OBA Groups

Article Warning – the italics section of the Old Barker Football Club update was written by ChatGPT.

Coach Judd returns to kick start the men’s division two squad promotion run, having moved the goal post for success in 2023 to a top two finish. At this stage of the game, the 035’s squad looks to be playing out of their league in 2023, having been promoted from division three to division two.

It’s been a big start to the year for Old Barker Association’s North Shore Wind Symphony (NSWS), kicking off with an open rehearsal and dinner at Pennant Hills Bowling Club in late January. Since then, NSWS has been preparing repertoire for the National Band Championships in Newcastle held over the Easter break. Entering into the Open A Grade competition, NSWS will be performing a range of pieces including a march, hymn, Australian music and own choice. Prior to the competition NSWS held a concert at Barker College on 25 March 2023. Throughout the year, NSWS will continue to hold regular performances both at Barker and in the community.

To stay in touch with events and band updates, please follow them on Facebook at North Shore Wind

Not wanting to get them offside, a shout out to the division four men, masters of both tiki taka and total football.

The club got the ball rolling with pre-season commencing in January, focusing on the one percenter’s. While soccer might be a game of inches, football is a game of metric system measurement… www.oldbarkerfc.com

It’s been a long off-season for Old Barker FC.

While artificial intelligence might be coming for our cushy white-collar jobs, the football field remains a cauldron of emotions. For those looking to activate their lizard brain in a socially competitive environment, we’d love to see you down at training.

We have playing options for all abilities and ages.

Matt Vickers (05)

Symphony or on Instagram as @ northshorewindsymphony

If you are, or know someone who plays a wind or percussion instrument, please get in touch with NSWS through the above social channels to join rehearsals.

These run on a Sunday afternoon in Boyce Hall at Barker.

Eleanor Brimblecombe

Season 2023 at Old Barker Rugby Club is almost upon us. Pre-season training has begun and the season proper kicks off early April. It’ll be an exciting year for the Club as we celebrate our 55th birthday. Firstly, thanks must go to our outgoing President, Karen Penrose (Collett 78), for an amazing term in charge of the Club. She has left a lasting legacy which must be acknowledged. Karen oversaw the opening our new Clubhouse at Turramurra Memorial Oval, with its greatly improved canteen, changeroom and storage facilities. Karen was also the driving force behind the introduction of the Women’s Sevens program at Old Barker Rugby Club, which has grown fantastically from its beginnings in 2019 to now in 2023 where we have two Women’s Sevens teams, with tournament results improving year after year, including a tournament victory or two and many finals appearances.

Congratulations must also go to our new Club President, Sam Northcott (08), who was voted in at our recent AGM. With a few new faces on the Committee, Sam is looking forward to continuing the positive strides made by the previous administration.

The OBA Big Band ended 2022 on a high note. At the OBA Dinner we performed the iconic jazz album Kind of Blue (1959) by Miles Davis in its entirety! Since then the band has made a conscious decision to focus heavily on improvisation. Due to the vulnerability surrounding improvisation, many of our members avoided it during their teenage years. Since joining the OBA Big Band, these members have a new-found love for improvising and have embraced the freedom of the technique.

On the field, season 2022 was a challenging time for the Men’s and Colts programs with the heavy rainfalls of early 2022 and the hangover of COVID interruptions of previous years causing delays to training and difficulties in recruitment. Despite these challenges the results were very pleasing. 1st grade had a strong season against some quality opposition and made it the Finals where they performed admirably. 2nd grade and Colts had encouraging seasons despite not making finals. Player numbers grew from the previous season and strong numbers attended training week after week whilst on field the teams were competitive with close losses a factor in not making finals. Season 2023 is looking very promising, with increased numbers committing to training, and our move down to Division 3 of the Subbies Rugby competition meaning we can push for Finals in all grades and have a strong chance of winning Premierships.

If anyone is interested in joining Old Barker Rugby Club for season 2023, we welcome all enquiries for Players, Coaches and Managers for our Grade, Colts, and Women’s programs. Email enquiries to bobrufcpresident@gmail.com or bobrufcsecretary@gmail.com. Or come on down to the ground to watch some great rugby action during the year, and you never know, you might end up running in to an old face or two. The draw will be available soon on our website www.oldbarkerrugby.com

Bring on Season 2023!

Nick Eagleton (92) www.oldbarkerrugby.com

Recently we've focused on the iconic jazz album Time Out (1959) by Dave Brubeck. We hope to perform this album in its entirety at our many performances later in the year. In the meantime, our most recent album is currently being mixed and mastered by members in the band. You can listen to other recordings and find out more at www.OBABigBand.com

Luke Davis (09)

Up and Running - Calling all the focus quickly turned to mentoring team members (Team 4613: The Barker Readbacks) in disciplines such as engineering, electronics, pneumatics and programming as they design and build their competition robot. This involvement will continue as the team competes in tournaments scheduled in Australia, Canada, Turkey and the USA over March, April and May. To follow the team’s progress see their Facebook page www.facebook.com/ barkercollegerobotics for updates

The formation of the Old Barker Robotics (OBR) Club was formally approved by the Old Barker Association during the committee meeting last November. We are extremely excited to be officially part of the OBA community and are looking forward to being an integral part of the life of Robotics at Barker and beyond. OBR will be supporting the range of robotics teams within the School as well as fielding teams of Alumni students in post-school competitions. OBR is not just about robots, we actively seek to support Science, Technology and Engineering both at Barker and in support of alumni in their careers beyond the Mint Gates.

