From the Head
A Barker Education – for Self and for Others As the COVID-19 restrictions ease, we have been able to host more events at the School, bringing our community together again after what feels like a long absence. You will sense some of the joy of reuniting from the pages that follow. Creating a school community requires the commitment of all, joining in the great cause of an education at Barker. The efforts of parents and students to make things possible is not taken for granted. We depend greatly on the support of the OBA, the BCPA and our various volunteer groups and clubs who enable us to reach our intentions for the Barker experience for all our students and families. During one such moment during an academic event in term one, I fell into a long conversation with a former Barker student, now a parent at the School. One of the privileges of my work is to meet alumni who reflect on their time at the School and its impact on their current lives. The person told me how much they enjoyed their years at Barker and wanted something similar for their own child. The conversation moved to comparing then and now – and how things have changed so much in schools. Yet, we both agreed, in essentials the Barker approach has remained recognisable and strong for the most part. Change is necessary. Few expect the School to be the same as past generations experienced. Life is dynamic, and change is one of the few constants that we can expect. Schools reflect the transformation being experienced in the world around us and it seems to be accelerating. New technologies open a window on the world for young learners, who carry in their pockets devices believed to be a million times faster and more
potent than the navigation system on the Apollo 11 space craft in 1969. Harnessing that breathtaking access to information requires a different approach to classroom learning, a different mode of teaching and certainly a different kind of architecture. The challenge is to determine our preferred future. The School Council spends time in almost every meeting considering this question. As new buildings are conceived, as new programs imagined, and as appointments of new staff are considered we return to the question of what will make us authentically Barker whilst we engage with the contemporary and future world. The Founder, the Rev Henry Plume, sought to establish an Anglican school that would prepare students for a pathway to higher education. He tutored some of the earliest female entrants to Sydney University and maintained close connections with the University of Sydney during the early years of that institution. From 1890 successive Headmasters and Councils encouraged us to look beyond our own location and educate our children to make a strong contribution to the world. Mr Carter and Mr Leslie (the 2nd and 4th Headmasters of the School) knew that looking beyond the North Shore of Sydney might take our graduates to the fields of conflict in Europe, the Middle East or in the Pacific. Our School has scores of memorials to the enormous sacrifice made by that generation.
Autumn 2021 • Issue 130 • The Barker • 1
