This paper presents the results of the fifth year of the Barker Journey project, tracking a group of students on their ten-year educational journey culminating with Year 12 in 2028. Now in Year 7, some of these students first participated in this research in Year 3 as the first coeducational year group in Years 3-6 at Barker, some others joined the Junior School later, and many moving from other schools to commence Secondary School at Barker in 2023. Consistent with previous publications on this project (Eastman and Hill, 2019, 2020; Scott and Hill, 2021, 2022) summarised in Hill and Scott (2022), a combination of interviews and surveys were used to amplify student voice to address the question of what this generation of students desires and experiences of a 21st Century education. After presenting the results in students’ own words, the article explores three key findings including that the students are growing more independent as learners but remain community oriented, that they are willing to engage in productive struggle, and that they continue to see learning as relational, partly because they perceive it will help them adapt to change, challenge and prepare them for future learning. This collectively contributes to the overarching theme for Year 7 in 2023 of seeking and developing nurturing learning relationships.

This article presents three comments on a whole school approach to refugee education. The comments are drawn from a much larger work, Towards a pedagogy for radical hope, which presents a literature informed, whole school model for refugee education in schools alongside some suggestions for implementing it. This article picks up on three important points raised in Towards a pedagogy for radical hope and presents them here in a more concise form than the larger text. The article explains the whole school model to refugee education, which sees transition, trauma awareness and teaching working together to provide an ongoing and supportive environment that recognises and incorporates the experiences of refugee students and sustains their hope in the future. The three comments on a whole school approach to refugee education are summarised under the following headings: (1) Concepts that inform a radical hope (2) Concepts that sustain a radical hope and (3) Classrooms that practice radical hope.

All schools, regardless of sector, would consider the development of student character as an important part of education. They make provision of an array of opportunities and programs that are usually well intentioned, resourced, researched and implemented which contribute to the development of student character. Character education takes this further, intentionally and explicitly aligning and sequencing all aspects of a school that are ultimately dedicated to the character formation of each student.

As part of a thriving school community, the Barker Institute has continued to evolve to provide bespoke research and review to guide policy and programs. However, the intellectual resources behind the Barker Institute are not localised to a research office, rather they are distributed across our school community. Staff, students, and community members have all been contributors to this process with the Barker Institute supporting, centralising and sharing the thinking and learning. Through various research projects, events, publications and networking, the Barker institute has continued to achieve its vision in 2023.

People of all genders and backgrounds can enjoy and succeed in Mathematics. At Barker, our classrooms are to be positive and supportive places for all learners, equipping students with the personal attributes and skills to enjoy and succeed in Mathematics at every level. Given that the wider research literature indicates differences in confidence and achievement between girls and boys in Australia, the present research has been conducted to understand and work to reduce these differences in the context of Barker’s secondary school. Barker’s context provides a unique opportunity to investigate factors that influence success in co-educational contexts a s over the last five years Barker has transitioned from a co-educational school with boys in PreK-9 and boys and girls in Years 10-12, to boys and girls in all grades at the school. In order to best meet the needs of all students, it was vital to give students a voice and learn from their experiences. This was achieved through a secondary school survey in 2022, along with focus groups and interviews in 2023. From this research, and an extensive literature review, group work was identified as one possible mechanism to build self-efficacy and an intervention was designed and conducted. Results indicate that students benefitted from all parts of the research.

Despite the recent increase in therapy dogs in schools in Australia and around the world, there is the scarcity of research and evidence regarding the impact of dog-assisted wellbeing interventions on students. While the perceived positive benefits of these interventions have been acknowledged over time and shared in various contexts (e.g., Allied Health, n.d.), there is limited evidence to support their efficacy in the educational context. Therefore, further research is needed to advance our understanding of this type of intervention. This article summarises relevant research in order to conclude with an outlined research process to provide first-hand data on the impact of a dog-assisted wellbeing program in an Australian school.

The Alexander Technique is a step-by-step process of mindful self-observation which provides a structured set of tools and insights to free instrumental teachers from established constraints and offers creative possibilities in teaching situation (de Alcantara, 2018; Madden, 2017). Such programs are important to respond to the myriad of challenges for instrumental teachers who combine performance and pedagogy skills, with behavioural management and managing employer expectations.

This article is a synthesis of constructive application of the Alexander Technique in string teaching. A more constructive pedagogy mindset was noted by the author, along with positive learning outcomes for students observed by school administrators and reported by parents. It is proposed that purpose-designed Alexander Technique classes have the potential to empower both teachers and students in making constructive and practical choices in teaching and learning scenarios.

There is a need for the agriculture sector to be proactive, upfront and be a significant part of the public conversation around how we alleviate climate change and food insecurity. A key role of agriculture education is to secure the future workforce to address these issues. Many current secondary students, in particular those of higher academic ability, place significant importance on a career path that includes altruistic or humanitarian aspects such as helping others and making a difference in the world. They see the problems the world faces and often far from being despondent, they seek a future of helping solve them. Agriculture is a very attractive career path for these secondary students and the sector would do well to double down through loudly promoting its role in being a significant way to alleviate these big global problems.

This paper investigates the impact of school sports programs on student wellbeing, emphasising the importance of physical, mental, and social health in adolescents. Through a structured survey administered to all students in Years 7 and 10, it explores students' perceptions and experiences of sports participation. The findings reveal a positive attitude towards co-curricular sports, highlighting benefits in overall health, social interaction, personal development, and enjoyment. Feedback also highlighted opportunities for ongoing enhancement in areas such as logistical arrangements, harmonising academic commitments with sports participation, fostering positive team dynamics, and expanding the range of sports offerings to cater to diverse interests and encourage flexible engagement. The data also unveils variations in perceptions and experiences across gender and year groups. The study advocates for further research employing more qualitative methods and longitudinal analyses to attain a comprehensive understanding of students' attitudes towards sports participation over time.

This article is written in two parts. Part 1, written by Greg Longney, describes the broader school context and outlines the plan to address shortcomings in the school’s advocacy for gifted students. Part 2, written by Charlotte Wells, focuses on one teacher’s experience of conducting action research and then leading change in the English Department. The overall picture is a positive one, supporting teachers to understand giftedness in all its forms, and supporting gifted students by creating appropriate levels of challenge, abstraction, and complexity in English classrooms.

Within the Barker Community, giftedness is identified and supported as students progress through their schooling. This article will provide an overview of key concepts in the field of gifted education which are put into practice at Barker. In doing so, it presents an opportunity to clarify a common misconception about the experiences and characteristics of gifted and talented students. In popular culture, the term ‘gifted and talented’ is often limited to an understanding that elite opportunities are offered to a very select number of students. This narrow interpretation places an unhelpful emphasis on high levels of performance, concentrating on the notion of success rather than that of meaningful, individualised learning. At Barker, gifted education takes a holistic approach with a focus on differentiated practice and harnessing student strengths to enable fulfilling learning experiences.

