In 2011, Carey started an annual literary festival which is usually celebrated in May with the following rationale:
- to celebrate and promote the value of reading
- to recognise and build upon the culture within the School that promotes a positive image of reading and demonstrates the link between an engagement with literature and literacy learning
- to create a major event in the Carey calendar that is self-sustaining, ongoing and promotes Carey within the wider community as a school of literature
- to broaden students with an exposure to ideas, issues and the world beyond school
- to validate the profession of writing by focussing on the craft of writing.
- to recognise and promote the centrality of literature and literacy in the whole school curriculum.
Since then, Carey has welcomed lots of local, interstate and international writers and storytellers using other mediums to share their stories and craft with our school community.
In 2025, we have an exciting line-up of literary visitors across our three school sections. In this LibGuide you can see who is coming. In the Junior School, writers will present workshops and there will be a battle of the illustrators. There are also two after-school events: Kew has Lucinda Gifford and Donvale, Zeno Sworder. In Middle School, each English class will have a writing workshop with a published writer and choose from a range of electives to create a story in another way, such as creating stories through art. In Senior School, students will have the choice of hearing from a crime writer, an illustrator and performance poet.
What can you do to build on the excellent work Carey is doing to encourage a love of story, books, reading and writing? Show that you value reading and exposure to ideas through books. Encourage your children to read and write and support writers by buying books.
Marg Moran
Head of Carey Libraries