Since formal affiliation things for OBR have been moving very quickly – The new Barker Robotics facility has provided a dedicated Robotics alumni fellowship lounge and work area – it’s already been expanded to include a Nespresso coffee machine (thanks Mark)!

On the competitive front the recent robotics team school leavers were hoping to compete in a December 2022 competition called VexU, however, time constraints meant that we weren’t able to get a robot onto the field this year. We are hoping to compete in other competitions going into the future.

2023 is set to be an exciting and busy year for robotics at Barker and the OBR has hit the ground running with more than 35 exstudents who have signed up and are now mentoring the current robotics program from the Junior School through to the Senior School (as well as Darkinjung, Ngarralingayil and Dhupuma campuses). With increased student numbers doing Robotics at Barker (there are over 650 students registered for 2023) there is a lot going on. We are hoping OBR’s efforts will take some pressure off our tireless robotics leaders Jeser and Daiane Becker.

With the new year also comes a new FRC (First Robotics Competition) season. The FRC program is like the Firsts, in sporting parlance, for robotics. Students in Years 10 through to 12 build a robot to compete in 3 a-side teams on a specialised basketball sized field (for information about the First Robotics program and FRC see www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc website). This year’s competition is called “Charged Up”. OBR started the year strongly with 15 alumni turning out for the start of the FRC Build season to help build the full sized FRC field while the students studied the competitions 140 plus page manual.

As you can see robotics is a big movement at Barker – so much on, so much to do!

Sounds like fun? Well, OBR membership is open to any Barker alumni. You do not have to have been part of the robotics program. If you work in the areas of IT, technology or engineering or even if you are interested in supporting the program as a volunteer –please contact us at oldbarkerrobotics@gmail.com

The OBACF wrapped up 2022 with our annual Christmas Drinks at the Blue Gum Hotel. We were lucky to be joined by a range of year groups as well as some new faces and some partners. It is great to see the OBACF network expanding and cross-generational connections being made.

Please keep an eye on our Facebook page for upcoming events and reach out to any friends that might be interested in joining the fellowship!

The Old Barker Alumni Theatre Company is launching another big year with our announcement of performance dates for 2023. We are looking for thespians, theatrophiles, stage addicts, performers, producers, playwrights, and the like to be a part of OBAT this year!

Do you have an itch for the stage, the green room, or the tech box that you need to scratch? Are you curious about being a part of stage productions?

If you graduated from Barker 50 years ago you are now a member of The Old Barker Association Seniors. This is a social group who organise a number of events each year. We look forward to seeing you at our next OBA Seniors event.

If you would like further information, please contact the Alumni and Community Relations Office on (02) 8438 7283 or oba@ barker.nsw.edu.au

Ian Pont (63) Honorary Secretary

The OBACF aims to offer an opportunity for the multigenerational network of Barker Alumni to meet, connect and encourage one another in their faith journeys. We would love to grow our network even more. If you are interested in joining, please join our Facebook Group by private messaging Georgia Breckenridge (18) or contact Karina Drummond kdrummond@barker.nsw.edu.au

Georgia Breckenridge (18)

Or are you looking for a new pastime that isn’t staring at a screen for hours on end? If your answer to any of these is yes or maybe, OBAT could be for you!

After a highly successful return to the Barker stage in 2022, OBAT is back and excited to welcome new faces to this year’s performances.

Key Dates:

Thursday 22 June to Saturday 24 June – OBAT Performance Nights at Barker College www.facebook.com/oba.theatre www.instagram.com/oba.theatre

To keep up to date with everything OBAT or for any enquiries, go to our Facebook or Instagram pages.

Adam Roberts (14)

The inaugural gathering of the OBA Agriculture Society occurred recently at The Union Hotel in North Sydney. It was great to see the familiar faces of past Barker students who have graduated from Agriculture at school and gone on to a related degree and career in this important sector. It was an excellent evening sharing stories of what everyone has been up to since school, what they have learnt along the way and where they are at in their careers. All agreed that a group such as this is important and that nothing similar exists in the agriculture sector, bringing metropolitan professionals with a

Access free mental health support as a Barker Alumni.

This year has shown us that taking care of our communities and our collective wellbeing is of absolute importance. New challenges have relied on resilience, connection, and developing skills to cope with changes. In the interest of being there for you on your journey beyond being a Barker student we want to offer you support for your mental wellbeing.

Support for Life, an initiative of the Old Barker Association that has been running for the past three years, has recently career in agriculture together to share their experiences. We are planning on having around two events per year moving forward, with future events likely having a prominent guest speaker in the agriculture sector to get thinking and discussion going that will help professional development of all involved.

Scott Graham Head of Agriculture

partnered with My Mirror online psychology to provide access to three videoconferencing sessions with an experienced psychologist at no cost to you. My Mirror is a leader in “online” mental health care and provides access to skilled professionals of many demographics with focused specialisation in critical areas such as anxiety, depression, domestic violence, substance abuse, career difficulties and so much more.

My Mirror psychology sessions can be accessed from the comfort of home or from any device up to 21 hours a day, 7 days a week. These sessions are available to anyone feeling like they would benefit from talking to someone to get on track with how they are feeling and navigating life's challenges. You do not require a mental health diagnosis to access or benefit from My Mirror sessions. My Mirror psychologists use evidence-based strategies to help you build skills and strategies for resilience and agency in your life.

For more information and details on how to access these sessions please see link: https://landing. mymirror.com.au/old-barkerassociation

The entire Barker community is all in this together.

Talk to an online psychologist today

Old Barker Association is supporting you with 3 sessions with My Mirror online psychologist.