Clegg jnr to go to state-funded comp

Agree, Maisie. It's a state school. Whatever they believe in is irrelevant imo. Clegg is not subscribing to the public school system.

Though I wish it had been through principled objection to the horrible privilege-promoting private school system ...

Does it reflect an earnest desire on his part to make society more equal? The jury's still out on that afaic.

PhilJW Can we also note that Nick Clegg's wife's name is Miriam Gonzalez Durantez and not Mrs Clegg! (Apologies for lack of correct accents, am on ipad).

Glad to know that the Oratory hasn't changed in the 27 years since my classmates were applying.

As a matter of interest, where are all these Catholic schools that have a diverse school population of which you speak? Our local Catholic schools are all pretty much fully Catholic and about getting the wink and the nod from the local PP. that's why DD won't be going to any of them. Also she's ten months and not yet baptised. Oops.

Tbh - the poor chap cannot win, if he sent his son to a private you would all be having a go at him. Perhaps if he went to a failing school under special measures you would all be happy.

I feel a bit sorry for him!

And it never really harmed Diane Abbott who opted out of the state system and who was spouting off on Question Time the other day. All I can see when I listen to her is whats good for you is certainly not good enough for me......

Well at least we know why Gove was hinting they might go private - basically if Clegg Jr hadn't got his place at one of the most elite state schools in the country, they would've done.

My son is in a Catholic school which has a 40% non catholic intake. I like the mix personally, I am Catholic and so is DS but I like that the school is NOT exclusively Catholic....that would feel far too insuler.

So even if the posh Oratory would take my DS (they wouldn't as doubt we would be "good enough") am not sure I would want him in there anyway.

Not that we live anywhere near it anyhow. Must read thread now to see if any Oratory parents are on here.

Our school is quite diverse, probably more so than the local primaries. Our HT was proud to have a number of faiths in the school.

No need to feel guilty, Llareggub, the hypocrites are admitting all and sundry anyway insofar as the kids and their families can boost the school?s profile. Your local Catholic Head is an exception, of course. I have since (reluctantly) vowed to do all I could to dismantle specifically the Catholic schools? ?Catholic only? admissions criterion and advocate ALL Faiths and NO Faith to be allowed into Catholic schools.

I am mightily pleased London Oratory?s backdoor selection process i.e. interviewing kids and their parents has since gone belly up!

My DCs go to a Catholic school. I met the Head, had a chat about how I supported the general ethos of the school but wasn't a Catholic. He was more than happy to tell me that he was happy about that and whilst Catholics get priority, he could accept my year 1 child to bring the class size from 29 to 30.

Locally, all primary schools are over-subscribed apart from the really rough ones and I would have done anything to avoid those. I fully accept that I should have remained true to my firmly held beliefs and put my children in one of these schools but in the end my selfish need to put my children first sent me running to the Catholic school.

Quite honestly I feel guilty about it and I thank my lucky stars that I am not a high profile politican or married to one.

Wonder if my DS would get a place....

Catholic -check
Parent catholic -check
Voluntary stuff - he's an altar server -check
Kind and caring child - check

Ah but autistic -strike
Not academic -strike
Free school meals -strike
Not a glitterati family -strike

Hmm guess not then.

"This is what London Oratory is all about, the well-bred hypocrite of a school that denies scores of poorer kids (the great unwashed, so to speak) but who have higher legitimate claims to a place in the school than the kids from affluent and famous families that London Oratory are so keen in taking."

One of the reasons why we never even put it down as a preference.

Not that it would have mattered. We did not get into the Vaughn either.

Interesting.

You wonder what would have happened if an 'outstanding' but non-catholic school had been on his doorstep, and all the catholic ones were further away and only so-so? Somehow I suspect that the need for a Catholic education would take second place.

Yes Silent that's always amused me.

This thread has made me regret we didn't need 'church' points for dcs schooling. Dh is a deacon in our church (Baptist). He does the PA for services and leads worship as well, also prayer meetings and working in our annual holiday club. I'm on the creche rota, a little pastoral work as and when I can, the flower rota (yes really!) and a turn on the after service prayer rota. We've been attending for nearly two decades. We would have a TON of points!

On a different note, did you notice how all three of Clegg's children have Spanish names? Guess Nick was roundly ignored or shouted down when it came to the naming bit.

Am I supposed to be surprised that London Oratory is admitting Clegg Jr? Way back in 2010 I?d already said junior would be guaranteed a place, never mind what Senior believes or don?t believe; all he had to do was to put his name down.

This is what London Oratory is all about, the well-bred hypocrite of a school that denies scores of poorer kids (the great unwashed, so to speak) but who have higher legitimate claims to a place in the school than the kids from affluent and famous families that London Oratory are so keen in taking.

They talk of testing for ?Catholicity? but don?t you for one moment believe in all this crap from these bloody hypocrites that seem to congregate in many of the Governing Boards in many (though not all) of London?s Catholic schools.

Actually I was focusing on the cleaning and silver polishing because that is exactly what Catholic friends get so frustrated about, that the convenience catholics focus on activities like that for a couple of years, because they can pop in and get it over with without having to get involved with the sort of bottomless activities they involve themselves in and value within the ministry, such as running the old people's transport services and daycare, and all the endless extra activities that involves them in checking in on them when ill, sorting out their problems and generally providing them with stimulation and support .

