The Oratory School is fully compliant and rated 'Excellent'

Following The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) progress monitoring visit in November 2021, The Oratory School is fully compliant and rated 'Excellent' for both ISI categories - pupils’ academic and other achievements and pupils’ personal development.

 

 

The report describes Oratory pupils as showing ‘high levels of self-understanding for their age. They show self-confidence in many areas of school life, are resilient and adapt well to new situations’ - attributes particularly important to these unprecedented times. Oratory pupils ‘respect’ yet ‘are not afraid to challenge the beliefs and cultural attitudes of others… unkindness or misbehaviour.’ They were also praised for having ‘an excellent understanding of the importance of making good decisions’ as well as for ‘showing ambition and a clear understanding of how to get the best from their lessons.’

The ISI described leadership of The Oratory as encouraging of ‘both inclusivity and excellence’ and acknowledged the school’s initiatives to raise academic attainment, declaring A Level results as ‘excellent’ and describing teaching as ‘consistently well planned’ with ‘additional support available outside lesson time.’ It also commented on the ‘strong relationships’ by pupils with their peer group as well as teaching and boarding staff – with the school motto, Heart Speaks to Heart, ‘enacted daily.’

Joe Smith, Head Master says “The results are an absolutely wonderful reflection on Oratory pupils and the staff who work so hard to support and guide them. Inspections are all about pupil outcomes - what the school does being considered “contributory factors” in those outcomes - and throughout the inspection, inspectors were extremely complimentary about our pupils in all sorts of different ways. It was really quite moving and a privilege to hear what they said about them. This independent and rigorous judgement is a wonderful endorsement that we are firmly on the right path.”

Inspection Reports

 

 

Canonical Inspection Report

As a school of the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, one of the inspections we undergo every few years is from its Education Department. The Oratory School was inspected in May 2019. Three areas of the school’s provision were inspected: the quality of its Catholic life; its Religious Education, and its Collective Worship. The school was graded Good in all three areas, and Good overall. We are pleased with these outcomes, but as part of our ongoing commitment to developing the Catholic life of the school, we will take on board the inspectors’ recommendations for further development of all three areas. As always, our pupils were described by the inspectors in glowing terms in the verbal feedback.