The Essence of a Carmel College Mercy Education

What makes Carmel College unique on the Shore is our commitment to providing a Catholic, Mercy inspired education for young women.

This Mercy inspired education has four key features: It is holistic and integrated, committed to excellence, committed to community building and committed to compassionate consideration.

A holistic and integrated education is where there is no separation between acquiring knowledge and growing in wisdom. The various school subjects do not present only knowledge to be attained, but also values to be acquired and truths to be discovered.

A commitment to excellence includes a quality of learning and teaching that encourages innovation and new perspectives, leads learners to ask new questions, to search for new answers to old questions and be committed to learning for life.

A commitment to community building acknowledges that we belong to one another and therefore have a social responsibility for each other and for the kind of world we inhabit. 

Compassionate consideration is ensuring open, accessible and inclusive of all, without discrimination, and the promotion of positive attitudes, where all are made to feel welcome, catered for and cherished.

 

A Mercy inspired education also enables students to critique the causes of poverty and marginalisation at local and global level and encourage them to ‘speak truth to power’ rather than to keep safe within the status quo – to be able to challenge and shape the future.

Principal, Chris Allen

 

Being a ‘Carmel Girl’ 

Carmel College taught me that the key to knowledge is about more than focusing on academic performance alone. 

Being a Carmel girl does not limit me to simply having belonged to a school - it empowered me to be a part of an extensive community. My years at Carmel equipped me with confidence, drive, teamwork, critical thinking and a sense of belonging. At Carmel I found a school that entwined more than just education and community - Core Mercy Values have played a pivotal role in shaping my growth and development. I am now confident that I will be able to step into the world prepared, and for that I am grateful. 

 

Past Student Reflects On Carmel’s Impact On Her Life And Career

As I reflect back on my journey since finishing school, I realise how my time at Carmel College set me up for so much more than entry into academic study programmes and creating a passion for learning. 

What I didn’t know at that time was how the special Catholic character and the strong values foundation would become part of my DNA and a key ingredient for both my way of working and success at work.   

In my role as a Global HR Executive, I focus on people strategy; enabling people, across cultures, to achieve the best possible outcomes for themselves and their business. Underpinning this is the culture we create at work and the way we lead others to unlock passion, curiosity and possibility. 

What is most important in leadership, in any context, is our ability to recognise that we need to be people-centred - caring for others, valuing their contribution and supporting people to be at their best. These are core attributes I learnt at Carmel College where I was immersed in a community of caring and strong values. 

Wherever a student’s strengths lie, the core values underpinning Carmel College are key in creating success in everything they do at school and into the future. I am so very grateful to have had such important values instilled in me from an early age. 

My ‘Carmel’ education created the basis for my learning to be a lifelong focus. People describe it as having a ‘growth mindset’. People, contexts and challenges change and we need to learn, grow and evolve, essentially being shape-shifters, in order to adjust to different situations. Lifelong learning really is just that, but gets more and more interesting with age…and a little wisdom!

Sarah Langley, Chief People Officer, Frucor Suntory NZ Ltd


Issue 88 June 2018