PUPILS past and present joined teachers and parents to celebrate the 150th anniversary of their school’s founding.

The Oratory School, in Woodcote, south Oxfordshire, was founded by Cardinal John Henry Newman in 1859, and about 200 people got together to reflect on years gone by.

A book written by Oratory archivist Tony Tinkel, Cardinal Newman’s School: 150 years of The Oratory School, was also launched at the event.

New theology and English departments were opened by chairman of governors Michael Hasslacher, and drama pupils performed an extract from a play they are rehearsing about Sir Thomas More.

Newman scholar Dr Sheridan Gilley gave a lecture, and there was an exhibition of photographs, art and memorabilia portraying the school, the UK’s only Catholic independent all-boys senior school, through the ages.