Holy Ghost P.S and Oliver House

[Calbourne]

Does anyone have experience of either of these schools? Am new to the area and would like to send my son to Holy Ghost, but understand it is very difficult to get in. Any inside scoop / personal experience would be much appreciated..

Hi there

HG is very very Catholic. It is hard to get in and the criteria are strict - ie you stand the best chance if one parent is a practising Catholic, living in the area. By practising - you go to the church (or another but you'll need to prove it) every week. When you're away you go to Mass and get the priest to say that you were there.

Have a look at the website and ofsted reports, it sounds great but there does seem to be lots of doctrine. There will be activities around Pentecost for example as well as Easter and Christmas, all focused on Catholic / Christian teaching.

I looked at it but am not committed enough, nor prepared to be or to pretend to be (as well as that being rather unprincipled) to try to get ds in.

Oliver House - looked at this too and could not find any informal info or opinions. Probably because it's a very new school and is building up its roll of pupils from scratch. It comes across as being a nice school with a big emphasis on kind, polite behaviour.

hth.

Thank you EyePeam - much appreciated. Is your DS getting ready for primary school this year? Which other schools in the area do you think are worth considering?

Agree with EyePeam, my niece goes to HG, my sister went to HG church every week without fail from before my niece was born (she is Catholic, it wasn't just to get her in to school!) and she also got involved in church activities (helping with the children's liturgy etc). I think you'd have to show that level of committment to the church to get in. The parish priest at HG is very serious about this and will take no exceptions.

Are you close enough to Belleville and Honeywell schools? both are very well thought of... and get good ofsted reports

Oliver House was set up by a group of parents linked to Opus Dei- so that is very Catholic too. Somewhere on the school website it used to say, quite openly, that spiritual support was provided by Opus Dei, but I am afraid I cannot find the link now. If you search on the internet for PACT (the entity that founded the school) you will find out more.