History of The Oratory School
The Oratory School was founded in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 2 May 1859 by Saint John Henry Newman, the only English saint of the modern era and one of the greatest educators of the 19th Century. It was established with the intention of providing the sons of recent Catholic converts with an education at a traditional public school with a staff of lay teachers. Pastoral care was given to a Dame with authority equal to and occasionally over that of the Head Master. Frances Wootten is remembered in the name of the new Girls’ House.

Over the years, The Oratory steadily grew in numbers and popularity, and Catholic families at home and abroad sent their children to the school. In the early 1920s, a new site became necessary and the school was relocated to Caversham Park. In this inter-war period, there were several changes of Head Master, a devastating fire, and national economic difficulties which, together with the removal from the historical Birmingham site, caused problems for the school. In 1941, Caversham Park was sold to the BBC and a new site was purchased in Woodcote, where the school remains to this day. 

Newman & Education
In Newman’s The Idea of a University (published in 1873), he promotes the value of educating the whole person, long before it became fashionable. He recognised the way in which all subjects should be seen as inculcating virtues together and how academic endeavours develop these virtues in parallel with the sporting, co-curricular and, above all, spiritual aspects of a student’s life – to ‘Be you. Become more.’

As far back as 1849, Newman was also surprisingly prescient in his focus on prioritising student welfare and the importance of working together with parents to share in the upbringing of their children. He deplored standard 19th Century school practices such as attempts to spy on the students by opening their mail. Rather, he argued for a school environment based on excellent relationships between students and teachers. No doubt he would be pleased to see the warm interactions and secure relationships at the school he founded. These are a wonderful living example of his own motto, ‘Cor ad Cor Loquitur’ (‘Heart speaks to heart’). 

Finally, in a significant and controversial break with the colleges already established by the Benedictines and Jesuits, Newman founded a school which, rather than focusing on developing future priests, was aimed at producing lawyers, doctors, politicians, scientists and other professionals who would be able to take their Catholic ethos out into the world and fully engage with it. An Oratory education is an education for life.

2025 and beyond
2025 is a hugely exciting time for The Oratory. Under Head Master Matthew Fogg, the school has recently had a very pleasing inspection, is engaged in the development of a curriculum to ensure that pupils are well prepared for the AI workplace, and is set to further expand its excellent sporting facilities with a new all-weather pitch and 4 padel courts for Autumn term. 

Throughout its 165 years of education, The Oratory has remained, quite deliberately, small enough to ensure that every pupil is known. This enables teachers to provide Oratory pupils with the support they need to flourish to their fullest possible potential, fulfilling the school’s ethos to ‘Be you. Become more.’