home 17.15 Senior Recital (Years 6-8), Auditorium (parking from 17.00) Tuesday, November 25, 2025 9.45 Year 3 Ashmolean Museum - Sumer (return 12.15) 13.00 Fire Service visit to Pre-Prep 14.15 U8 A-C Football vs MCS, away 14.15 U9 A-C Football vs MCS, home Wednesday, November 26, 2025 9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Ms Kate Lam, EDI Rep, NCS 13.30 Inter-schools Debate with OSA (ends 15.45) 14.15 U11 A-D Football vs CCCS, home 14.15 U13 A-C/D Football vs CCCS, away 18.00 Year 6 parents' evening Friday, November 28, 2025 13.30 TBC Rec-Year 4, Pantomime, Auditorium