On Wednesday August 19 I joined the Adventist Schools Australia Education Directors who were meeting at Carmel College Primary School for the day. I enjoyed the experience and I was impressed with the appearance, learning and tone of the school. Then the following day we all went to Carmel College Secondary to join other members of the ASA Board of Education for a meeting. While there I caught up with Principal Gavin Williams and Deputy Jose Prnich, shown together here.
Before the Board the guests toured the College and the College “Acro” gymnastic team led by Mark Foster performed their very first performance. This was indeed impressive. Then students Michael Farrell and Kari Harrison gave testimony to the ways in which Carmel had helped them. After those speeches we needed no further persuasion about the impact of both Carmel College and Adventist education.
As with the primary school, the tone of the secondary school also gave me very positive vibes. I learned that close to 70% of students were not Adventists, and I was pleased to see the school was growing steadily and among other moves was remodelling its library and boarding facility and developing its Year 7 learning area.
What really made this school tick? Gavin spoke of various initiatives. The Administration team had improved school systems to attain more professional accountability and efficiency – in his words to “set the bar higher.”There was a strong top-down teacher mentoring program that involved peer mentoring and coaching and regular classroom visitation by Administration. But above this development was the commitment to the mission of the school, shown by things like more frequent school visits to churches, the revolving values display in the foyer, and more importantly the lives of students. This was a school where any prefect not supporting Adventist values lost his/her badge. Undergirding all of Gavin’s account was his obvious commitment to having students convicted of the love of Jesus and the importance of the Adventist worldview.
Barry Hill
Director of education SPD
Before the Board the guests toured the College and the College “Acro” gymnastic team led by Mark Foster performed their very first performance. This was indeed impressive. Then students Michael Farrell and Kari Harrison gave testimony to the ways in which Carmel had helped them. After those speeches we needed no further persuasion about the impact of both Carmel College and Adventist education.
As with the primary school, the tone of the secondary school also gave me very positive vibes. I learned that close to 70% of students were not Adventists, and I was pleased to see the school was growing steadily and among other moves was remodelling its library and boarding facility and developing its Year 7 learning area.
What really made this school tick? Gavin spoke of various initiatives. The Administration team had improved school systems to attain more professional accountability and efficiency – in his words to “set the bar higher.”There was a strong top-down teacher mentoring program that involved peer mentoring and coaching and regular classroom visitation by Administration. But above this development was the commitment to the mission of the school, shown by things like more frequent school visits to churches, the revolving values display in the foyer, and more importantly the lives of students. This was a school where any prefect not supporting Adventist values lost his/her badge. Undergirding all of Gavin’s account was his obvious commitment to having students convicted of the love of Jesus and the importance of the Adventist worldview.
Barry Hill
Director of education SPD
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