You make lot of assumptions about me and my family here which are well wide of the mark , but I don't want to get involved with a Monty Pythonesque "You were lucky" conversation. I don't think it is right or relevent to make this personal, particularly as I actually do find your personal remarks hurtful and offensive. I am not anti Catholic and I am not anti Catholic School, I am not even anti those parents who are convenience Catholics, or convenience Anglicans come to that, accessing state school places in London is becoming ever more difficult and who can blame them for doing the best for their children by any means available to them. However I am against selection procedures that make hypocrites out of parents, and introduce hurdles which discriminate against those who are already disadvantaged.

Russians From the Oratory website

^Involvement in parish activities:
(a) Assisting in the Liturgy: for example by reading, singing in the choir or playing
an instrument, altar serving, cleaning, flower arranging.
(b) Assisting in parish pastoral work: for example by visiting those in need, participating
in parish groups such as St Vincent de Paul, Catholic Women's League, Union of Catholic
Mothers, Legion of Mary or similar prayer groups or societies.
(c) Assisting in parish administration: for example housekeeping and maintenance of
church property.
Involvement in wider Catholic Church activities:
(a)Assisting in or membership of organisations or groups
(b) Voluntary work: by visiting or helping the sick, housebound or disadvantaged.

Points allocated for service are:
Service over the three years 2
Service of less than three years 1
No service 0^

I actually find it somewhat incredible that they would actually specifically mention cleaning, flower arranging and housekeeping since as far as I know cleanliness being next to godliness was a very Victorian value.

If you can't see that a family suffering the effects of deprivation such as poverty, carer responsibilities, multiple jobs, perhaps a large family to manage may well struggle to find the time required, let alone have the know how and social confidence to become involved in these activities...... There is plenty of evidence to show that even the more usual basic selection on early baptism and mass attendence results in schools that do not have the same social mix as the surrounding community. In the case of the school I mentioned that has the lowest level of Free School Meals in the country, the community primary school next door has ten times as many pupils recieving Free School Meals.

Copthall I say again to state that people do not have the time to be involved in their parishes is silly. They might not want to be involved. Fair enough. I completely get that. It's their choice. I grew up in an area which has an oversubscribed catholic school (often talked about on these boards) and many of my friends still live there and now have daughters at that school (and it's even more oversubscribed these days) so I do know what it can be like and I am as about convenience Catholics as anyone. But I'm equally about people who claim they don't have time to be involved in their parish. They do have time they just chose to do other things. Which is fine but all choices have consequences.

I'm a bit surprised you keep focussing on arranging the flowers and policing the silver as these are not exactly the most important ministries in the church. Of the top of my head, I know servers, readers, people who take the sacrament to the sick/elderly, people who do youth ministry, people who do music ministry, people who are part of the massive team doing the childrens' liturgy, people involved in stewardship (that might just be something our diocese does) ...al these things are less laughable than 'flower arranging' or 'polishing the silver'. S I guess that's why you didn't mention them.

Where we go on holiday, the PP always tries to press signed newsletters on us when we leave mass at the end presumably because we have school age children. I guess either he gets lots of requests for that sort of thing from holiday makers or that's what they have to do in their own diocese.

'Pure' He is, she is a Catholic and has raised the son as a Catholic, in fact the points system for Oratory gives more points to a family where one member is practising and the other not than if both were Catholic but one doesn't attend church frequently enough.

I'm still interested to know if Miriam has been cleaning the silver but as Clegg Jr is apparently at Junior House then presumably his musical ability will have exempted her?

Russians and we don't even have a Catholic School which is probably why you haven't had experience of these behaviours. Entry to Oratory, this year at least, is dependent on a lottery of goodness. Attendance at mass and early baptism is not enough, you have to earn extra points by having shown a substantial contribution to the ministry, through activities such as arranging flowers, cleaning the silver etc. etc. Admission to local primaries depends on a reference from the priest in which the priest has a certain amount of discretion, we have priests who just want your bums on seats, and priests who are not willing for schools admissions to become subject to that sort of brownie point earning. As I posted in the link above the schools adjudicator has ruled that the admissions criteria for Oratory do discriminate unfairly since not all parents will have the time or resources to devote to these activities, however whether Oratory take notice of the ruling is another matter, it has no legal bite. Our local Anglican Church also posts online a list of things you can do to strengthen your faith school application, which if you did it all would be virtually a full time job....

Arent. Arent. My shock affects my grammar. (or maybe it is my lack of Education.)

But isnt the Cleggs Atheist?

And it is a nonsense to say that devout Catholics don't have time to 'jump through the hoops' of going to mass every week and getting their babies baptised when they are born. That is a ridiculous thing to say. Also - your church must be very unusual to only have 10-11 year old servers. At our church they start at 8. And go on till they go to uni. And we don't even have a catholic school.

Copthall but that's not what you said originally. Of course people are not going to be happy about convenience Catholics. That is a comletely different issue than having sensible criteria and applying them and you should know that. And I speak as an actual catholic not someone who is married to one. But sadly I live somewhere where there are no catholic secondary schools at all.