Help me choose between Cardinal Vaughan and London Oratory School for year after next

[howth]

That is about it

Our son is joining the Vaughan in September and while well behaved not academically brilliant, we got a really caring, gentle feeling about the school from the open day and as we know virtually no one there at the moment have had only the open day to go on. The teachers were so enthusiastic and welcoming I hope we haven't got the wrong impression. I'm glad to hear your son is happy trickcycler has there been a huge amount of homework and sport at the weekends?

trish, I thought the Oratory admitted on a lottery, so how can there be a higher 'overall calibre' of students?

Definitely not a lottery, the have a very strict admission criteria, it is on their website. They band after acceptance unlike CV that accepts a certain number number in each group based on their banding test.

Once all the ranking has been done against catholic observance (which surely must result in over-subscription from families who have been doing their best throughout the primary school years to get a top score) then "In the event of a tie for a place after the above criteria have been applied a ballot system of random allocation will be used with each tied candidate?s name being entered into the ballot and names then selected randomly until a rank of all candidates has been established"

That is the same system for most schools that hold a lottery, All the eligible candidates in an oversubscribed admissions category go into a ballot.

Look at the price of the uniform My friend's son goes to the Oratory and I was totally stunned at the price of the uniform. It was 4x the price of my son's uniform when he started secondary.

@universalis-recently there was a revision of homework policy to try and cut back the amount the boys were expected to do each night. I'm not sure there has been much of a change as a consequence, they still have to do homework most nights but it's manageable and there's not much to complete over the w/e. Sport out of hours is voluntary...my son does cricket when it's available after school but he opted out of rugby...didn't fancy the early morning saturday training. You haven't got the wrong impression about the teachers, they're a great bunch and I bet your son will get along just fine and really enjoy himself.

My husbands cousin went to the Oratory. He was very unhappy, and went to Gunnersbury instead. He loved it there. He said the Oratory was so strict, it took away all his passion for learning.

My friends son just completed his education at CV last year. Although he had outstanding grades, he was so fed up with learning he has opted out of further education and is working in a shop. He says his life has been nothing but homework and homework and homework, and school work, and he has had enough.

We wont apply for either for our son.

First of all, the admission criteria state your child must be baptized Catholic within 6 months of birth. Massive fail for us, both of our children were baptized when they were 1. We did a pre baptism blessing with Father when they were babies instead. You need to go to Mass 3 out of 4 Sundays. Another fail. More like 2 out of 4. They are so oversubscribed, I doubt they will listen to "reason".

thanks trickcycler, I suppose the reality is different schools suit different children/families.

Hi, we put both the Oratory and CV on our forms as we were eligible for both. CV was our first choice and we were thrilled when we got it.

I wasn't overtly keen on the Oratory because the kids are not allowed to run in the playground which I think is both unnatural and an awful restriction to put on kids. Fine for when they're older but not for the early years. My son, with the introduction of a new head teacher, currently has cops and robbers and running barred in his primary school which is making his life a misery. He would have been depressed about starting a new school where the same restriction applies. At the moment, he's excitedly counting down the days to start CV.

I spoke to a couple of the boys who go to the Oratory to check if the no running rumor was true, to which they confirmed that it was. They siad a few of the boys still give it a go and those that do, don't get to major trouble, but are told to stand by the wall. Oratory is a great school and has a great brand, but my son's happiness was paramount.

In any case, my DS is relatively academic, sporty and as such, can be a tad competitive, so we felt CV was definitely the right school for him.

Mixer: My son got a music place at Cardinal Vaughn for 2014. Reading that your friends son got excluded before the second term makes me very worried about Johnny. Would you mind if I asked what did he do? My son is a bright boy but a bit of a class clown and every year since nursery he has been in trouble at school for silly things. His school is in Kensington and is very strict. It does not matter what we say, he still can be a bit silly regardless of the promises to be good and less childish. We tell him to play the game but I dont think he really means to be disruptive, its his character and he cannot change. I am thinking of getting him a counsel because I really dont want him to get thrown out of school after getting this music place and turning down three independent schools with scholorships.

milkqueen, i am currently in year 8 at cardinal vaughan and there have been 3 exclusions so far for my year

1. i am not too clear about the first one because it happened at the very start in october 2013
2. a boy hit another boy on purpose with a table tennis bat in the face multiple times
3. a boy was very disruptive and refused to cooperate with the schools policies

furthermore, if i got the chance, i would leave cardinal vaughan as i am under so much pressure from homework and they do not cater for many vocational art gcse's like textiles, drama, and dance. they do not even out homework and i am always working till 11pm on some nights and on others only 5pm
, the school is very proud and does boast good results but only due to pushing students to their limit, it can get very depressing to be honest. the teachers do expect you to join in band or orchestra if you play an instrument and you have no say about it.

Happycat123 doesn't sound to me you're actually at the Vaughan. Firstly you wouldn't refer to year 8. And you would have known before applying that the art areas you refer to aren't available at the school.

I've just been looking at these schools in the league tables.

It really is amazing how top Catholic schools which aren't (theoretically) academically selective manage to take so few children with special needs, and so few poor and low achieving children, compared to other local secondary schools.

Shocking really.

Gunnersbury Catholic School is the Better than Oratory and Cardianal of Vaughn. Trusssssss Big man thing init

Ad Altiora

Oratory UNDOUBTEDLY more sporty. If your child is able sport wise, oratory would be more of a suit.

minifingers -I agree. If you look at the Ofsted dashboard you will see eg that the number of pupils eligible for free school meals at the Oratory is around 9 per cent which is shockingly low for a state school in London. Cardinal Vaughn is around 21 per cent. As the FSM figures for local comps like Holland Park and Chelsea academy are in the 50-60 percent range you can see that the Oratory in particular is (and always has been) very posh for a state school and IMO a lot posher than CV.