Our Lady Help of Christians, Earlville, commenced as a Church School from Grade One to Four with 51 students and two teachers: the then principal, Sister M Consilia Wallwork RSM and her teaching partner Sister M Agatha RSM.
The building comprised of two classrooms with dividing doors between them. The Sisters who taught, lived at St Joseph’s, Parramatta and travelled out to the school each day.
On Friday afternoons, some mothers of the students and members of the parish transformed one of the rooms into a church, polishing floors and creating a sanctuary to house the altar.
Mass was celebrated in the church on Sundays, and on Monday mornings the rooms were transformed back into classrooms. The sacristy doubled as a staff room during the week. Eventually a church was built on the present site.
The suburb of Earlville went through a building boom between the 1970s and 1980s. Enrolments increased rapidly and the first lay teacher (Anne Neeve) was employed in 1969. In 1970, Grade One consisted of over 40 students.
By 1978 the school’s enrolment was approximately 180 students. The school continued its building expansion. In the 1970s a decision was made to extend the school to Grade Five, but for girls only. The boys would continue to be passed on to St Augustine’s after Grade Four.
In 1984 the school became completely coeducational from years one to seven. In 1994, a preschool was added. In 2011, OLHOC completed the building of 10 new classroom areas, a multi-purpose Sports Hall and library. In 2012 OLHOC incorporated Interactive Whiteboards into every classroom. 2015 saw Year Seven in Queensland move to Secondary. Our Lady Help of Christians is now a school with approximately 600 students from Prep to Year Six.