[citation needed] He taught at Suva Methodist Primary School in the 1930s and among his students was the future ombudsman of Fiji, Sir Moti Tikaram.
In the 1943 Methodist Church Annual Conference, Mr. Donnelly was given permission to expand his classes along the same ridge and as a result, the boys themselves, with his and Semesa Sikivou's guidance, built three large bures, where the teachers staff quarters presently stand.
Amongst his students were Rusiate Nayacakalou, who later became the first South Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD and Jimione Samisoni who became the first Fijian to become the dean of the Fiji School of Medicine.
Sikivou, who hailed from Rewa Province, belonged to the tribe of the Roko Tui Dreketi's Guardians of the Spirit and the Wise Counsel, and as such was a member of the traditional court of the Paramount Chief of the Burebasaga Confederacy.
He was married twice, first to Seini Ratuvou of the Vutia District of Rewa, with whom he had one daughter, Ateca (who died of asthma at the age of one) and three sons: Navitalai, Rokocanini, and Metuisela Sikivou.