A common myth amongst parents and educators is that gifted students will be fine on their own, which results in school resources being directed elsewhere. This article explores why this myth is untrue and unhelpful. It addresses four key questions aimed to dispel misconceptions and help teachers develop their understanding of gifted learners. It investigates common characteristics of and challenges faced by gifted learners, highlighting progress that has been made in this area at Barker College and culminating in recommended strategies for individual teachers.

This paper has a subject focus on contemporary literature. The inquiry explores recent theories on race and the notion of whiteness by examining these aspects of the popular novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid that challenges readers to confront their racial assumptions and positionality. It draws on the work of Richard Dyer, Robin DiAngelo, Helen Morgan and others to apply a theoretical lens that evaluates the novels narrative devices. The paper reveals the underlying emotions, motivations and racial complexes that contribute to the tensions explored in the novel between the Islamic East and the Anglo dominant West in the post 9/11 epoch and that continue to echo in experiences and exchanges across spatial and racial boundaries. It examines the novel's unresolved tension that offers readers the opportunity to reflect on broader societal implications of racial relations.

This paper provides a snapshot of nurturing cultural responsiveness with the intent of improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students. Having defined culturally responsive teaching, it then presents results from a survey undertaken by teaching staff on the professional learning experienced and the impact that this professional learning has had. Surveyed staff indicated that professional learning with the most impact was that which contributed to both meaning and authenticity: immersive professional learning was the most effective. This was particularly clear in the increase in levels of confidence about embedding Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander histories, perspectives, and cultures into the content being taught. Continuing to nurture Culturally Responsive Pedagogies will be an important part of professional learning initiatives in this field into the future.

The contemporary educational paradigm, enriched by emergent digital pedagogies, online platforms, and AI-driven mechanisms, necessitates a considered and optimised approach to educational digital systems. This article, rooted in the metaphor of buildings before blueprints, explores the intricacies of selecting and implementing student information systems (SIS) within a K-12 institution. The study identifies four pivotal strategies based on empirical experiences grounded in cultural and historical activity theory frameworks. In synthesis, the article champions a holistic and participatory approach to integrating digital systems in education, emphasising meticulous planning, user engagement, and iterative solutions.

This paper explores the challenges faced by K-12 schools seeking to develop a framework for teachers and students using artificial intelligence (AI) that balances innovation with responsibility. As AI technology gains momentum in educational settings, developing guidelines that ensure ethical use, safeguard student privacy, promote inclusivity, and foster responsible AI practices is imperative. This article traces the development of a Working Group to propose recommendations for developing a framework for Barker College. This exploration highlights some meaningful opportunities AI brings to K-12 education while uncovering the challenges in developing proposals for a fast-moving, wide-reaching, disruptive technology. Central to this study is AI's disruption in assessment and how technology can catalyse more profound assessment reform. By sharing this approach, the paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on responsible AI integration in K-12 education and serve as a resource for educational institutions seeking to navigate the evolving landscape of AI conscientiously and responsibly.

This monograph, a supplementary addition to the 2023 Barker Institute Journal Learning in Practice, is presents a literature-informed, whole-school approach to refugee education.

Posters from the 2023 Science Extension Research Projects

This edition is inspired by the beloved Barker idiom, The Red Thread, which was initiated by Reverend Ware and Philip Heath to describe their goal for connection and unity across the many campuses of Barker College that span across Australia – from the Junior to Senior School, to Ngarralingayil, Darkinjung and Dhupuma Barker. Drawing on this concept, we have considered the threading and weaving of stories by selecting some of the key quotations from the narratives and poetry written by staff and students. I hope you enjoy this visual design’s showcasing of these words, and I hope it inspires you to write your own.

Karina Ware - Editor

The Barker Journey longitudinal study has now completed its fourth year. The subjects of the study are a group of students who celebrated the conclusion of their primary schooling in 2022. The significance of this milestone was underlined by the current Barker Journey cohort also being the first fully coeducational primary school year group to progress through Year 3-6 at Barker. This article presents an overview of the primary school phase of the Barker Journey project, 2019-2022. In so doing, it presents a longitudinal perspective on learning, teaching, and schooling that is distinctly student-based. These students are part of the generation labelled “Generation Alpha” and their narratives about how they have experienced going to school in the 21st century have provided valuable insights that deserve the attention of teacher and educational leader alike. The article provides a complementary analysis to the annually published articles that focus on student perspectives year-by-year. It explores the four year development of five topics for investigation described in the methodology of the 2019 article – values, relationships, resilience, coeducation, and aspirations – and conveys its findings with an emphasis on the concepts of continuity and change as well as lessons and provocations for educators to consider.

This paper reports on the fourth year of following the Barker Junior School Journey of the cohort of Barker students graduating Year 12 in 2028. In Term 3 of 2022, 150 Year 6 students of Barker College completed a survey, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 of these students. Questions focussed on their schooling experience and expectations for the future. Analysis presented in this paper includes an overall summary of this year’s results, in the students’ own words, followed by discussion of three key findings relevant for education in the third decade of the 21st century. These three findings were that students conceptualise learning, teaching, and schooling through personal relationships, that students value kindness as foundational to other traits and can articulate what it looks like in practice, and that students perceive meaningful learning to be about identity and belonging.

In the contemporary world there is an overabundance of data points such that the challenge of research is perhaps less about collecting the data, and more about being selective about how it is stored, categorised, used, and made sense of. In the same way, for the individual teacher, there is an overwhelming amount of academic research that exists on education which needs to be curated and distilled for practical use. Similarly, at a school like Barker, the extensively rich intellectual resources of the teaching and non-teaching staff (and arguably even the students, parents, and alumni) are to be strategically aligned to serve the community.

While recent research suggests there is no clear consensus on how to teach academic writing, there is definitely a trend towards more explicit instruction on how to plan, structure and compose writing. Furthermore, a very promising development is the explicit teaching of key sentence structures that underpin academic writing and embody the complexity of thought required to write at a sophisticated level. A review of a variety of methods is presented including application to the Barker context.

At the heart of this article are student reflections on attending the Garma Festival, an annual festival held in Gulkula, North-East Arnhem Land. Widely recognised as Australia’s premier Indigenous Festival, this event is hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, with whom Barker College has a lasting partnership through the establishment of Dhupuma Barker in Gunyangara in the Northern Territory. The article provides an informative insight into student responses to celebrating and learning about Yolŋu Culture through cultural immersion. It considers the purpose of cultural immersion programs as means for students, pre-service teachers, and teaching staff to connect with Aboriginal Culture. In particular, it focuses on the how listening to, amplifying and acting on student voice in the context of responses to Garma can set the foundation for a student-informed approach to Reconciliation.

