Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 19 September 2025
Dear Parents,
One of life’s great joys is sitting with friends and/or family, listening to music, and creating an ever-growing playlist curated by everyone in the room. Spotify has a function called something like ‘jam session’ to allow anyone with the app, once they have been invited to the session, to contribute song suggestions. The lists can end up being quite eccentric, the antithesis of our over-algorithmed lives. Rather than ‘If you liked X, then you’ll like Y’, the playlists can quickly become ‘If you liked X, then you clearly need educating so listen to Y instead’. This was how I recently ended up, one evening, listening to Judy Collins followed by Levon Helm followed by Phil Collins followed by Whitney Houston followed by goodness knows how many other artists and songs. (You can stop judging the Phil Collins inclusion now.) Quite often these are songs of nostalgia, tunes known from our childhoods, and which therefore have a fixed place on the playlist in the same way that they have a fixed place on what might be called, in a rather nausea-inducing phrase, ‘the soundtracks of our lives’. Other songs are new to us, and quite often I think to myself, ‘I wish I’d known about this when I was a lot younger; why did no one tell me?!’. While Phil fits in the former, Judy resides in the latter.
This is one of the reasons that we feature so much music in our assemblies. Yes – I know, I know – in a school that has music coursing through its veins, it would be very odd not to have music at the beginning, usually in the middle, and always at the end. But while our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday assemblies follow a fairly fixed pattern (Start the Week, Wellbeing Assembly, Chapel, News Roundup/Hymn Practice), Thursday remains the pot-luck session. Colleagues assigned the Thursday slots are asked to talk about anything that interests them: an anniversary of an historical event perhaps, or one of their personal passions. Which is why, this Thursday, the boys were learning about Dusty Springfield from Emma Krebs. Perhaps some of the boys returned home to ask if they could listen to a bit of Dusty on the family Spotify jam session.
Approaching music of all genres in this way, each and every day, the boys should be accumulating a rich catalogue of musical knowledge. There are times when an algorithm is good for us – you have no idea how much tedious bureaucracy I get through listening on full volume to eighties power ballads curated by some code in the sky. But we also sometimes need to be forced out of our cosy habits, and one way to do this is enthusiastically to share our personal musical passions with one another. I look forward to the boys returning to school on Monday, belting out ‘Su … Su … Su … Sudio!’ as they pass through the gates.
Have a great weekend,
Matt Jenkinson
A reminder to ensure, please, that the office is fully up-to-date with your most recent phone numbers, addresses and other contact details. If there have been any changes, please let us know via office@newcollegeschool.org
This time last year our choristers spent an evening of filming with a production team from Netflix. The film in which they were featuring (albeit briefly) was My Oxford Year, which was released over the summer. Described by The Guardian as ‘an uninspired yet competently assembled trifle’ and rogerebert.com as ‘unremarkable fluff’, parents may be interested in watching the film to play Oxford cliché bingo. The boys’ singing is great though, and congratulations to them for making it to the big screen!
Our next Open Morning is on Saturday 4 October at 10.00-12.00. If any boys from Years 3-8 would like to be guides on that morning, please could their parents email office@newcollegeschool.org. Please note that all pupils attending school that morning (including OCCO pupils) should wear full school uniform. Prospective parents are asked to register at https://www.newcollegeschool.org/open-day-booking -- do please pass on this link if you know of any families who would be interested in joining our wonderful community. You should also soon be receiving, via your son's schoolbag, a poster and a leaflet advertising the event. Although the morning is primarily for prospective parents, current parents, especially those from the Pre-Prep, are most welcome to get a further insight into the upper part of the school. We would really appreciate it if you could display the poster in a prominent place such as on notice boards at: nurseries and girls' schools (so as not to offend other local boys’ schools); Oxford colleges, Brookes University and other educational institutions; hospitals and health centres; churches, local shops and community centres; your car or house window. Please pass the smaller leaflet onto any friends who may be interested. Please also feel free to share/retweet the schools social media posts about the open morning:
https://www.instagram.com/newcollegeschool/
https://www.facebook.com/newcollegeschool
The NCS Parents’ Association will be meeting for its AGM in the Creative Learning Centre (CLC) on Monday 22 September at 17.30. We are pleased to welcome any parents to join the meeting. We hope that this year will bring plenty of opportunities to come together and fundraise. We will be discussing potential events and also electing officers at the AGM. Please email ncspa@newcollegeschool.org for more information. As in previous years, if parents have any specific queries or concerns, by far the best first port of call is the teacher or SLT member concerned. Our email addresses are all available at https://www.newcollegeschool.org/who-we-are
This Harvest Festival, NCS will again be supporting the Community Emergency Fund (CEF). The CEF is an independent charity that aims to help people in Oxford or the surrounding area who are suffering from financial hardship and finding it difficult to provide food for themselves, their family or dependants. If pupils and families would like to support this worthy cause, they can do so by donating at our Harvest Festival. The service will be held in Chapel on Wednesday 1 October at 9.00. Pupils can bring in non-perishable food items (canned or dried) along with toiletries, which will be collected and donated to the CEF. We thank the NCS community for their support of this worthy cause.
