Talk:The Oratory School

message: Was J.R.R. Tolkien really a teacher at The Oratory? He may have stayed there but I don't think he taught there. DavidFarmbrough 08:30, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Nobody has commented in two weeks, so I will remove the reference to JRR as a former master. DavidFarmbrough 14:39, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

text: His son was a housemaster and he certainly stayed there, tradition has it that he wrote some of the Lord of the Rings there, but he was not a master. Westminsterboy 16:10, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

text: I have removed the reference to Tolkien writing parts of The Hobbit at Woodcote as it was published in 1937 and the school only moved there in 1942, and made it clear that it was his son who taught there.--Westminsterboy 06:33, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: A former pupil has confirmed that though not a master JRR Tolkien occasionally covered lessons for absent teachers whilst staying with his son. --Westminsterboy 00:18, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

text:  I am an OS Old Boy (1947-1950) and can verify that JRRT never taught there as Master or  visitor. His son Michael taught History and English to the Upper and Lower Fourth Forms (Creative Writing?) full time. None of my old classmates remember ever seeing JRRT at the OS. Headmaster George Arthur Tomlinson would not have passed the chance to have a famous writer at the refectory table for all the school to see (he was thrilled to provide lunch for  Evelyn Waugh, who handed out the prizes at the OS for "Firsts" in 1947). However, I do remember hearing that some boys had cycled to Oxford one weekend, and had visited JRRT there. MHRT was very kind to me when I returned to the OS in October 1952 as a visiting "Old Boy", and put me up for the night, as Rev. G.A.T. would not allow me to stay in the Dorms. He told me his father used to read to him and brother Christopher at bedtime from a book he had written (was writing?). At that time I had no idea his father was a very well known writer and scholar. Michael was reading the same to his first child. Tj4750 16:54, 21 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: J.R.R. Tolkien

message: The official name of the school does not include 'The', and Wikipedia naming conventions discourage definite articles. Oratory School lists a number of schools operated by the Oratorians, including this one. I propose moving this article to Oratory School (Oxfordshire). -- Rob C. alias Alarob 20:03, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It seems the school has the definitive article in its title  -- zzuuzz (talk) 20:07, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

text: I have to disagree, As my dad attended this school, i know it is known as The Oratory, not oratory school. Dingyv03 02:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: In the article it's also referred to as "the OS." Maybe these things change. -- Rob C. alias Alarob 05:37, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The British Library "rebranded" as The British Library not so many years ago, but wikipedia keeps the main article under the old name ... --Paularblaster (talk) 09:50, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

text: The Oratory School's postal address is "The Oratory School", and all of the internal literature uses the definite article. "The" is part of the name of the school PeterBrett (talk) 13:42, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed move 

message: There must be plenty of sources - this is a school founded by John Henry Newman and James Hope-Scott, and taught at by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Tom Arnold! It's very sad that this article is entirely unreferenced, and for a large part appears to rely on personal memories of old boys. --Paularblaster (talk) 09:10, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: sorry - there were two references hidden in the text. I've in-lined them and switched :Template:Unreferenced for Template:Refimprove. Final comment is still "Could do better". --Paularblaster (talk) 09:43, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unreferenced 

message: Is it important? DavidFarmbrough (talk) 08:35, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who is this Alex Hurn? 

message: There has been an extended edit war with an unregistered user over Daniel Cipriani's entry in the list of old boys, with the following text often being added:
:* Daniel Cipriani Rugby Footballer, England, England U.21 & Wasps. However, Cipriani attended on a rugby scholarship for a very short time indeed, before he decided to go back and live with his family, and including his name here as an 'Old Oratorian' alongside those who spent their secondary school years at the OS seems rather odd. It smacks of a - quite unnecessary - attempt to burnish an already illustrious list even more. Not condoned by this contributor, but I leave it to someone else to remove the entry as the majority might prefer to collude in the fiction. 
This text is clearly inappropriate for the format of the list. Daniel Cipriani *is* an old boy -- the editor seems to be arguing that he is not a *notable* old boy. My gut instinct is to remove him altogether. -- PeterBrett (talk) 16:28, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Daniel Cipriani edit war & the list of former pupils 

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thread_title: Image copyright problem with File:Newmancofa.png

message: Is this really true?  In the mid/late 80s there were 2 girls at the school, daughters of one of the teachers (I don't recall his name).
The two girls seem to have been a rare exception.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.194.200 (talk) 14:43, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: "It is the last Catholic all-boys boarding school remaining in Great Britain"