This article summarises the results of a doctoral research project that used cultural-historical activity theory and ethnographic methods to study a group of students and teachers as they participated in blended learning activities. The study explored how and why a mainstream Australian secondary school implemented a holistic approach to blended learning and how tensions within the activity suggest further development. This article presents a secondary school blended learning model designed to resolve tensions in the existing program. The blended learning program was effective when it promoted a deep integration between online and face-to-face activities and contexts. Results suggest that activities should provide students with choice, challenge, support, and opportunities for online feedback and interaction. Schools need to weigh these benefits against increasing teachers' professional learning and implementation time.

There is growing evidence that the quality of teachers is the most important educational resource in our schools. Therefore, greater attention must be given to the factors that shape that quality. Teachers play a leading role, greater than ever, in our technologically enhanced and skill-based economies where academic underperformers are perceived to be left behind (Sywelem, 2009). Teacher quality translates directly into students’ learning. A well-prepared and skilled teacher impacts student learning and assessment more than any other student background aspect. This includes minority status, language and poverty (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Teacher Education providers should have the capacity and ability to attract students with high academic potential to teaching and then collaborate with them to meet the ever-evolving demands of learning and teaching in the 21st century. Achieving such capacity in the providers of teacher education is the collective responsibility of the nation, universities and the profession. Internationally, educational practitioners and policymakers have been focused in developing adequate accountability and quality assurance procedures for teacher education. Many countries have already accredited their teacher education programs to ensure better teachers and higher quality instruction in classrooms (Ingvarson et al, 2006).

This paper explores the development and implementation of a philosophy of service learning. Service learning is an important part of school life at Barker College with every student afforded the opportunity to engage in age-appropriate service activities that look to see positive gains in students’ attitudes toward self, attitudes toward school and learning, civic engagement, social skills, and academic performance. It is the aim of Barker’s Service Learning Program to foster academic success and develop well rounded young people who are active citizens, serving the wider community with respect, integrity and courage and compassion. Connected to the school’s teaching and learning framework, students engage in service learning experiences that is based on three concepts: Respect, Relationship and Return.

As a leader in Christian education, Barker College aims to both demonstrate and inform best practice. This journal was developed to showcase a range of initiatives and research projects from across the School. It explains the rationale behind innovations in practice and archives pivotal developments in Barker’s academic, co-curricular and pastoral realms.

While International mindedness is core to the IB PYP, research suggests that consistency in definition and application amongst IB PYP educators can be lacking. This paper explores the extent to which Barker teachers have demonstrated understanding of international mindedness, and have facilitated its development in students in a number of ways. Recommendations include ongoing training and collaboration to foster deeper connections to international mindedness through teaching and learning and engagements with local, national and international experiences. The quality of well-planned and purposeful professional learning, connected to our strategic plan and the IB Programme Standards and Practices have much value, and this vision will be implemented on our forward journey.

Outdoor education has never been more important for improving student wellbeing and academic performance. A key theme at the recent 2022 National Outdoor Education Conference, this article presents an overview of the conference at the same time as addressing how and why schools are incorporating outdoor education into their curriculum offerings. Challenges that have confronted Outdoor Education in recent years, such as climate change and COVID-19, have been taken as opportunities to rethink how learning can take place, what students need in order to thrive and how Outdoor Education as a valuable part of the schooling experience can be made more resilient.

Agriculture in a secondary school context in Australia has had a poor reputation amongst students and parents. Consequently, there have been historically low enrolments for many decades. This has contrasted with the reality of well-paid, knowledge-intense and increasingly urban-based jobs in the sector. This disparity has led to a significant shortage of university agricultural graduates needed to fill vital jobs to support the economy and society. Through a case study at one high school, this paper demonstrates how the reputation of the subject in the view of students and parents can be changed to more closely align with the modern reality of jobs in the agriculture sector. It shows that urban high school students, who traditionally would not be expected to take roles in agriculture, are not only interested in the concept of ‘paddock to plate’ but are willing to devote their lives to a career in the industry in order to make a difference.

Barker has re-established beehives on campus which support learning and teaching in Agriculture, Science and STEAM. During COVID lockdowns Bee Club was a place of social connection online and it has grown even larger in 2022. The experience of student interest in bees is not unique to Barker and there is a growing literature on the contributions to learning in academic disciplines as well as sustainability education. In this article the nature of the Barker apiary is outlined with suggestions of how it has been have implemented it effectively across the school.

This article serves as an explanation of the Concussion care and support framework at Barker College. It documents the process of the development of the current Concussion care system at Barker under a wholistic framework of student wellbeing and details the collaborative process involving students, staff, medical professionals, and family engagement. This paper outlines the Concussion Clinic’s current place in the School whilst sharing some hopes and aspirations for the future care of students in this arena.

Five literacy strategies were embedded into a Year 9 mixed-ability science classroom and the impact was evaluated through a variety of observations and student artifacts. Evidence included the analysis of pre- and post-Inquiry student samples of ‘describe’ and ‘explain’ questions and conclusions for similar practical exams, as well as overall performance scores, teacher observations of student engagement and student feedback. While the Inquiry did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in performance of short answer responses, it did show some positives from the intervention – both for the students, and for the teacher. The benefits did not seem to be the same for all groupings within the classroom – for example, the foundation group of students showed the greatest improvement in overall content knowledge, whereas the extension group showed the greatest improvement in literacy skills. Overall, the students reported increased confidence in the subject, increased ability to understand and increased understanding of the terminology. Students also felt that they were receiving feedback which could help them to improve. This research was completed as part of the Inquiry pathway submission for accreditation as Experienced Teacher with the AISNSW and ISTAA.

When the New South Wales Education Standards Authority announced a new course “Science Extension” to commence in 2019 we were thrilled that there was an opportunity for a formally-assessed capstone experience in Science for our students. From the perspective of the Barker Institute it was an exciting chance to support students doing academic research, alongside other subjects such as History Extension, Music Extension and English Extension 2. Where many capstone project courses fail is the at final step of the research process – dissemination. Research is not merely the process of conducing an investigation and writing a report, but sharing it with the wider community so that people can learn, critique, have other student researchers at multiple schools build on the projects published. I am so glad to be able to publish this journal each year now celebrating 62 articles each representing genuine contributions to science.

Language, words, and expression are the breath of this journal and we thank the students and staff who have contributed to this year's edition, with the acknowledgment that it is often a nerve-wracking experience to share your writing.

The disruption to the Barker community experienced throughout 2021 proved to be greater than that felt in 2020. This included changes to research, innovation and professional learning but the Barker Institute continued to use the rich intellectual resources of Barker College to facilitate learning and growth through the school and the wider community. It remained true to its core principles of inspiring, inquiring, informing, improving and including. The ongoing Barker Journey study, which this year explored the learning-fromhome experiences of the Year 5 students continued. In addition to this project, other initiatives such as learning as an apprentice, the multi-language classroom experience, and Barker values were pursued. The research capacity of the Barker Institute was increased through the formation of Barker’s Research for Learning Community (RLC) – a network of research-involved staff collectively engaging with and producing research. As it was for 2020, events for the whole community transitioned from face-to-face in Term 1 to online through the rest of the year but included a new initiative, the Kurrajong Heights Day featuring a conference program of TED-style talks capturing the hearts and minds of students, staff, parents and the wider community. This article serves as an overview, grouped within visions for staff, students, the community, and research in schools.

