The Oratory School

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The Oratory School is an all-boys, Catholic, boarding public school in Great Britain. It has approximately 400 pupils and is located in Woodcote, Oxfordshire near Reading, United Kingdom.

Contents

[edit] History

The school was founded in 1859, the first boys arrived before work began on the first day of May in that year, "Sunday 1 May New School began." (Newman’s Letters and Diaries, Volume XIX, p.120). The School began under the supervision of John Henry, later Cardinal Newman. The idea of founding a school had been in his mind for some time before that. Education of the young was an abiding interest of his. In the early 1850s he had been invited by the Irish Catholic bishops to establish a Catholic university in Dublin. When that project came to an end, he was approached by a group of Catholic laymen, principally converts to Roman Catholicism from the Oxford Movement, to set up a Catholic boarding school for boys run on English public school lines.

Newman's personal coat of arms upon his elevation to the cardinalate. The Latin motto, "COR AD COR LOQVITVR", translates "heart speaks to heart".
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Newman's personal coat of arms upon his elevation to the cardinalate. The Latin motto, "COR AD COR LOQVITVR", translates "heart speaks to heart".

The Oratory School moved from Edgbaston, Birmingham to Caversham Park, Caversham and, in 1942 (when Caversham Park was requisitioned to become a BBC listening station now BBC Monitoring), after a short sojourn in exile at Downside, to its present location at Woodcote Estate, Oxfordshire.

[edit] The school today

The school has been described as the "Catholic Eton" (' A Catholic Eton? Newman's Oratory School ' by Paul Shrimpton, ISBN 0-85244-661-6 ). Its current headmaster is Clive Dytor, (like Newman a convert and former Church of England clergyman), a veteran of The Falklands War who was awarded the MC for his actions during the conflict, and an MA of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

The school boards around 400 pupils (including a handful of day-boys) at a cost of about £23,400 a year. The school has four senior (13-18) houses and one junior (11-13) house. The senior houses are: Faber, (house colours are purple and orange), FitzAlan (red and yellow), Norris (green and blue) and St John (red and maroon). The junior house is known as St Philip (sky and navy blue). A major programme of rebuilding and upgrading the boarding accommodation together with development of up-to-date teaching facilities is currently in progress as at August 2006.

The school day runs from morning roll call and prayers at 08:25 to the end of prep classes at 19:00 and includes daily sessions of games after luncheon (CCF on Thursdays). Set in extensive grounds high in the SouthChilterns AONB, sport is a particular strength, with students able to compete in a broad range of activities, from Rugby and Association Football to Swimming, Yachting and Polo. Fixtures are played in a wide range of sports against schools and colleges such as Radley College, Eton College, Harrow School and Millfield. The school has its own nine-hole golf course.

The Oratory School Shooting Team stands first in the current UK rankings and has recently produced a representative for the GB U25 team.

The School has recently had some success on the rowing front; winning the Child-Beale cup for 1st VIIIs at the National Schools regatta in Nottingham. The crew were presented with the cup by Sir Matthew Pinsent. This season they reached Henley Thursday, which, added to their Nationals success, leaves the crew the most successful the School has ever produced. This feat is underlined by the fact that the boat included three Fifth Formers and a Fourth Former.

[edit] Art Foundation Studies

The school's art department is, according to the Good Schools Guide 2005, the best art department in the UK for A-Level students and the best overall art department. As a result of the academic success gained over the last 20 years, combined with recent awards from the 'Good Schools Guide', the Art Department has been awarded Foundation Course Status. At the end of the course students will be awarded a Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art & Design) or in fine art – EDEXCEL in parallel with their A2 courses. This award is usually only granted by universities and recognised art colleges.

[edit] Rugby Football

The school has a strong tradition of success on the rugby field. Andy Vilk of Sale Sharks and England Sevens, Ayoola Erinle of London Wasps and England Saxons and Dan Cipriani of London Wasps being just three recently Old Oratorians who now play the game professionally.

[edit] Real Tennis

The Oratory is one of only two schools in the United Kingdom (the other being Canford) to have a real tennis court and enjoys considerable success in this minor sport, hosting numerous championships and international tournaments. The court is home to the Oratory Tennis Club, a club primarily made up of paying members of the public, but also of Oratorians (boys from the school).

It was the first location in the United Kingdom to construct a Real Tennis court for 80 years, finishing the building in 1990. Over recent years the UK Professional Singles Tournament has been held at the court, and in April 2006 the World Championships were held there in which world no. 1 Rob Fahey (AUS) beat Tim Chisholm (USA). - see http://www.irtpa.com/index.php/realtennis/world_champs.

