Highly qualified and well-respected local artist Jeanette Jennings began her journey at Carey as an Artist in Residence in 1992. In 1993 she returned as an Artist in Residence to lead and inspire a further three projects. Such was her impact, in 1994 Helen Telford and Ross Millikan made the wise decision to employ Jeanette and she commenced in a permanent part-time position. This later became a full-time role.
Jeanette’s impact on Carey Donvale over nearly three decades has been profound. She has the ability to draw out the best in her students. Jeanette respects their individuality, listens to their ideas and makes them feel valued. She strongly believes that the environment is the third important teacher and, as a result, the Donvale campus is essentially a gallery that seeks to celebrate the children’s artistic expression.
Not only does she nurture respectful relationships on campus with students, staff and parents, she recognises the importance of establishing long lasting connections beyond the school gates – hence the collaborative projects in the community of Manningham, and further afield, that the Donvale students have contributed to. Their art will touch the lives of many future generations.
It seems now as if Jeanette’s time at Carey has come full circle. Jeanette moved to part-time work five years ago and from next year will once again be in the role of Artist in Residence, working on specific projects like the ELC anniversary installation.
Jeanette leaves behind a fabulous legacy as Carey Donvale’s art teacher, visible around our beautiful campus. Fortunately for us, we will still have the benefit of her experience, expertise and creativity on special future projects. We wish Jeanette a long and happy ‘retirement’, whilst at the same time look forward to her contribution as our Artist in Residence on future community art projects here at Carey.
2021 Student Leadership
We are in the midst of the leadership process for 2021. All students in Year 5 are eligible to participate, as we do not differentiate between students based on how many years they have been a student at Carey. Six very worthy candidates were shortlisted by the Year 5 students for School Captain. The calibre of speeches by the three girls and three boys were excellent and resulted in a difficult decision for the staff and students.
It is with great pleasure that I can announce that Annalise Betschel and Henry Haslam are our School Captains for 2021.
The second part of our process is in selecting House Captains. All current Year 5 students are given the opportunity to self-nominate for House Captaincy and present a speech to all members of their respective Houses. After the speeches all the children across the school complete a preference sheet, nominating the boy and girl that they think are the best candidates. All preference sheets are collected and the teachers in each House, who then use this information to assist them in the selection of the new House Captains.
It is natural that some students will be disappointed that they were not selected. This is unavoidable, however we do counsel the students prior to the process about this possibility and we also do our best to prepare them for the possibility of not being selected.
All of the successful candidates will be inducted by the current School Leaders prior to the end of the year.
Allocating students to classes 2021
As you would expect, we have started planning for the 2021 school year. One aspect of this planning is to allocate students to classes. In doing so, we consider two aspects in particular: balanced class groupings and where we will place our classroom teachers. Given the disruptions of 2020 and the limited time children have spent together on campus, we anticipate minimal changes to class lists next year.
With this process in mind the school has developed a very clear, whole school policy on this process. The policy states:
Carey is committed to attracting, professionally developing and rewarding the highest quality teaching staff. Carey is fortunate to have a highly professional and committed teaching staff.
Carey is not able to accommodate requests for a particular teacher as there are a number of operational issues to consider such as subject blocking, timetabling and class composition. The teaching staff and School Heads consider very closely the allocation of students to classes, considering the social, emotional and academic interests of all students, gender mix, student relationships and class size and ability.
With this policy in mind, if parents have information they feel needs to be considered we are happy to receive these requests and we will give them due consideration. Nevertheless, I ask all parents to understand that it may not be possible to satisfy all requests without compromising children’s learning. We only have two classes at each level and we will always keep the educational, social and emotional needs of the children at the forefront of any decision.
If you have specific information please provide it in writing by Friday 20 November and address it to Head of Carey Donvale, Steve Wilson personally. Only communication provided by this process will be considered. Once again, please understand that we will not consider requests for specific teachers.
Over the past few years we have received a very small number of requests, which tells me that parents trust our judgment on what is best for their children. I am sure that this year will be the same.
Thank you for your support in this important process.
Margaret Adams
Deputy Head of Carey Donvale