In an attempt to address the decline in reading among young people, the government has announced that 2026 will be ‘The Year of Reading’. Reading for pleasure holds universally positive outcomes. Children who read for pleasure earn higher standardised scores, achieve higher lifetime earnings, and report greater self-esteem. Of course, here at NCS, reading is a fundamental part of our curriculum and our enrichment programme in every year. In the Headmaster’s Newsletters this year, different staff at NCS will suggest books that they hope boys will really enjoy reading. Copies can be found in the school library, or in bookshops (including second-hand bookshops around Oxford). If you or your son have really enjoyed a book and you would like to share it with the NCS community, please email Chris Gausden (christopher.gausden@newcollegeschool.org). Chris would like to recommend to boys in Years 7 and 8: The Lord of the Flies: The Graphic Novel by William Golding and illustrated by Aimée de Jongh. Graphic novels are experiencing a boom at the moment. This is a fantastic example of the genre. de Jongh’s outstanding illustrations and careful abridgement mean that Golding’s classic novel (which takes about seven hours to listen to as an unabridged audiobook) can now be enjoyed much more rapidly by busy Key Stage 3 students. However, most of Golding’s original dialogue and his important themes about humanity are retained.
The BBC ‘500 Words’ creative writing competition opens for submissions on Tuesday 23 September at 8.00. This is the UK’s biggest children’s story-writing competition, inviting young storytellers to write the kind of story they would love to read. The entry deadline is Friday 7 November at 21.00 and prizes include the opportunity to win books for the school, an invite to a star-studded grand final, and many more. www.bbc.co.uk/500words
Sports roundup: The football season kicked off with two high-quality performances from the first and second teams last Wednesday afternoon. Both teams recorded impressive wins over Thorngrove— the first team winning 6–2 and the 2nd team 5–4. Following this, the U9 A & B teams played against Cothill on Tuesday. Two excellent matches were played out and the honours were shared: the A team lost 3–1, while the B team secured a 3–0 victory. This was a great first outing for these boys, showing plenty of promise for the season ahead.
On Wednesday afternoon, the U11 and U13 teams travelled to Cothill and enjoyed a very competitive afternoon of football against both Cothill and Sunningdale. I was fortunate to be involved in the U11 A matches and was really pleased with the football on display. The NCS team matched our opponents in every department and competed well in two tough games. The width of the post and crossbar denied us a draw in the opening match, but a well-taken goal was just reward for their efforts in a 3–1 defeat to Cothill. In the second game, despite their best efforts, Sunningdale ran out winners, not due to superior football, but thanks to stronger running.
There were further pleasing improvements this week, particularly within the U13 B team, who continue to develop session by session, showing a strong midfield presence and increasing attacking intent. The first XI faced a triangular fixture against Cothill and Sunningdale, where a slow start proved costly, resulting in a 4–0 deficit at half-time against Cothill. However, a much-improved second half saw the match end 5–1. The game against Sunningdale was a tightly contested affair, with both sides playing good football in windy conditions; it could have gone either way but ultimately finished 1–0 to Sunningdale. Meanwhile, the U13 C team demonstrated great spirit and teamwork in their first matches of the season, earning a 1–1 draw against Sunningdale after a challenging opener against Cothill. The U11 D team also enjoyed a strong first outing, showcasing good ball control and determined defending. Their positive approach to attacking play was particularly encouraging, and with continued focus on passing and movement, goals are surely just around the corner.
Upcoming Events
Monday, September 22, 2025
All Week: Years 3-8 NGRT and NGST in ICT Suite.
14.15 U13 A-C Football vs d'Overbroeck's, home
17.30 NCSPA AGM, CLC
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
8.15 Charity Committee meeting, CLC
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Revd Dr Oliver Wright, Junior Research Fellow, Pembroke College
14.15 U8 A-C Football vs Windrush Primary, venue TBC
14.15 U9 A-C Football vs Windrush Primary, venue TBC
14.15 U13 A-D Football vs Summer Fields, away
14.15 U11 A-D Football vs Summer Fields, home
Wednesday, October 01, 2025
8.15 Eco-Committee meeting, CLC
8.15 Charity Committee meeting, Geography Room
9.00 Chapel (Harvest Festival). Speaker: Revd Kate Harford, Chaplain, Oxford Brookes
14.15 U11 A-D/E Football vs Abingdon Prep, home
14.15 U13 A-D Football vs Abingdon Prep, away
18.00 Year 7 Parents' Evening, Sports Hall
Saturday, October 04, 2025
10.00 Open Morning