Southern Hills Snares Top Talent as COVID-19 Brings Missionaries Home

Who are these masked bandits?

Believe it or not, these two distinguished educators have both recently come home from two different mission fields across the globe to serve at Southern Hills Christian College.

What a blessing it is to have two leading women at a SCEA school as a result of COVID-19!

For Ms Bethel Hutchinson, a former Principal in the Education Department, the move to work in missions came after reaching her career goals at one of Perth’s most prestigious schools.  Bethel felt a calling to enable those setting up schools in developing countries (the Philippines and then Myanmar) to help with accreditation and foundational requirements for new schools to assist locals with education, language training and gospel promotion. 

The onset of COVID-19 brought Bethel back to Perth, and like many people across the world in 2020, there was a feeling of “How can I serve God now that COVID-19 has restricted us so greatly?”

An opportunity arose to support Southern Hills in the area of Special Needs, and now Bethel joins a highly experienced team of practitioners that is receiving fantastic feedback from both staff and parents. Bethel is particularly gifted with AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language), and this has already been greatly beneficial for deaf students at the school.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be of service here at Southern Hills,” said Bethel this week, “Paul [Beacham] and his team are passionate about allowing every student to succeed in life, and I feel very blessed to be working with such brilliant colleagues.”

Ms Michelle Plaistowe is no less accomplished, having returned recently from a year of home-schooling and mission work in Cambodia.  Michelle is well-known to the Kalamunda Christian School community (through her children’s attendance there), and she has been a part of SCEA life for more than 21 years in various forms. She has served at several SCEA schools following first-class successes at UWA and juggling the needs of a growing family.

Michelle’s addition to Southern Hills only adds more depth to a very experienced team that will be looking at equipping its new students with the support to pursue ATAR studies, pre-apprenticeships and VET options for years to come.

Michelle also sees the benefits of working with highly experienced, mission-focused colleagues:

“This is my passion! I love to mentor secondary students and help them unlock their potential at whatever point in life that they find themselves. We have a very special opportunity here at Southern Hills.”

College Principal Mr Paul Beacham is excited about the future of Southern Hills with the addition of Ms Bethel Hutchinson and Ms Michelle Plaistowe:

“We are very, very fortunate to have such high-quality performers at Southern Hills and in SCEA.  It truly is a privilege to have such talented staff members joining our team.  This is a very positive step for our students and families at Southern Hills.”

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