New admissions guidance following Oratory ruling

New guidelines on schools admissions for Westminster, Southwark and Brentwood Dioceses are to be drawn up following a High Court ruling over the Oratory School in London, writes Joanna Moorhead.

Westminster archdiocese education director John Paul (J.P.) Morrison said he was working with the Oratory school, and separately with his opposite numbers in Southwark and Brentwood, to put together new guidance on admissions policies which could help end the difficulties that have dogged the oversubscribed London Oratory in recent years.

The London Oratory has been targeted by the British Humanist Association, which has made complaints about it to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. The adjudicator then told the school it broke the admissions code by employing certain faith-based admissions criteria. But the Oratory challenged the decision in the High Court, which has now found in the school’s favour and described the adjudicator’s approach as “flawed” and “verging on the pedantic”.