Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 12 December 2025
Dear Parents,
A parent said to me recently that ‘nowhere does Christmas quite like NCS’, which was a nice thing to say. I can’t vouch for how true it is because I don’t spend the run-up to Christmas in any other school, but let’s run with the sentiment. Christmas is necessarily early in schools because of the term dates, and it seems that it begins in mid-November, if not earlier, due to all the planning that goes into, say, the carol services or the Nativity play or the Christmas fair. I suppose one of the distinctive features about an NCS Christmas is that, each year, it grows another carol. This tradition, much-loved by the Director of Music, began years ago when his predecessor got a bit bored with the carols available ‘off the shelf’ and decided to compose a new one. He asked me to source a text. I played a little trick on him by pretending I had found a Christmas poem by e.e. cummings, when actually I’d written a Christmas poem in the style of e.e. cummings just for a bit of fun. I don’t get out much. I can’t remember when I told him the truth, but it was quite far into the composing/rehearsing process. Anyway, that carol was later published as ‘A Silent Star’, not that anyone would know because it has sold a grand total of zero copies. (As I pointed out to the composer when we were deciding how to split the royalties, X per cent of nothing is still nothing.)
Anyway, you can imagine his successor’s joy when he arrived at NCS to be told that ‘we have a Christmas tradition where every year the Director of Music composes a new carol and the words are provided by the Headmaster’. (‘Every year’ was doing a bit of heavy lifting here.) Imagine my joy when it transpired that the new Director of Music was a prize-winning composer whose ‘Out of Your Sleep Arise’ won the Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition. Imagine everyone’s joy when – following a pastiche of a medieval carol – the Rutterish ‘Lullaby’ was born, with an earworm chorus that eventually left our swirling brains around mid-February. Then we had ‘Watch for the Morning’ which some armchair (pew?) critics claimed sounded a little bit like ‘Lullaby’. If true, this is the fault of the words rather than the music because they are effectively in the same metre and there aren’t that many novel things you can say about Christmas. This year’s carol, ‘A Light in the Darkness’, continues the theme by saying pretty much the same things in the same order with overuse of Christmassy cliches. But, as the composer has pointed out, this new carol is in 4/4 rather than 3/4. We hope that you, and the boys, have enjoyed it – and that you will be humming it around the house for a good few months yet. https://youtu.be/St55Oq9ZK0Y
And so we come to the end of Michaelmas which, in the paradox of prep school life, has seemed both long and to have flown by. Like all terms, it has been a busy one, but busy in a good way – purposeful, productive and a lot of fun. Thank you for your support, loyalty, good humour and commitment to all that NCS offers, including new carols. I hope you all manage to get some rest over the next few weeks and to enjoy quality time with family and friends. And, if you get bored of ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ or ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, there are some good new tunes out there; just ask the boys to hum them to you.
Have a great holiday, Matt Jenkinson
Many congratulations to all those members of the Oxford Children’s Chamber Orchestra (OCCO), hosted and run by NCS, who took part in their concert last Saturday morning. It was, as always, heartening to see and hear the standards our young musicians reach. It was also a reminder – not that we need reminding here – of the importance of the arts for young people (and, indeed, all people!).
Congratulations and well done, too, to the choristers who are performing admirably through their Christmas schedule. NCS families may be interested in hearing them perform Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ at the University Church next week: https://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/events/choir-new-college-oxford-instruments-time-and-truth. And we wish them well as they head to Shanghai and Beijing after Christmas, performing at the Shanghai Symphony Hall and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
Well done to all those boys in pre-prep who performed so well in their Nativity play this week. It is always one of the most heartwarming events of the season, and this year was no exception. Thanks to all my pre-prep colleagues for preparing the boys so well, to our pre-prep families who helped the boys learn their lines, and especially to Rosemary Cox for writing her wonderfully bespoke script!
Several NCS boys recently took part in the Bebras Coding Challenge and achieved some really impressive results. The Bebras Challenge, which introduces students to the world of computational thinking, takes place every November in schools across the globe. Over four million students from more than eighty countries participated. We are proud to announce that twelve of our boys earned Gold Awards, placing them in the top 10% nationally. They not only demonstrated exceptional problem-solving skills but also thoroughly enjoyed tackling the engaging and thought-provoking tasks. Well done to all involved!
My thanks to the NCSPA committee and all those who sent in donations and helped out to make the Christmas Fair such a success on Thursday afternoon. This is one of the highlights of the year for the boys, and I appreciate that a lot of time, resources and effort go into making it so special. It was great to see so many boys wearing their Christmas jumpers as well, raising money for Save the Children. Our attentions now turn to the NCSPA Quiz on 30 January, so start getting your teams together! Adult tickets are already available at https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLGSR3H0YSTAQ/checkout/JP3UNSCWQ5GS4NZENKCA5676.
Please note that the 2026-27 term dates are available on the NCS website at https://www.newcollegeschool.org/term-dates. There will be some slight tweaks to the shape of the year for 2026-27: Michaelmas 2026 will finish on the last Wednesday of term, rather than the Friday. Hilary 2027 and Trinity 2027 will begin, for the boys, on the Tuesday rather than the Wednesday.
Michaelmas saw the departure of Dr Ian Walker as one of our governors. Ian was formerly Headmaster of King’s School, Rochester, and many years ago he kindly agreed to have his retirement disturbed by taking on the governorship of a little prep school in central Oxford. Since then, his tenure has been up for renewal many times, and each time Ian has nobly stayed on the committee. He has done more than we could reasonably have asked of him, so it is only fair that we allow him to fully retire now, and to spend more time in his native Australia. Most parents will not have encountered Ian, but he benefited the school greatly due to his long perspective and wisdom, his urbane wit, and his genuine love of the school. He almost never missed a prizegiving, and it was clear how much pride he took in the pupils and staff here. Ian will always be welcome back in school and college. In the new year, we will welcome to the governing committee Dr Mark Fenton. Mark is Chief Executive of the Grammar School Heads Association (GSHA) and, before that, he was Headmaster of Dr Challoner’s Grammar School in Amersham and King Edward VI Birmingham. He has been a National Leader of Education and holds a doctorate in Education Management. He is also a cricket lover (umpiring whenever he can) and a keen musician, singing in Worcester Cathedral Choir and directing the Ramsay Singers. We look forward to Mark joining our community in Hilary.
Upcoming Events
Monday 05 January 2026 Staff INSET Tuesday 06 January 2026 Staff INSET Wednesday 07 January 2026 Start of Term VMT 1:1 Music Lessons Start (pre-prep and prep) After-School Enrichment Activities Start (pre-prep and prep) 9.00 Chapel. Speaker: The Headmaster 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