Jonathan Howell, the President of the International Real Tennis Professionals Association, is the Sports Executive of the school and the club, and Mark Eadle is the Senior Professional. The court itself is modern, fast, and possesses a 'bouncy' feel to it. The school has one of the most successful school real tennis teams ever, with regular appearances in the finals of national competitions, and in recent years has produced such players as Richard Greenland and Paul Knox.

[edit] The Lord of the Rings

J.R.R. Tolkien briefly lived at the school and wrote parts of the internationally-renowned The Lord of the Rings in the school's Black Room and Chapel Cottage.

[edit] Celebrated former pupils (Old Oratorians) and masters

Former Masters:

Former Pupils:

  • Hilaire Belloc (poet and writer)
  • Lieut-Colonel Hon.George Henry Morris (KiA commanding 1st Battalion Irish Guards) (1914)
  • Niccolo d'Ardia Caracciolo (Prince of Cursi)
  • Captain Richard Ladislas Scrope (Squire of Danby Hall)
  • Michael Fitzherbert-Brockholes (Squire of Claughton Hall)

[edit] Terminology and Slang

(Compiled from original sources by former pupils.)

  • Brat: A Third year student.
  • Bratting: The term 'fagging' wasn't used at The Oratory, 'bratting' was used instead. All 3rd and 4th years (aged 13 to 15) were considered brats. Bratting was abandoned at the Oratory in 1991 more or less at the same time as the Children's Act passed into law. Since 1991 the term 'brat' to describe lower school boys has diminished in use. In may be worth noting, that being a particular persons brat was considered equivalant to being given an orderly. As it may take up far more of the brat's time than an orderly (making tea at any hour or running errands), it was not uncommon for the prefect or master in question to pay the brat at the end of term, for services rendered.
  • Exlade Street: Refers to the disused road that runs through the woods by the entrance to the school. The road became reduntant when the new main road was built. Exlade Street also refers to the remaining part of the old road, which runs past the Highwayman Pub, in parallel to the new main road. Originally, the pillars marking the entrance to the school drive were located further down the hill on Exlade Street. With the construction of the new main road, the drive was reduced in length by 250 yards and new pillars were erected at the new entrance. In 2000 the original pillars (crumbling away in the woods by Exlade Street) were moved to their new position at the very top of the school drive as a memorial to the first pupils when the school re-opened at Woodcote.
  • Half-hour: Most popular current punishment used by prefects from all houses, consisting of thirty minutes of labour, writing or other tedious exercises. Half-hours (or quarters) are normally executed on a Saturday afternoon after morning school.
  • Orderly: The name given to chores, normally done first thing in the morning, before 8.30 roll call. Examples of ones orderly might be to clear rubbish from the 'prefects path', or 'the back drive', or to be a brat for a particular master or prefect. Most Orderlies would take up about fifteen minutes of your time.
  • Quarterly: Another punishment, just shorter, for a Quarter hour.
  • Shags: The term given to a group of people that were performing their task without any enthusiasm for whatever it was they had been tasked with. This term was often given to the 'Royal Signals', 'Royal Engineers' and 'REME' CCF sections, often populated with 4th years that would rather not be doing CCF. This term was also given the the bottom team of any of the various sports.
  • Shags' Pitch: Badly-maintained association football pitch located near the CCF Parade Square, normally used by the Shags team.
  • Spanjax: common word with little or no meaning, but is used as greeting or in derision.
  • Ref: School's Dining Hall (Refectory) -stress on first syllable.
  • Soak: A lie-in. During the 1950s thanks were given to St Soak at the termination of a boy's lie-in. This practice of thanks has now become extinct but the term 'soak' is still in use, albeit almost solely in Norris House.
  • Shake: A term for wake-up duty is performed by a prefect at 7.30am Monday to Saturday. On Sundays boys are allowed a soak before breakfast at 8.30am, which is followed by Mass.
  • Volcano: Bottom end of St Philip House Field, where a large groundstaff dumping mound takes on the form of a volcano when bonfires are lit inside.
  • Wavy: Short for 'The Wavy Line', the name formerly given to the local shop in Woodcote, now called 'Londis'. Most frequently-used Oratorian slang term.
  • Wavy/Rally Field: A Large field accessible via a gate at the top of the back drive, that a boy must cross in order to reach 'The Wavy'. Originally the site of the Woodcote car rally.

[edit] Preparatory School

The Oratory Preparatory School is located a few miles away providing mixed education from 3 to 13. The school recently reached the Final of the National Preparatory Schools' Rugby Sevens Tournament.


[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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