Oakhill College

Oakhill College is an independent Roman Catholic comprehensive co-educational secondary day school, located in Castle Hill, a suburb in the Hills District of the Greater Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

This article is about the school in New South Wales. For the school in Lancashire, see Oakhill College, Whalley. For the theological college in London, see Oak Hill College.

Oakhill College
Location
Oakhill College
Castle Hill, Sydney, New South Wales

Australia
Coordinates33°43′25″S 151°1′12″E
Information
TypeIndependent comprehensive co-educational secondary day school
MottoLatin: Deo Duce
(With God as our leader[1])
Religious affiliation(s)De La Salle Brothers
DenominationRoman Catholic
Established1936 (1936)[2]
FounderDe La Salle Brothers
Educational authorityNew South Wales Department of Education
ChairmanJohn Puleo
PrincipalBr Steve Hogan fsc
Employees207
Years7–12
Enrolmentc. 1,800 (2020)
Colour(s)Maroon and gold         
AffiliationIndependent Schools Association
Websiteoakhill.nsw.edu.au

Founded in 1936, the College is run by the De La Salle Brothers[2] in the tradition of Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, and currently caters for approximately 1,800 students from Years 7 to 12.

Oakhill College is a member of the Independent Schools Association.[3]

History

The De La Salle Brothers purchased the Oakhill property in 1932. The school commenced in August 1936 with four students, increasing to 30 in 1937 when there were 10 day and 20 boarding students. The College served the then rural area of "The Hills",[4] and grew slowly until in 1953, its enrolment reached 100.

In 1974 the decision was taken to phase out the boarding school and, in 1976 Oakhill College became a co-educational senior school.[4] The phasing out of primary classes commenced in 1980, and by 1983, Oakhill College was enrolling only secondary students. In the year 2006, the 100th year of the Brothers in Australia was celebrated with a mass at St Mary's Cathedral.

The property was initially used as a training college for brothers; the school came later. The training college for brothers evolved into a training college for Catholic lay teachers, which was then merged into the Australian Catholic University in the 1980s, which then became the Castle Hill campus of the ACU. Finally, in the 1990s, the ACU decided to consolidate their campuses in Sydney, and abandoned their Castle Hill facility, which then reverted to the De La Salle brothers. Since then, the original training college has been extensively renovated, named the De La Salle Building and forms part of the school.

Facilities

The Centenary Sports Centre is the newest addition to the college campus. It was built during the course of 2006, and was opened in late November 2006. It has a 25-metre pool, PDHPE classrooms, cemetery and a gym. The main part of the centre is a double basketball court, which is also used for school assemblies and connects to the Benildus Hall.

The gym was later moved to a vacant location on the third level of the centre, thus turning the old gym into an extra PDHPE classroom.

Co-curriculum

The College conducts a major musical every two years, and a junior musical every alternate year, open to any student within the required year groups. Additionally, Year 10 and 12 respectively stage plays in the later part of the school year, with the cast and crew composed entirely of drama students, whose performance is graded and forms part of their assessment mark. Past productions have included:

Senior Musicals (Open to whole school) Every ‘even’ year:

Junior Musicals (Years 7-9) - Every ‘odd’ year:

Year 10 Plays (October) -

Year 12 Plays (February) -

Other -

Pastoral care

Pastoral care at Oakhill involves classroom based programs in years 7 and 8 and a House system from Years 9–12. The Houses include:

  • Benildus House — (Gold). Named after Saint Brother Bénilde Romançon (1805–1862); Feast Day: 13 August.
  • La Salle House — (Red). Named after St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651–1719), the founder of the De La Salle Brothers; Feast Day: 15 May.
  • Miguel House — (Purple). Named after St Brother Miguel Febres Cordero (1854–1910); Feast Day: 9 February.
  • Mutien House — (Green). Named after St Brother Mutien-Marie Wiaux (1841–1917); Feast Day: 30 January.
  • Solomon House — (Blue/Light Blue). Named after Blessed Brother Solomon LeClercq (1745–1792), martyr, France. Feast Day 2 September.
  • Turon House — (Navy Blue). Named after Eight Brothers martyred 8 October 1934 in Turón, Spain. Feast Day 9 October.

Including those six houses they all play in Years 7-8 House Sport including Rugby, Soccer, Cross Country, Swimming and Gaelic Football during school hours at 1 day in each week.

Government funding

On 9 February 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that a Greens analysis of government figures showed that, over four years, Oakhill received $13.2 Million more in federal government funding than it is entitled to under the Socioeconomic status (SES) formula.[5]

Notable alumni

Academia, business, public service and politics
  • Michael Coates - Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer and General Counsel, Royal Dutch Shell plc, The Netherlands
  • Dominic Perrottet - Treasurer of New South Wales(Finished studies at Redfield College Dural)
  • Greg Whitby - Executive Director of Schools, Catholic Education Office

Media, entertainment and the arts

Sport
gollark: Not free, 2p/GB or so.
gollark: However, nobody would use it as nobody would find videos on it and I can't pay ad revenue.
gollark: I could host one *now* at literally zero cost to me (as long as the traffic isn't too high).
gollark: Video platforms are easy. The hard part is discovery and monetization.
gollark: I think this is less bad, in various ways, than forcing people to waste time and dignity or whatever on deliberately interviewing for jobs they don't actually want.

See also

References
  1. "Crest". College Information. Oakhill College. 2007. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  2. "Oakhill College". New South Wales. School Choice. 2007. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  3. "Oakhill College Sport". College Information. Oakhill College. 2007. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  4. "Prospectus" (PDF). College Information. Oakhill College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  5. Patty, Anna (9 February 2008). "How private schools owe taxpayer $2b". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 1. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
  6. "Biographical details". Biographical and contact information. Brian Castro. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  7. "Oakhill College alumni awarded". Hills Shire Times. 3 April 2012. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
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