At dusk one day this week, a group of Year 10 students sat together on the bank of Lake William Hovel, sharing stories following their day of paddling. At the same time, Year 5 students were at our Toonallook property on the Gippsland Lakes, having spent the afternoon setting up tents. For both groups, the work put in to reimagining these programs in the latter part of the year has enabled them to connect with each other on camp, often considered by students to be some of the most valuable experiences of their Carey journeys.
In 2021, our shared theme as a school has been Imagination, one of our Carey Attributes of a Positive Learner. For those expressing imagination as a six-year-old, we expect to see the capacity for the individual to ‘think of new ways to do something’, with those in the upper secondary part of the School being able to ‘adapt ideas when circumstances change’. Phrases such as ‘being flexible’, ‘dreaming of possibilities’ and ‘connecting complex ideas’ are the behavioural signposts of the adult displaying imagination.
Appropriately, in our year of Imagination, COVID-19 has invited flexibility of thinking and will sit in history as a point of crisis. However, as a collective, Carey has embraced the essence of imagination, of ‘modifying ideas when circumstances change’ – evidenced by over 1000 Carey students on an overnight experience during the latter part of Term 4, a Kinglake survivor day for all of Year 10, a two-day Melbourne Art tour, and both Junior School and Middle School productions being staged.
There is an old proverb that defines a crisis as a ‘dangerous opportunity’. The finale to the year has seen Carey embrace opportunity with the outcome being a positive reconnection of our students.
Peter Robson
Deputy Principal – Wellbeing
