Headmaster's Newsletter
Friday 26 June 2026
Dear Parents,
It’s around this time of the year that I think about buying a house in Sicily for a couple of Euros. I appreciate that those headline-catching schemes have pretty much dried up by now, and they were never really as attractive as they sounded. The couple of Euros were just the start of a much larger investment in a property that would start out derelict and, often, remain fairly inaccessible at the top of a hill-side town. Then there’s all the bureaucracy and regulation, and the danger that the deceased owner’s great-grandchildren might one day return to reclaim the property. I also have to remind myself that I can’t just disappear to Sicily when I feel like it, and in the end it probably works out cheaper to just use Airbnb or the like every so often. But, still, the dream can linger briefly before being crushed by the mundanities of real life.
I’m thinking about Sicily in part because we just introduced our Year 8s to Alan Carr and Amanda Holden’s series filmed there, when they (on the face of it at least) did indeed buy a couple of apartments for a couple of Euros and then did them up to entertain their audience back home, sitting in their living rooms with the drizzle outside. And that introduction was to give the boys a sense of where they would be heading during our activities week trip. This culmination of the boys’ time at NCS remains the stuff of life-long memories. Even for jaded middle-aged-ish teachers like me, having seen ruin A or church B quite a few times, Sicily never gets tiresome. Perhaps it is the weather, the bright blue sky, the (cough) lively lifestyles of the island’s inhabitants. It’s probably all of those things and more. But it’s a joy to introduce the boys to a place with incredible and varied history, both good and bad, with architecture that reflects that history. The food isn’t bad either.
Our younger boys have, as ever, also been enjoying their activities week activities, as we increase the time they spend away from home, enhancing their stamina for doing so, as they make their way through the prep school. I say it a lot, but it is worth reiterating: these activities weeks take a huge amount of time and effort from a lot of my colleagues – not just in the actually being there, but in the preparation, and our ever-burgeoning administrative requirements and responsibilities. I would therefore like to thank them all publicly for their efforts, and I hope they can now enjoy a weekend with their feet up. I despair of an educational world where such opportunities gradually fade away because of the time, energy and resources they require. But I am pretty confident that they will provide life-long memories for the boys such that they, too, will one day wave their arms in front of Sicilian buildings, regaling their friends and/or families with stories of when ‘Dr J called this one a giant wedding cake’.
Have a great weekend,
Matt Jenkinson
Upcoming Events
Monday 29 Jun 2026 12.00 Year 8 Foot Golf, Hinksey Heights 17.30 Year 8 Leavers vs Parents cricket match (17.30 meet for 18.00 start) Tuesday 30 Jun 2026 Last day of after-school Enrichment Activities (pre-prep and prep) 17.00 Chorister Concert Wednesday 01 Jul 2026 9.00 Chapel. Year's End Service 10.00 Year 8 soloists and reader rehearsals (10.00-11.45 and 13.00-16.00) 18.00 Year 8 Leavers' Concert, The New Space Thursday 02 Jul 2026 14.00 Pre-Prep Summer Show and annual certificates 17.30 Year 8 Play Reading: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New College Cloisters 18.30 Summer Drinks Evening, New College Garden Friday 03 Jul 2026 8.30 Sports Assembly 10.30 Prizegiving for Years 3-8 12.00 End of Term 12.30 Staff Buffet in New College MICHAELMAS 26 Monday 07 September 2026 INSET for Staff, 9.00-16.00 Tuesday 08 September 2026 INSET for Staff, 9.00-16.00 Wednesday 09 September 2026 Start of Term After School Enrichment Activities start (pre-prep and prep) 9.00 Chapel. Speaker: The Headmaster Thursday 10 September 2026 9.00 Portrait photos Saturday 12 September 2026 9.30 OCCO INSET (staff only)