This paper reports on the third year of interviews with the cohort of Barker College students graduating Year 12 in 2028. 28 Year 5 students participated in online interviews from their homes during a 14-week period of at-home learning required through government management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specific findings relevant for any educators included the high importance of social interaction critical to the learning process, students’ need and desire for personal interaction within the digital world that this next generation naturally inhabits, and how kindness was recognised as both necessary and on display throughout the disrupted learning process. Connections to findings from the corresponding interviews with these students when in Year 3 and 4 are investigated.

When the New South Wales Education Standards Authority announced a new course “Science Extension” to commence in 2019 we were thrilled that there was an opportunity for a formally-assessed capstone experience in Science for our students. From the perspective of the Barker Institute it was an exciting chance to support students doing academic research, alongside other subjects such as History Extension, Music Extension and English Extension 2. Where many capstone project courses fail is the at final step of the research process – dissemination. Research is not merely the process of conducing an investigation and writing a report, but sharing it with the wider community so that people can learn, critique, have other student researchers at multiple schools build on the projects published. I am so glad to be able to publish this journal each year now celebrating 44 articles each representing genuine contributions to science.

Welcome to our twelfth edition of Noteworthy, Barker’s premier magazine of creative writing and skilful

artwork. Collected here, for your reading and viewing pleasure, is a huge range of our best student

writing and creative art. As always, this is a great time capsule for the wonderful writing talent that

flourishes at this school.

Despite global changes and challenges, research, innovation and professional learning continued in 2020 through the Barker Institute. Research was published, conferences became virtual, and events were run through both face-to-face and online mediums to support public health requirements. A new element of research and event topics emerged through the transition to the COVID-19 affected world as new opportunities and risks were considered for the young people at Barker and beyond. This article serves as an overview of the various presentations and areas of coverage included in the internal and external events throughout the year, concluding with a vision for 2021.

This article serves as an introduction for this edition of the Barker Institute Journal Learning In Practice by providing a context for the development of the School’s Teaching and Learning Framework. It documents the process of developing a framework from a set of ideas and important School language to a finished document. This article expresses the author’s intentions in developing the framework, details the collaborative process involving students and staff, describes the published framework, and explains the framework’s current place in the School whilst sharing some hopes about what the document can become.

In the final dark days of World War Two, as the concept for the formation of the United Nations was being imagined, Churchill is believed to have said ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’. It is hard to see how COVID-19 is a ‘good crisis’, but there are ways in which educators have sought not simply to survive these days but, by careful use of creativity, enable our teachers and students to thrive. Amongst many other initiatives that were generated by the ‘good crisis’, two have been worthy of note: a revised ‘Shape of the Online Day’; and a ‘Reimagined Academic Year’, with a ‘Personal Interest Project’ available to every student from Pre-K to Year 10.

Over a decade of research into the Barker Journey has yielded perceptive insight into aspects of the Barker experience that defy traditional metrics. In summary, the students reported that Barker had enabled them to become the best possible version of themselves. The second iteration of the study began in 2019 with the Year 3 cohort including girls for the first time. This iteration not only illuminates the students’ personal growth on an individual level, but tracks important turning points in the School at an institutional level, such as the transition to coeducation. This report examines the 2020 interview responses. It investigates the dominant recurring themes of the study (relationships, values, coeducation, aspirations and resilience), but also explores the unique challenges of 2020 that have arisen out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A previous article on blended learning in this journal focused on developing a student centred approach in using technology in the classroom (Stewart et al. 2017). As the article was written prior to the development and implementation of the current Teaching and Learning Framework at Barker, an update is required. In the same way, blended learning has been used to support other key strategic initiatives at Barker College from guided inquiry (Longney and Mifsud 2018) to formative assessment (Mifsud 2019). This paper presents evidence for the use of blended learning strategies to support the new framework.

What constitutes the best approach to education of young people from an Indigenous background is a topic of constant research and review in Australia and comparable countries. This paper will discuss the latest findings of this research and locate these findings in their historical context. It then explores some of the factors that explain why, despite the funding and effort that go into researching best practice in education for Indigenous students, it is ‘business as usual’ in most Australian schools, meaning that First Nations students are expected to adapt to a curriculum and style of education which may be at best, lacking relevance, and at worst, openly hostile, to them. Using the work of Indigenous researchers and educators, it examines the appropriateness of the Learning on Country model, particularly in remote areas. It concludes by outlining the approach being taken in one community in northern Australia to create a culturally relevant, bilingual school which will enable young people to walk in two worlds. This is the first of two complementary articles which discuss models of education for Indigenous students within and outside mainstream school campuses (Glendenning & Mynott 2020).

What constitutes the best approach to education of young people from an Indigenous background is a topic of constant research and review in Australia and comparable countries. This paper will discuss the latest findings of this research and locate these findings in their historical context. It then explores some of the factors that explain why, despite the funding and effort that go into researching best practice in education for Indigenous students, it is ‘business as usual’ in most Australian schools, meaning that First Nations students are expected to adapt to a curriculum and style of education which may be at best, lacking relevance, and at worst, openly hostile, to them. Using the work of Indigenous researchers and educators, it examines the appropriateness of the Learning on Country model, particularly in remote areas. It concludes by outlining the approach being taken in one community in northern Australia to create a culturally relevant, bilingual school which will enable young people to walk in two worlds. This is the first of two complementary articles which discuss models of education for Indigenous students within and outside mainstream school campuses (Glendenning & Mynott 2020).

Boredom is a state or a trait that is almost universally considered undesirable. It is a term that was born from an industrial age and is said to be experienced particularly by adolescents in high school. In the classroom, it has been seen as antithetical to student engagement and learning. In this sense, it is certainly something to be avoided. Rather than by becoming more entertaining, this article describes how teachers can work to reduce boredom by providing students with some autonomy and making the relevance of tasks visible. However, it will also be argued that boredom is an inevitable experience that should be embraced and even manufactured by teachers to promote endurance, creativity and reflection.

For some time, online education has been a good option for students who cannot access face-to-face teaching. While there are still examples of rudimentary online courses, both the pedagogy and technology driving online learning has improved considerably over the last decade. With the COVID-19 pandemic, there appears to be a growing number of cases where online education is actually outperforming its traditional classroom counterpart. This article considers some of the evidence that shapes student success using eLearning and online learning and what the implications might be for future educational encounters.

