Oakhill College

For the school in Whalley, Lancashire, see Oakhill College, Whalley.

Oakhill College
Latin: Deo Duce ("God our Leader")[1]
Location
Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	33°43′25″S 151°1′12″E / 33.72361°S 151.02°E / -33.72361; 151.02Coordinates: 33°43′25″S 151°1′12″E / 33.72361°S 151.02°E / -33.72361; 151.02
Information
Type	Independent, Secondary, Co-educational, Day school
Denomination	Roman Catholic, De La Salle Brothers
Established	1936[2]
Employees	~121 (Full-time)[3]
Key people	Br Ken Ormerod FSC (Principal) Br John Pill FSC (Chairman)
Enrolment	~1,600 (7–12)[3]
Colour(s)	Maroon and Gold
Website	www.oakhill.nsw.edu.au

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

Founded in 1936, the College is run by the De La Salle Brothers^[2] in the tradition of St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, and currently caters for approximately 1,600 students from Years 7 to 12.^[3]

Oakhill College is a member of the Independent Schools Association (ISA),^[4] and is a school of the Diocese of Parramatta.^[5]

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",^[6] 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.^[6] 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, PD/H/PE classrooms, and a gym. The main part of the centre is a double basketball court, which is also used for school assemblies.

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. 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:

• All Shook Up
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Les Misérables
• Chess
• Dream
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Così
• The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew
• The Sting
• Hooked
• Treasure Island
• Billy Budd
• Man Alive
• Amadeus
• Paris
• A few good men
• The Government Inspector
• Rusty Bugles

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 — (Light Blue). Named after Blessed Brother Solomon LeClercq (1745–1792), martyr, France. Feast Day 2 September.
• Turon House — (Dark Blue). Named after Eight Brothers and one Passionist priest martyred 8 October 1934, in the Brother's School, Turón, Spain. Feast Day 9 October.

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.^[7]

Notable alumni

Academia, public service and politics

• Stephen Hunyor, doctor, Chair of Medicine University of Sydney^{[citation needed]}
• Most Rev Julian Porteous, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, Titular bishop of Urusi^{[citation needed]}
• Chad Sidler, President of the Sydney University Liberal Club

Media, entertainment and the arts

• Brian Castro, novelist and essayist (also attended St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill)^[8]
• David Collins, actor, member of The Umbilical Brothers^{[citation needed]}
• Peter Jenkins, Australian newspaper and Foxel Sports rugby commentator^{[citation needed]}
• Steve Le Marquand, actor^{[citation needed]}
• Ben Quilty, Australian painter^{[citation needed]}
• Tim Rogers, vocalist/guitarist and primary songwriter of Australian alternative rock band You Am I
• Tahki Saul, Resident actor at the Sydney Theatre Company^[9]
• Doris Younane, actress (McLeod's Daughters)^{[citation needed]}

Sport

• Katherine Bates, Australian olympic cyclist^{[citation needed]}
• Grant Brits, olympic swimmer, bronze medallist in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay at 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Catherine Cox, Australian netball team^{[citation needed]}
• Andrew Ogilvy, basketball player
• Anthony Summers, golfer, 2005 NSW PGA Player of the Year^[10]
• Julia Wilson, Olympic rower^{[citation needed]}
• Nicholas Fitzgerald, Football player (Brisbane Roar)

See also

• List of non-government schools in New South Wales
• La Sallian educational institutions

References

1. ^ "Crest". College Information. Oakhill College. 2007. http://www.oakhill.nsw.edu.au/College%20Information/Crest.aspx. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Oakhill College". New South Wales. School Choice. 2007. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070830202636/http://www.schoolchoice.com.au/find_a_school?cid=12349&pid=2701926. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Annual Report 2006" (PDF). Publications. Oakhill College. 2007. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080720063444/http://oakhill.nsw.edu.au/Files/PDF+Files/Publications/Annual+Report+2006.pdf. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
4. ^ "Oakhill College Sport". College Information. Oakhill College. 2007. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080206162014/http://www.oakhill.nsw.edu.au/College+Sport/CollegeSport.aspx. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
5. ^ "Oakhill College". Our Schools. Catholic Education: Diocese of Parramatta. http://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/Our-Schools/School-Profiles/School-Profile.aspx?SchoolName=Oakhill%20College,%20Castle%20Hill. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "Prospectus" (PDF). College Information. Oakhill College. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080720063614/http://oakhill.nsw.edu.au/Files/PDF+Files/College+Information/prospectusPDF.pdf. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
7. ^ Patty, Anna (9 February 2008). "How private schools owe taxpayer $2b". The Sydney Morning Herald: p. 1. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/08/1202234175001.html. Retrieved 12 September 2009. 
8. ^ "Biographical details". Biographical and contact information. Brian Castro. http://www.lythrumpress.com.au/castro/biog.html. Retrieved 24 February 2008. 
9. ^ "The Residents"^{[not in citation given]} at the Sydney Theatre Company
10. ^ Anthony Summers at pga.org.au

External links

• Oakhill College Website