Year 10 Round Square Committee

The newly founded Year 10 Round Square Committee was invited to MLC School, Burwood, earlier this year, to discuss all things Round Square.

MLC has been a proud Round Square School for the past 20 years and so this opportunity was very helpful for the Committee in understanding what Round Square is about, how our membership will enhance what Barker offers and enrich the character growth of students to become impactful leaders who can make a positive difference in the future.

We learned that Round Square isn’t an exclusive club you have to apply to be in, but rather a school-wide program in which everyone can get involved. Barker is a Round Square school, so, in turn, every Barker student is a Round Square student.

The MLC students outlined the history of Round Square at their school and told us about their initiatives for this year. These included student-led groups and clubs that are the lifeblood of Round Square at MLC. They had a variety of different groups that were all based on the six IDEALS of Round Square. These are Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership and Service. The idea of student-led groups and clubs is not particularly prominent at Barker, and so we were very interested in learning about this and thinking about how we could incorporate it into Barker. It was incredibly interesting to hear how this worked at MLC as student voice is a big part of Round Square. We brainstormed different ideas surrounding how we can bring more student-led groups to Barker, amongst our already thriving co-curricular system.

Throughout our discussions, we also learnt about ‘Postcards’ which are a key part of the Internationalism ideal of Round Square. They involve a school hosting a zoom meeting in which students from Round Square Schools around the world join to discuss a specific topic or issue. As MLC had recently held a Postcard on International Women's Day, they were able to talk about how it was organised as well as what worked and what didn’t. It was incredibly insightful and we had great discussions within the group about inequality and how we can address it as a school and a wider community. The MLC students also led us in a discussion surrounding how we could host a Postcard at Barker. We brainstormed a couple of ideas, including Indigenous affairs and the effect of COVID in education in different countries.

Overall, our experience at MLC really opened our eyes to the potential that Barker has in being a Round Square School. We hope to continue promoting the Round Square IDEALS around the School and hope to get everyone on board.

Amelia Diacopoulos Year 10 Round Square Committee Member