The Barker College Secondary School Learning Support Department aims to make learning accessible, enjoyable and successful for all students. This article brings to light the theory and practice behind their work, which often occurs behind the scenes. It also explores how the Department catered for the diverse needs of its students when the School was unexpectedly thrust into an online learning environment in March 2020, as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid shift had the potential to compound the difficulties experienced by students with extra learning needs. The Learning Support Department was able to draw on research and experiences from around the world to ensure that despite being physically remote the students were well-supported.

As a leader in Christian education, Barker College aims to both demonstrate and inform best practice. This journal was developed to showcase a range of initiatives and research projects from across the School. It explains the rationale behind innovations in practice and archives pivotal developments in Barker’s academic, co-curricular and pastoral realms.

Rapid educational change has become the norm in the 21st century. However, few could anticipate the dramatic shift to online learning that became necessary as a response to COVID-19. Barker College began 2020 in an advantageous position, having implemented a Blending Learning approach in the latter half of 2017 and having a clearly developed Teaching and Learning Framework (Barker College 2019). While the burden of guiding the community through this period has fallen on senior leadership, the implementation of their vision is carried primarily by classroom teachers and middle management. This paper will examine, from a secondary school teacher’s perspective, how a culture that embraces change has been facilitated by leadership and will explore research on change management approaches.

Mentoring can be a valuable experience for gifted learners. A mentoring relationship has the potential to engage, inspire and encourage both mentee and mentor. This article describes an approach to modifying the Mathematics curriculum for a group of high achieving students in Barker Junior School. After briefly describing a variety of strategies used to modify the curriculum, the article focuses on how two teachers worked collaboratively to establish a peer mentoring project between Year 6 and Year 9 students in 2020, including initial outcomes of the project and suggestions for further development of this approach to learning.

Student ability and achievement vary greatly and, in any given classroom, teachers have students with a wide range of needs. Multiply that by many classes across a large cohort and one gets widely divergent learning profiles. Some students are ready for extension challenges while others need more support to foster their development. Despite this, all students in a course typically take the same assessment task. While in theory an assessment task should be able to accommodate all students, in practice this can often prove difficult, particularly in subjects where tasks require students to answer only a few long questions. Differentiated assessment helps to address these concerns by providing students with the opportunity to choose appropriately challenging questions in assessment tasks. Students thus do not take the ‘same’ task but, instead, one that more comfortably challenges them.

Research has sought to understand the trajectory of engagement and subsequent achievement of gifted students in order to develop effective interventions to reduce and reverse academic underachievement (McCoach & Siegle 2003). Previous studies have demonstrated the link between high-quality interpersonal relationships and academic engagement, mediated by personal best (PB) goal setting within general student populations (e.g. Collie et al. 2016; Martin et al. 2016; Martin et al. 2019). Grounded within a self-determination theory framework, this study examines the associations between three interpersonal relationships (teacher, parent, and peer), PB goal setting, and academic engagement within a sample of high-ability middle school students. A cross-sectional, selfreport survey was undertaken with a sample of 66 male, high-performing Year 8 mathematics students, enrolled at an independent school located in Sydney, Australia. Consistent with previous research, general linear model analyses found teacher and peer relationships, but not parent relationships, to be positively associated with academic engagement. PB goal setting uniquely predicted academic engagement above and beyond each interpersonal relationship subtype. The findings of this investigation indicate the importance of fostering high quality interpersonal relationships and PB goal setting previously found in studies of general student populations also extend to gifted and talented students.

Creativity is an essential skill for 21st Century learners, yet it is often marginalised amidst a crowded curriculum. Stage 4 Mandatory Technology teachers are confronted with new syllabus documents, limited knowledge and experience of dissemination, having to be ‘jack of all trades and a master of none’, think on the run for design projects and solutions, overcome personal and situational limitations, accreditation and reporting requirements, all serve to shape expectations and limit practices and upskilling in the Technology classroom. This article will explore the nature and importance of creativity and make recommendations for cultivating critical and creative thinking in the classroom.

School reports have remained principally unchanged for close to a hundred years. Often they are received at the start of the school holidays and so any advice prescribed in them is received too late for remediation. Also, commentary might refer to work completed by students many months earlier. This brings into question the usefulness of teacher comments in a traditional school report. In addition to this, the machinery and processes associated with producing semester reports distracts teaching staff from concentrating on the teaching and learning that should be going on in their classes. This article discusses a different way to report, which is more forward looking and disaggregates the teaching and learning time from reporting.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused educators globally to rethink teaching. At the height of NSW government social isolation restrictions, the school executive made a decision to create a re-imagined 2020 calendar that included a five-week break over April and May. During this time, students from Pre-K to Year 10 were invited to undertake a personal interest project. The aim was to take the opportunity of uninterrupted time to create a learning experience that under normal circumstances would be difficult, due to the confines of school and curriculum structures. This article captures the process, result and recommendations of the ‘Unchartered Waters’ personal interest project.

Philosophical thinking is a crucial skill if students are to understand themselves and their place in the world. A Barker College education trains students to think, speak and act in ways true to their own values and in a way that engages those around them. Since 2016 all Year 9 students have experienced a short course entitled ‘Philosophy & Rhetoric’ built around persuasion which has sought to develop students’ discussion skills, metacognitive skills, deeper thinking, logical thinking, and independent thinking. In 2020, under new leadership, the course has applied persuasion to various ethical frameworks to provide a scaffold for students to complete when they are seeking to truly understand a complex issue.

This paper considers the importance of home languages in the classrooms of today and tomorrow. In an increasingly multilingual world, especially in a city with 43% of the population born overseas (Mackay 2018), it is not possible to assume that a student’s first language is English. Acknowledging the place of home languages in the classroom and leveraging it to enhance understanding is supportive of student learning and student wellbeing. This article was inspired by work conducted in the History classroom to make source material more accessible to EAL/D students at the same time as working to develop their understanding of academic English in the context of a history classroom.

This year has been a bumper year for our literary journal and it has been very difficult to choose the entries. It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the students for writing stories and poetry and this is the first year where we see a selection from the contributions of the Year 7 girls.

Undertaking proper scientific research takes curiosity, capacity and commitment. These students found research questions that they were passionate about and worked hard to implement the scientific research process to answer them. They demonstrated a high capacity for scientific thinking, inquiry and communication resulting in these high-quality journal articles. It was a joy and a privilege to work with these fine young scientists. We are incredibly proud of them and we are excited to share their work with you in this journal.

2019 was the fifth year of the Barker Institute running events, training and research in the School. Developed under the leadership of Mr Phillip Heath (Head of Barker College) and founding Director, Dr Brad Merrick, the Institute has been a gathering point for the Barker community to engage in further learning. Through sharing emerging thinking, practice and approaches to learning with the broader Barker community the Institute has continued to create an inclusive and welcoming environment that fosters learning across all key areas. This article serves as an overview of the various presentations and areas of coverage included in the internal and external events throughout the year, the first with Dr Matthew Hill as the Institute Director.

