College’s silver lining

By Elizabeth Lillis
BEACONHILLS College celebrated its silver jubilee on Sunday with the inaugural Founders’ Day Service at St. James Anglican Church in Pakenham followed by the official opening of the Founders’ Garden at the adjoining college campus.
College headmaster Tony Sheumack said 140 people, including foundation students, board members and parents returned for the service and 400 people attended the garden opening.
The centrepiece of the garden is an octagonal rotunda, each side of the rotunda is named for the eight founders of the school, after whom the schools houses are also named.
The foundation of the school started as an idea in 1980 by a small group of parishioners at St Johns Anglican Church in Upper Beaconsfield to establish an independent Christian school in the area.
Mr Sheumack said the six founders attended the service and garden opening.
The school opened on the 3 February 1982 with five staff and 39 students.
A plaque with the names of the founding students was also placed in the rotunda.
Nine of the founding students were present at the opening of the Founders’ Garden.
“The founding students appeared to enjoyed catching up with their teachers and were catching up on old times right up until the college gates shut at the end of the day,” Mr Sheumack said.
The college now has more than 2400 students and 300 teaching and support staff across its two campuses in Pakenham and Berwick.
Mr Sheumack said much had changed in the area over the 25 years and it was important to acknowledge those who had supported the college over the years since its foundation.
He said the original feature garden was destroyed by cows entering from a neighbouring paddock in the colleges’ first year, so it was a milestone reestablished a special garden area, despite the challenge of drought conditions.
“The garden will have trees to create a shaded area for students to play music, have lunch and relax,” Mr Sheumack said.
The inaugural Founders’ Day service was held earlier at 2.30pm and was celebrated by the Reverend John Leaver, the founding chaplain, and the Anglican Bishop for the southeast region John Wilson.
“Bishop Wilson has been very supportive of the college over the past 23 years.
“As he is retiring we took the opportunity to thank him for is support,” Mr Sheumack said.