Do you know the saying, behind every successful school Principal is a very organised Personal Assistant?
Mrs Nicole Campbell is the Personal Assistant to Mr Mike Bolan, Principal of Beechboro Christian School. The school’s rapid growth in enrolments in recent times has been the result of Mike galvanising his team around a vision of Christian education for the various ethnicities and cultures that call Beechboro Christian School home.
A key part of that team is Mrs Nicole Campbell (nee Hicks). She is a SCEA alumni and bears a family name that forms a rich part of SCEA’s early history.
Nicole began her Christian schooling in Perth at Emmanuel Christian Community School in Girrawheen in the 1980s. It was a small Christian school set up by the local church (Girrawheen Baptist) and only accommodated Primary-aged students. A bus service was set up to ferry Emmanuel students across to Swan in the early 1990s and the Hicks’ family became a part of the SCEA community.
Nicole’s father, Terry, would play a role on the SCEA Board for several years after he pioneered Christian radio governance in Perth, becoming the inaugural Chair of the Sonshine FM Board.
While at Swan, Nicole would develop ‘friendships for life’ with peers who shared her faith and were able to have fun and enjoy life’s challenges.
“I enjoyed the ageless Mr [Norm] Ewing and his whacky jokes,” says Nicole from her busy desk at Beechboro’s campus in Marshall Road.
“Mrs [Betty] Pendal was great, and Mr Mark Pearce and Mr Campbell Murray were always good fun for us as students.”
Nicole met her husband-to-be Keith at Morley Baptist Church in her teenage years, and the two married and have two daughters – Brianna (19) and Tanika (16), who have attended Ellenbrook Christian College (ECC).
In 2011, at the prompting of long time staffer Mrs Kerry Mullender, Nicole joined the ECC staff in the administration area. Nicole had previously had long stints in a variety of administration areas including working with accountants, lawyers and also in the medical industry and enjoyed the change to Christian education.
“I think that my schooling, and also my girl’s, has allowed us to have an amazing foundation for life,” says Nicole.
Eleven years on, Nicole has moved from Ellenbrook to Beechboro, but her focus on Christian education has not wavered:
“I am proud of what we are doing at Beechboro, and the growth in enrolments indicates that families are being reached by the amazing team here.”