Greek philosopher Plato in his Republic wrote that educating men and women together would foster a feeling of equality, based on their ability to learn rather than gender. Yet more than 2000 years later debates about coeducation persist. As classroom teachers we know that there is no definitive ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ way of learning, there are only generalisations. Good classroom teachers tailor their lessons to meet the learning needs of the individual students in the class, not their gender. Schools and teachers should challenge gender stereotypes, not reinforce them by insisting that boys and girls are not capable of learning together. Doing so woefully underestimates the capabilities of our young people.

What constitutes a good education? When judging or choosing schools, we are often forced to examine the more ostensible features of a school, such as its facilities and its academic performance in standardised testing. Whilst these characteristics are important, they alone do not paint an accurate or holistic picture of what a school has to offer. Surveys of Barker parents have revealed that they attribute the most value to balanced education, quality of teaching and pastoral care. The question then arises, how do we examine aspects of school culture such as these that defy traditional metrics? This longitudinal, qualitative study was designed to capture the more intangible aspects of the Barker journey. It has tracked the social and emotional development of a cohort of students through their perspective over their 10 year experience at the School and will continue to follow their journeys beyond the Mint Gates. This article describes the methodology of the study, enabling replication both within a Barker context or elsewhere. It discusses the results of the study and also outlines the parameters of the next phase of research, whereby the study is recommencing in 2019 within the School’s new coeducational context.

In 2019, the Barker Institute commenced the second iteration of the ten year longitudinal study, the ‘Barker Journey’. The aim of this research is to track personal growth amongst Barker students, thus exploring what the School offers beyond the typically recognised academic and co-curricular success. The participants, the class of 2028, will be the first cohort to experience coeducation at Barker from Year 3 to 12. This report briefly outlines the methodology used throughout the research project and examines what the Year 3 interviews from 2019 reveal about the students’ journeys so far.

In recent years, developing Australia’s capacity in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects has become a national priority. It is also well known that girls tend to report lower rates of participation, enjoyment and self-belief in these subjects. With the introduction of girls to Barker in Year 7, 2020, it was timely to undertake a study in this area. Therefore, the purpose of the Travelling Fellowship was to identify ways that girls’ interest, enjoyment and participation in secondary school mathematics can be increased and to provide key recommendations for coeducational mathematics teachers. This paper is a brief summary of the full report tabled to the Barker Foundation, to which the author extends his thanks for its generous financial support of this Travelling Fellowship.

The focus of this paper is to reflect on the development of a quality teaching and learning framework within a coeducational, international school context. Using an international school based in Germany, and its partnerships with other German national schools, this paper will posit that for the successful development of a quality teaching and learning framework in a coeducational, international school context collaborative leadership that works towards authentically delivering on the school’s mission, vision and values is crucial. By extension, then, such an approach to the development of a quality teaching and learning framework should also be at the core of what is done within any school.

Darkinjung Barker continues to promote the development of a quality education in a happy and safe environment built on the values of commitment, compassion, courage, integrity and respect. I see growth every day. Growth cannot always be measured with graphs, data and statistics. Social, emotional, cultural and general wellbeing are areas of huge improvement. Learning about ATSI histories and cultures allows students to develop respect for diversity and understanding of cultural difference. It is an opportunity to acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners and ongoing custodians of the land - the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

In July 2019, I fortunate to be able to attend the Project Zero Classroom 2019 course at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The course ran for five days and included a mix of plenary sessions and mini-courses all tailored for learning, thinking, questioning and creating. ‘Creating Cultures of Thinking’ was a foundation behind the course’s implementation and this led to deeper discussion about increasing student understanding and engagement.

This paper is a reflection on the process of investigating the School’s practices for our most able learners and a review of approaches that are best suited to the needs of gifted and high potential learners. The title is adapted from Michael Cooney’s book about his work as speech-writer for Julia Gillard

For the second year, many of Barker College’s Year 11 Physics classes have taken on a new format modelling university teaching to promote executive function, resilience, independence and self-reliant learning amongst the students. At high school, many students can perceive that their learning is their teacher’s responsibility leading to high university attrition rates when students fail to adapt to optional classes, self-directed study and homework practices. Three Year 11 Physics classes in 2018 and four in 2019 were structured in a similar format to a first-year university Physics course with weekly lectures, tutorials and experimental work (along with additional support hours at a weekly Physics’ “Access” session on one evening). In an anonymous survey of 56 students, 74% of respondents indicated that they preferred this week-by-week method of teaching over a lesson-by-lesson approach, more typical at high school. Particular benefits to the students included development of executive function and planning, improving ability to understand concepts and reducing stress and anxiety with a structures approach to classes and homework. In addition, the students profited from staff time being freed up for more personal counselling, support and tutoring as they progressed through the course.

The benefits of sports participation and positive correlations with academic improvement and wellbeing have been well researched. However, the positive outcomes are not an automatic consequence of participating. Single Sport Specialisation and the concurrent over-focus on development of sport specific skills in children is leading to higher levels of injuries and burnout. It is time to “change the game” in youth sports and the Girls Got Game program is trying to do just that – a program designed to be fun and engaging while currently designed to build capacity of our students to positively engage them in long-term sports participation.

Blended learning at Barker aims to support and strengthen existing and emerging teaching and learning strategies across the school. This paper explores the way one such strategy, formative assessment, has been strengthened using Canvas and blended learning approaches by examining one way it is being used in a Year 8 Music class. The use of formative assessment data being captured on Canvas provided teachers involved with more accurate data on the skill and content development of each student in the class. This in turn opens avenues for personalisation and differentiation of content, a particularly pertinent point as the school moves towards a fully coeducational environment.

We are all searching for that utopian classroom where the students are engaged, learning is taking place and progress is palpable. It is clear that we are not consistently achieving this as many students in Australian classrooms are currently disengaged. While classrooms are complex and teachers are diverse, research reveals that positive relationships are the key to engagement. These relationships are fostered when teachers know their students and when they make an effort to create optimistic, productive and predictable environments. Strong, warm relationships are particularly important for girls whose disengagement can look less threatening than for boys and often goes unnoticed. The way forward is for teachers to know and to care.

An increasing number of schools are running STEAM activities, but it can be difficult for schools to navigate choosing, implementing and supporting such courses. For schools effectively to implement STEAM activities, it must be clear what constitutes a STEAM activity, what these activities look like in schools, how they can be supported and which programs offer the right activities for their students.

Two reasons prompted the author to write this piece for the Barker Institute Journal. Firstly, Design and Technology teachers are planning and disseminating the new mandatory Technology Syllabus (NESA 2017) in 2019 and 2020. Secondly, Barker is transitioning to full coeducation by 2022. It is imperative to conduct a literature review on gender and technology. Cai, Fan & Du (2017) discuss a gender attitudinal gap, but then go on to state that when the general attitude was broken down to different dimensions of attitude, it showed a reduction of gender difference in the dimension of self-efficacy and belief. We, as a Design and Technology Department, hope to disseminate and implement design projects and activities to decrease the ‘gender attitudinal gap’ and ‘increase self-efficacy and belief’ in both genders.

