The values of Care, Respect and Growth are sentiments that have anchored Carey since its foundation and currently guide us into the future. However, between Carey’s past and emerging future lies our present, the somewhat fleeting place where we have the most power to use these values to impact our life and the lives of others.
Committed to lifting these values from mere words we simply recite, we embedded the unpacking and exploration of them through our return to School program, ‘Being, Belonging, Becoming’.
We highlight and affirm actions displayed throughout the day, and support and guide students when their responses do not align with the values, so that they begin to understand an alternate way forward.
My hope is that through providing initial and ongoing experiences which support the growth and embodiment of Care, Respect and Growth, we are creating opportunities for individuals to lean into an affirming, restorative way of being in the world.
That when they see a wrapper on the ground, they pause to pick it up. When they have an idea for a new lunchtime club or a cause to champion, they passionately seek ways to bring it to life. When they err or misstep, they know how to make things right. That they believe in themselves and in one another.
The true power of Carey’s values, I believe, is realised when each one of us make these values also our own. These values won’t make us perfect, but they have the power to enable us to turn up in a world that so often needs more care, respect and growth. May the words from the character Amelia Wren guide us as we embrace all that 2025 holds for us:
‘You don’t change the world simply by looking at it, you change it through the way you choose to live in it.’ (The Aeronauts, 2019).
Mel Brown
Deputy Head of Junior School – Community and Wellbeing
