Oakhill College


Oakhill College is an independent Roman Catholic comprehensive co-educational secondary day school, located in Castle Hill, a suburb in the Greater Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Founded in 1936, the College is run by the De La Salle Brothers in the tradition of Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, and currently caters for 2,068 students from Years 7 to 12 in 2023.
Oakhill College is a member of the Independent Schools Association.
WWW Official Site

History

The De La Salle Brothers purchased the Oakhill property in 1932. The College commenced in August 1936 with four male 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", 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.
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 College.
The College was owned and administered from 1936 until 2008 by the Trustees of the De La Salle Brother's Australia. Oakhill College is governed by a Board of Directors. In 2024 Oakhill college purchased the whole college property from the De La Salle Brothers.

Facilities

The Innovation Hub is the newest addition to the College campus, with a new addition of the Learning Commons to open in 2024. The Centenary Sports Centre was built during the course of 2006, and was opened in late November 2006. It has a 25-metre pool, classrooms, cemetery, Chapel, tennis courts, Drama Theatre, green room, agriculture centre, farm, hall, kitchen, canteen, Library, Uniform Shop and a gym. The main part of the centre is a double basketball court, which is also used for College assemblies and connects to the Benildus Hall.

Global Experiences

Oakhill College offers students across various faculties the chance to explore different countries globally, immersing themselves in real-world applications of their curriculum and service. Oakhill College has a tradition of conducting immersion trips in the school holidays to support the work of the Lasallian Foundation, named The Lasallians Without Boarders Trip. These opportunities offer Oakhillians the chance to practice ‘Faith, Service and Community’ in the Lasallian tradition. The list of offered trips are:
  • LWOB India
  • LWOB Fiji
  • Cambodia/Vietnam Tour
  • Ruby Tours - Fiji/New Zealand
  • Girls Sport Tour - New Zealand
  • Performing Arts Tour - New York City USA
  • Science Tour - New Zealand
  • Basketball Tour - USA

Co-curricular

The College offers a large range of co-curricular activities, such as: Theatresports, Show Team, Debating, Public Speaking, Coding Club, Chess Club, Basketball, Rugby, Rugby 7s, Football, Tennis, Touch Football, Cricket, Hockey, Athletics, Netball, Swimming, Drama Club, Cheerleading, Choirs, Music Ensembles, Duke of Edinburgh, Art Club, Youth Group, Science Club and Mathematics Enrichment. Oakhill College conducts a major musical every two years, and a junior musical every alternate year, open to any student within the required year groups. However since 2023, years 7-12 participated in the college musical, Footloose 2023 being the inaugural junior and senior whole school musical, directed by Warren Flanangan. 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.

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 :
  • Benildus House –. Named after Saint Brother Bénilde Romançon. Feast day: 13 August.
  • La Salle House –. Named after St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, the founder of the De La Salle Brothers. Feast day: 15 May.
  • Miguel House –. Named after St Brother Miguel Febres Cordero. Feast day: 9 February.
  • Mutien House –. Named after St Brother Mutien-Marie Wiaux. Feast day: 30 January.
  • Solomon House –. Named after Blessed Brother Solomon LeClercq, martyr, France. Feast day: 2 September.
  • Turon House –. Named after eight brothers martyred 8 October 1934 in Turón, Spain. Feast day: 9 October.

Notable alumni

Academia, business, public service and politics

Media, entertainment and the arts

Sport