In Term 3, a large portion of Barker staff from the Junior and Senior Schools attended a day-long workshop by Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London. Wiliam used both research and experience to prove that formative assessment strategies have a bigger impact on student improvement than any other pedagogical intervention. Having used Wiliam’s strategies for over five years in both the History classroom and in my Learning Support role, I can attest to the fact that these strategies are indeed, transformative. This article reflects on the author’s experience of using a ‘no hands up’ strategy in order to engage more students in the learning process and make understanding more visible. Through their Professional Learning strands and coaching partnerships, the Barker staff will continue to explore how formative assessment methods can become more ubiquitous across the School.

Wellbeing is an essential element of a thriving school community. This paper outlines what wellbeing is, why it is important for learning and how positive peer and student-staff relationships enhance wellbeing and learning. Pastoral care structures that support, connect and create a sense of belonging for all students are also touched on as an important element in student wellbeing.

This article explores many of the avenues that were undertaken and continue to be explored to train, support and grow pastoral leaders in the Middle School at Barker. It aims to highlight some of the initiatives that took place in the lead up to the expansion of the Middle School, beginning in 2019 with new pastoral structures being adopted.

It is exciting to introduce the 2019 edition of Noteworthy. This year’s thematic focus is world literature. Also, in this edition we farewell and honour the poet, Les Murray, who passed away earlier this year.

Undertaking proper scientific research takes curiosity, capacity and commitment. These students found research questions that they were passionate about and worked hard to implement the scientific research process to answer them. They demonstrated a high capacity for scientific thinking, inquiry and communication resulting in these high-quality journal articles. It was a joy and a privilege to work with these fine young scientists, we are incredibly proud of them, and we are excited to share their work with you in this journal.

The Barker Institute was developed in 2014 under the leadership of Mr Philip Heath and the direction of Dr Brad Merrick, seeking to place a connection across the core components of research, professional learning and innovation within the broader learning context at Barker College. Specifically, the mission of the institute was to share emerging thinking, practice and approaches to learning with the broader Barker Community and also beyond the Mints Gates to create an inclusive and welcoming environment that fosters learning across all key areas. Throughout 2018 there has been considerable growth and interest in the Barker Institute. This article serves as an overview of the various presentations and areas of coverage included in the internal and external events throughout the year. This is the last year that Dr Merrick is overseeing this initiative as he is moving to the University of Melbourne as a Senior Lecturer in Music Performance Teaching in 2019. Dr Matthew Hill will be responsible for the Barker Institute in 2019.

At the start of 2018, the Barker Institute commissioned a study of a group of High Achieving students from the 2017 HSC examination, that invited students who were all-rounders and also those who attained success in particular subject disciplines to complete an online survey that contained a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative items. These items examined the learning behaviours, strategies, self-regulated attributes and character qualities that possibly contributed to their success and also defined their approaches to learning in their final year at Barker College. An overview of key findings along with attributes and characteristics that may contribute to successful preparation and completion of formal examinations are presented, while comments related to the broader co-curricular experience are also mentioned.

Each year, we farewell the graduating cohort with pride and nostalgia, confident that they have been equipped to thrive within and contribute to the world beyond the Mint Gates. They also leave with a wealth of knowledge about how to succeed within the walls of Barker College. Rather than allowing them to leave still holding the keys for success, the Barker Institute has undertaken a study with the aim of preserving this knowledge for posterity. The 2018 study aimed to identify successful learners from the 2017 cohort, ascertain the reasons for their accomplishments and determine how to engender the same traits in their successors.

When students reach university, many classes are optional which will often result in dwindling attendance and, consequently, attrition from the course (Baik, Naylor, & Arkoudis, 2015). In 2018, three Year 11 Physics classes had the opportunity to participate in an initiative whereby their classes were structured in a similar format to a first year university Physics course with lectures, tutorials and experimental work. Students benefitted from the new structure as they were aware of what to expect in upcoming classes and their revision of the course was simplified due to content being divided into week-by-week topics. In an anonymous survey (n = 39), 79.5% of students stated a preference for this structure in their science classes as compared to a more typical lesson-by-lesson approach. By implementing this method of course delivery, it is the intention of the coordinating teachers that students would learn physics effectively, that they would see the value of the structure and therefore be more prepared for university studies and that teachers’ skills and expertise could be best utilised for the benefit of the students.

Barker College is currently moving towards a formalised inquiry program in the high school, beginning with Year 7 in 2019. This article provides an overview of the shape of inquiry in the Secondary School, including the links between the Primary Years Program (PYP) in the Junior School, the use of the guided inquiry framework and supporting strategies such as blended learning, formative assessment, Writing across the School (WATS), and other key initiatives. This paper hopes to clarify the meaning of inquiry at Barker and open a channel of dialogue amongst colleagues and the community.

The Junior School encompasses students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 6. With the completion of Kurrajong, we have been able to bring the Junior School together on one site. Kurrajong is a building for classes in Pre-Kindergarten to Year 1, although Year 2 has moved in for the next twelve months whilst the transition to co-education takes shape. Bringing together Pre-Kindergarten to Year 6 provides a great platform for the Junior School as it takes on the Primary Years’ Program of the International Baccalaureate.

Jan Robertson (2015) highlights the need for a listening, learning school culture that is crucial to the success in developing collegial relationships. Making coaching skills an essential part of a teacher’s repertoire helps build this culture because it promotes not only collegiality but it also develops robust learning in the pursuit of quality teaching and learning.

Schools may be full of good teachers, but many have been accustomed to working alone in silos. Professional development has traditionally focused on the individual teacher seeking growth in a particular area of content or practice with little impact on the school or student learning overall. Research supports collaborative approaches to professional learning as having a significant impact on school improvement. In 2018, Collaborative Professional Learning (CPL) was developed and implemented in the context of Barker College Junior School with all class teachers participating.

This Learning in Practice Journal is the second compilation of different moments in time across the breadth of Barker during 2018. Our focus on quality teaching, motivation and engagement, breadth of learning opportunities, research and collaboration are some of the key aspects of the journey for all of our students accompanied by their teachers.

In late September this year, 11 students and two staff went to Timor-Leste to spend some time in communities in and around the capital, Dili. They also spent a weekend at a youth leadership course at Liquica, 45 minutes from Dili. The Rotary Youth Program of Encouragement (RYPEN) was a chance for our students to engage with students their own age from the Liquica district. This was the third year of this service learning partnership between Timorese students and those of Barker College.

An artwork can be viewed or more frequently glanced upon, without much of a thought from the spectator, as to what led the artist to create an image, object and a visual response to the world. Read about the passion, investigation and vision of two current student artists from Barker College and recognise the valuable insights they share through their artworks.

Welcome to our ninth edition of Noteworthy, Barker’s magazine of creative writing and artwork. Here once again is a real range of our best student writing and creative art.

