I am afraid I seem to have recovered from the virus that has ripped through the College and so apologies in advance for a slightly longer newsletter again. 

Academic Rigour

An interesting report came out recently from the NFER looking at the changing workplace and what skills future entrants to the workplace need to protect themselves from increasing automation. One of the strands of my role is to stay abreast of what we think the future will entail and provide the right experiences at the College so our students can flourish in adult life. I have added a link to the report below but needless to say we have been thinking about this for sometime. Our approach to ensuring students leave us not only with strong academic outcomes but also with a quiver of skills, habits and mindsets that will enable them to thrive in an increasingly complex work environment is more important than ever. The report is one of many in recent months looking at what schools need to do to protect the cohorts coming through the school system from the changing demands of the workplace and future-proof their education. The link to the report can be found here: Up to three million UK jobs at risk over the next decade, says report - NFER

The past few weeks have felt a little like returning to the covid years with a high number of staff and students ill and missing lessons. This has prompted us to look at our process for helping students catch up with missed work. From January we are looking to implement a model that combines the material students need to cover and the most efficient use of teacher time so our staff can focus on the main thing - planning and teaching great lessons. This will likely take the form of a brief weekly summary of the content covered and the best tools students can use to catch up: revision guides, online lessons and clinics. We will launch this in January 2026. 

As we get ready for the Christmas break and our exam cohorts juggle rest with revision, I want to share another insight from the book ‘Peak Performance’ that I referenced at the start of the academic year. The insight being that success depends less on managing time and more on managing energy. Western culture often treats time as the ultimate resource. We tell ourselves that if we can just find more hours in the day everything will fall into place. Pupils sometimes believe that if they revise longer, train harder, or stay up later, they will inevitably perform better. But in reality, according to Steve Magness, the limiting factor is not usually hours available, it is the quality of energy we bring to those hours. Here are some simple things we can do at home to support our students balance the competing demands of the holiday:

• Spending three hours ‘studying’ with their phone buzzing beside them will result in energy being scattered and little learning sticking. Spending forty-five minutes fully focused will achieve far more. 

• Sleep is not just rest, it is active recovery for the brain. It consolidates memory, repairs the body and regulates mood. For teenagers eight to ten hours is optimal. A consistent sleep routine, free from screens before bed, is one of the most powerful performance tools we can give them.

• When revising, shorter focused bursts (say 25–50 minutes) followed by short breaks are far more effective than long, unbroken sessions. 

• Stable energy comes from a balanced diet with good hydration. While we cannot control every choice our teenagers make, we can help them make sound nutritional decisions and avoid sugar spikes and crashes. 

• Energy is not just physical, it is also mental. Every ping of a phone or glance at social media drains focus and diverts attention. It also routinely dents self-esteem and preoccupies working memory. Phone-free space is vital for strong retention of material. 

• Energy is not only renewed by sleep but also by activities that bring joy, connection or calm. For some pupils this might be music, for others sport, art, or time with friends. These are not ‘extras’ but vital forms of recovery that keep energy sustainable.

As we enjoy the holiday but also embrace the realities of the modern exam system, success comes not from doing more, but from doing less things better. As such we are saying:

1. Year 10 and Year 11: 3 hours per subject over the break.

2. Lower and Upper Sixth: 8 hours minimum per subject over the break.

Adventure

• This week we had a great meeting with the regional CCF team, looking at our current provision and plans to improve and enhance it over the coming year. It was a productive and helpful meeting and we left with some exciting new plans and ideas; all focussing around getting students outside and doing hard things with support. It was also really pleasing to see how they were blown away by our overall offer and in particular the Year 7 and 8 adventure offer. They want to take our model and pass it up the chain as an example of exemplary practice. 

Community

• Although I was tucked up in bed with my Lemsip and missed the lights being turned on, it looked like a great event and I hope the students enjoyed a bit of merriment to welcome in the weekend and the last two weeks of the term. 

• It was fantastic to welcome back so many former students, parents and staff to the launch of ‘Huddy.’ The book is a glorious journey through the life and times of Anthony Hudson, the visionary head of Pangbourne between 1988-2000. During his 12 years he revolutionised the College and ensured its survival. He brought a modernising zeal to the College, embarking on an extensive building programme, reframing the College’s relationship with some of its traditions and removing others and launching co-education. Please do buy the book, it is a great read and contains lessons and insights for all. To cement ‘Huddy’s’ memory into the fabric of the College, we announced on the evening that we would be re-naming The Old Library in Devitt House as ‘The Hudson Room’.

• As ever, there are lots of lovely end of term events coming up. One of my favourites is Div ergo next week - I am still trying to persuade the staff to put a team together to race the students whilst trying to avoid a heart attack. We have the College Christmas lunch on Thursday and then the end of term Carol Service on Friday. Students can be collected from 12:30 on the Parade Square, buses leave at 12:40 on the last day. 

Leadership

• In order to help balance the competing demands of Upper Sixth academics and fulfilling the leadership duties that come from their positions, the promotions process for current Lower Sixth starts in January. This will mean they can pick up the baton from the Upper Sixth as they move into exam season during the latter half of the Summer Term and enable the year group to focus solely on exam success during the final run-in to their summer exams. So now is the time for Lower Sixth to start to take the lead and demonstrate the habits we are looking for in our leaders. Obviously the Upper Sixth will discharge their ceremonial and leadership duties during Founders’ Day.

Best wishes,

Oliver Knight