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.”

The post Southern Hills Snares Top Talent as COVID-19 Brings Missionaries Home appeared first on SCEA.

Many of you will know that Scott served as the Principal for Southern Hills Christian College (2007-2014) well prior to his appointment to Swan. During his time as Principal at Southern Hills, both of his children attended the school, with Matthew also meeting his wife, Chenoah Holdsworth, there during his schooling years. The Bedfordale classrooms, ovals, bush tracks and school trips were places of intense happiness for the Puzey family who had spent time in Dalwallinu and the Cocos Islands before calling the Southern Hills of Perth home.

Many friends, family, classmates and colleagues were on hand at the service to celebrate and remember the life of Matthew, who passed away earlier this year after an extended battle with cancer. Numerous current and former staff from Southern Hills and Swan Christian College were present at the service and shared in the memories, music and musings about the life of Matthew and his family.

“It was an absolute blessing to be able to hold the celebration at Southern Hills” said Scott, “a beautiful venue filled with so many people all honouring my late son and our family. Thank you, particularly to those volunteers and staff from the SCEA family who have assisted with the logistics and catering for this celebration.”

“For many years now there has been blessing upon blessing poured on us in the midst of this tragedy,” said Scott when recently asked how the family has been going. “Whilst sad for our loss, it is our continual encouragement that Matthew is now whole and healed and awaiting us in Heaven where we will be again reunited.”

Amen

The post ‘See You Later’ Ceremony for Matthew Puzey at Southern Hills Christian College appeared first on SCEA.

Despite his rugged good looks (many Southern Hills students mistake him for George Clooney on their Bedfordale campus) and disarming smile, Mr Pleysier shuns the limelight and defers all accolades of praise that come his way.

However, there is much to applaud about Dave apart from his Hollywood looks.

Anyone who has scaled Southern Hills’ abseiling tower may not be aware that many years ago, Dave approached Western Power about moving one of their unused steel towers, piece by piece, to be used by the school for abseiling and high ropes exercises.  This 50-metre high structure can be seen for miles around and comprises more than 20,000 pieces of kit that need to be put together in a particular way. For those of us who cringe at the sight of an IKEA flat-pack at this time of year, imagine the work that goes into taking one of these towers apart and then putting them back together again!

I don’t imagine too many people were keen to give up so much time to help out on a project this big.

“Oh well,” says Dave, “I had plenty of peace and quiet. And there were some excellent people that helped put it together. Team effort.”

You don’t even get full sentences with Dave. This man lets his actions do the talking. A little more than twenty years ago, David signed up for the SCEA team at Swan Christian College and moved down to Southern Hills where he has become the ‘go-to-guy’ for all things Outdoor Education, Rite Journey and the ever-popular Emergency Service Cadets program.  Principal Paul Beacham paid tribute to David and the positive impact he has had for Southern Hills in a recent speech:

“David gives generously of his time, managing many of our camps, student leadership and alumni events, and has also just been awarded recognition for 20 years of service as a Cadet leader. We value him immensely and are grateful for all his hard work.  He is a man who has had a profound impact on the students he teaches.”

In a previous article celebrating the 2020 President’s Reception (www.scea.wa.edu.au/scea-news/scea-celebrates-longserving-staff), we omitted David Pleysier’s name from the Honours List.

Thankfully, a keen eye spotted it late on a Sunday night while catching up on her regular SCEA news feed and we have now rectified the problem.

When contacted regarding the glaring error in SCEA News, Dave Pleysier was as gentlemanly as ever:

“All good.”

How about we write a story about how great you have been for SCEA for the past twenty years to make up for this mistake?

“It’s OK. I’m fine. Happy to be a part of a great team down here at Southern Hills. No need to make a fuss.”

So, no story with a picture of you from twenty years ago when you started at SCEA? Nothing about the high ropes course you built? How you’ve been a big part of Southern Hills for today’s generation of young people? “Definitely not.”

The post Dave Pleysier: The Forgotten Man of SCEA appeared first on SCEA.

Thanks to our resident librarian from Southern Hills Christian College, Tamara Vicini, we now have no excuse not to be reading – whatever the temperature may be!

“Never leave home without a book! That’s my motto!” says Tamara from her newly-decorated library room at Southern Hills.

“I feel like my job is to bring enthusiasm and life to the children so they see reading as fun!  I want to see the smile on their face when they come into the library and discover an excellent book”

Tamara hails from rural Oakford, south of Bedfordale and was previously a veterinary nurse and a group fitness trainer.

“The fitness training gave me the confidence to speak in front of groups of people – which is very handy in dealing with school students now!”

Life is not quiet for Tamara, who has three teenage children, six cats, one dog, numerous chickens and sheep – and one husband who has put his career on hold to study Psychology!

In Mundijong, Tamara attends a church which looks at the Bible is a discussion-based forum and this allows the congregation to ask questions of the text, understand life experiences and share communion together in a collective setting.

“I enjoy working through Scripture and looking at it from different perspectives. It’s a great time of fellowship.”

Tamara is the smiling presence that every school needs in their library.  Keep an eye out for those pesky socks when you’re down at Southern Hills!

The post Hand Socks of the Week: Tamara Vicini appeared first on SCEA.

That’s right – there is a doctor in the house!

Dr Marike grew up in Boksberg (outside of Johannesburg) and studied a PhD in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Capetown. A post-doctoral Fellowship saw her giving lectures to undergraduates – and that’s where the passion for teaching students began.

A family move to Australia then spurred study into a Graduate Diploma through ECU Joondalup and now Southern Hills students are learning Physics and Chemistry from a teacher who certainly knows her way around generators, electric motors and the periodic table of elements!

What drives an Christian intellectual to teach teenagers about Physics and Chemistry?

“To have senior students asking me about evolution, the big bang theory and to be able to explain God’s perfect plan to these young enquiring minds – that is what they deserve and those are the discussions that shape their thinking when they are enquiring and shaping their views of the world,” says Marike as her Year 12’s work through a very complicated robotics model in the pristine surroundings at Southern Hills Christian College.

Dr Du Plooy calls Carey Baptist Church her home church now that she has spent some time growing accustomed to life in Australia.

“It truly is a community church, in the sense that our GP goes there, the shopkeeper goes there. The people from our neighbourhood worship God together with me, my husband and my young son.”

How does a super-intelligent professor make sense of COVID-19?

“Just like everyone else! Our playground routine in the afternoon became playing around the house! Having said that, I am really looking forward to life getting back to normal – the playground is the perfect environment for a two-year-old boy with heaps of energy.” Keep an eye out for the Doctor next time you are around the Southern Hills campus!

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