The Barker Institute was developed in 2014 under the leadership of Mr Philip Heath and the direction of Dr Brad Merrick, looking to place a connection across the core components of research, professional learning and innovation within the broader learning context at Barker College. Specifically, the mission of the institute was to share emerging thinking, practice and approaches to learning with the broader Barker Community and also beyond the Mint Gates, so as to create an inclusive and welcoming environment that fosters learning across all key areas. Throughout 2017, there has been considerable growth and interest in the Barker Institute and this article serves as an overview of the various presentations and areas of coverage included in the internal and external events throughout the year.

The inclusion of Rugby Sevens in the 2016 Rio Olympics combined with the Australian Women’s team achieving the coveted gold medal has been instrumental in significantly increasing exposure, and hence interest in, Rugby Sevens participation. However, the social acceptance of girls being involved in full contact sport is still developing. Injuries will remain the number one concern with a lower tolerance within the community to see girls with “traditional contact injuries” such as concussions and broken noses. Barker, in conjunction with NSW Rugby, conducted a trial competition for girls in Term 1, 2017. The program was thoroughly enjoyed by students and resulted in substantial media coverage identifying Barker as leading the way in this developing sport. Despite the positivity around the trial, it is also important to analyse all aspects of the program – in particular the injury risks.

This article provides a summary of life at Barker’s Aboriginal compass. It details the highlights and hurdles of its inaugural year, telling an inspirational story of growth, perseverance and hope.

The opening of our Darkinjung Baker Campus was met with great excitement and anticipation. In the first few weeks of Term 1, students and staff were busily getting to know each other, daily routines were being established, learning approaches were being formalised and the process of assessing each of our students’ reading strengths and areas of need had begun. The results of these assessments provided staff with a clear direction for the focus that our reading program needed to take. This information guided the design we adopted for both our class and homework reading programs. This paper provides an overview of the assessment tools used, the reading data highlighted by these assessments, along with the approach we adopted and types of activities we incorporated into our programs. Throughout this first year, our reading programs have continued to be fine-tuned as our students’ reading needs have changed. The end-of year testing results have highlighted that our students have made good progress with their reading skills. These positive results have been very encouraging, but each staff member recognises that it is vital that we continue to monitor our students’ reading performance closely and make ongoing changes to our programs.

Educational ideology has made the shift from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach. Strengthening this shift is the development of Web 2.0 technologies that for the first time are able to facilitate 21st century teaching and learning practices. Blended learning provides an environment that fosters the requirements of a student-centred education, allowing schools to draw on the best features of both online and face-to-face (F2F) learning, where the student is placed at the centre of the learning process. This paper provides a summary of the BL@Barker strategic plan, designed to facilitate blended learning at Barker College.

How should Barker College best prepare students for post-school education? Are the current structures within the Senior School appropriate to produce students who can be independent learners and thinkers, students with good skills in research, communication and collaboration, able to face the challenges and demands of tertiary study as well as be positive contributors to the global community? It is also clear that good executive functioning skills (ability to prioritise work, manage time, self-regulate, organise, set goals and plan) are essential to success in and beyond school. This paper investigates an approach to promote independent learning and improve executive functioning skills in Year 10 students using a program called eTime.

A key element of the Hearts & Minds program at Barker College has been the development of thinking skills that students can utilise in the classroom and beyond. After assessing three pilot programs in Semester 2 of 2016 the Hearts & Minds program has expanded to consist of year-long courses in the areas of Philosophy & Rhetoric for Year 9 students, and Philosophical Discussion for Year 7 students. These have sought to develop students’ discussion skills, metacognitive skills, deeper thinking, logical thinking, and independent thinking. Review of existing programs will inform continued growth in 2018.

At its heart, history is an argument. It involves generating an inquiry worth pursuing, researching divergent accounts of the past, developing a thesis and substantiating it with evidence. In my History classes, we have been using various approaches to hone the art of the argument by deciding on and defending issues of significance, conducting debates, putting historical figures on trial and using a spectrum to make judgements. An aim of these activities is to ensure an argument becomes the foundation of students’ written work. However, learning to make reasoned arguments also has intrinsic value as a touchstone of a democratic society.

This paper presents a series of reflections on the writer’s experience as a participant in the National Emerging Leaders (NELP) Program run by the Association of Independent Schools (AISNSW). The change project being undertaken focuses on the curriculum area of academic enrichment and extension. The paper reflects on how distributed leadership and growth coaching, as features of the NELP program, have contributed to the change project.

When I was at school I wanted to make a difference with my life. I hated the idea that there were people in the world who did not have access to clean drinking water and sanitation, and that is what drew me to engineering and the water industry. After university, I spent 13 years in the water industry, working for a major water utility in Sydney. I enjoyed my work. I knew every day that I was making a difference. However, a couple of things became increasingly apparent to me: we need good people to solve the problems we will face. People with passion for what they do, and an ability to sink their teeth into difficult problems and come up with new solutions. This need sent me back to university, and into high school education, with the desire to ‘win’ more people over to the STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

This Learning in Practice Journal is a compilation of different moments in time across the breadth of Barker. Our focus on quality teaching, motivation and engagement, breadth of learning opportunities, the development of the whole student and collaboration are some of the key aspects of the journey for all of our students, accompanied by their teachers.

This year has been a bumper year for our literary journal and it has been very difficult to choose the entries. It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the students for writing stories and poetry.

Since opening its doors in 2012, the Barker Bunker has been a highly-utilised facility to not only increase girls’ participation in physical activity, but also to help to improve sports’ performance. The dynamic nature of strength and conditioning, technology, training age and knowledge of our students and the advent of modern media in the exchange of ideas and accessibility to information has meant that in order to ensure the best possible experience for our students, our programmes also need to continue to evolve. We take a look back to the origins of the Bunker and also take a sneak peek at what the future holds for this much-loved facility.

Problem solving, team building, forward thinking and sustainability are key concepts that have had to be built by our successful Barker Redbacks Robotics Team. They have done this through trial, experience, reflection and strategy learned during their journey in the First Robotics’ Competition and through examining the progressive development of passion, skills and capabilities for future students. This has resulted in a robotics program that is building momentum throughout all stages of Barker College. This has grown in breadth to include First Lego League, First Tech Challenge, First Robotics Challenge and now VEX Robotics.

Research suggests that providing adolescents with opportunities to look beyond themselves is critical in the development of emotionally intelligent, content, compassionate and successful adults. This article outlines some of the ways that the Middle School seeks to encourage this way of thinking and being. It has been encouraging to observe the personal growth and satisfaction that the students have gained from these experiences.

The following paper explores the way leadership skills and character are cultivated at Barker through a range of service learning partnerships that are student centred, transformative, long term and linked to teaching and learning. The notion of Service Learning (SL) will be explored along with an explanation of the Barker Service Partnerships’ Model and several of the current programs that are available to students.