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Parent Institute

Drawing on expertise and objectivity, the Parent Institute provides a safe place for an ideas exchange on parenting practices and challenges.

Collective wisdom.
Meaningful application.

Our Purpose

The aim of the Parent Institute is to support all families in the complex work of providing for children. With childraising in the contemporary world often bearing little resemblance to what today's parents experienced in their own childhood, it can often be uncertain where to turn for advice. The Parent Institute draws upon the rich resources of experienced academics, instructors, parents and grandparents to provide meaningful events, resources and articles to partner with today's parents to support tomorrow's children.

The power of parents

The majority of a child's life can be divided into three arenas - each of vital importance to their education and development. These include time at school, time with their families, and time asleep. We must make each of these times count.

The two biggest areas of control are the school envirnonment, and the home environment. Every second that a child spends in each of these domains is spent perceiving, interpreting, learning, and practicing. They learn from what we say, and they learn even more from what we do.

Being a parent or carer of young people is a wonderful blessing, and also can seem like an impossible challenge. Everyone has an an opinion, but few know what it is like in your household.

Parents should be able to feel confident as role models, protectors, providers, companions, first aiders (for both mental and physical health challenges), safe spaces, instructors, counsellors, boundary setters. The Parent Institute believes that the resources can be found, or created, to allow this to be the case.

None of this can be achieved alone and so through partnerships within households, between households, and between home and school our young people can learn to thrive.

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School TV

The Parent Institute offers support to families through an external provider known as School TV. Barker Families have full access to the School TV libarary with talks and interviews from leading specialists on topics such as:

  • Understanding adolescence // Raising Girls / Raising Boys // Resilience // Blended Families //
  • Sleep // Body Image // Eating Disorders // Managing Screen Time //
  • Respectful Relationships // Bullying // Internet Addiction // Online Pornography // Youth Anxiety

Barker families can contact The Barker Institute for a direct link to access all content now.

Parent Hope Project

The Parent Institute is a provider of training as part of the Parent Hope project (see https://parenthopeproject.com.au/).

In Semester 1, 2024 Barker Junior School staff are being trained in the project in order to continue to support family practices at the school. This training will be extended to an offering for parents at Barker and in the wider community later in 2024. Benefits for parents include:

  • Parents learning to manage their own anxieties and anxieties of their children
  • Parents recovering confidence in their capacity to contribute to their child’s wellbeing and responsibility. 
  • Parents working as part of communities to foster emotional and social development of children

Read more about the Parent Hope project at Barker in our blog.

Lift@Barker

In 2022 and 2023 The Barker Wellbeing Team sought detailed feedback on Student Wellbeing Programs from Senior Leaders, Pastoral Care Teachers and Students. The team then sought the input of Dr Darren Morton of Avondale University. Dr Morton is a Senior Lecturer and researcher at the Lifestyle Research Centre, and he developed a wellbeing program based on the positive psychology philosophy called The Lift Project. The Barker Wellbeing Team and Dr Morton then created a hybrid student wellbeing program called Lift@Barker. This is 10 module program with a duration of 10 months. Since launching this program at Barker, Dr Morton has worked closely with our school pastoral care teachers and students to ensure the appropriate implementation of the program. Lift@Barker is a whole school program for our students, staff, and families undertaken together as a community and is implemented in our Connect Time lessons.

Find out more about The Lift Project at The Lift Project website.

Barker families can also access Lift@Barker via Canvas links. Contact The Barker Institute for more information and direct access.

Parent Institute Blog

Regular updates on research, publications, and events for parents, by parents.

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We do not disclose any information to any third parties.