Thriving at Barker

Barker College Thriving at Barker I 1

Honor Non Honores

Mission An Anglican community inspiring every learner every experience every day

Vision To be a leader in Christian education that is characterised by a global vision that inspires hope

Values Commitment Compassion Courage Integrity Respect

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Introduction

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

Maya Angelo

The word “thrive”, according to the dictionaries, derives from an Old Norse word that literally means “to grasp” (presumably at life). It means much more than simply surviving, of “staying alive’ – it conveys the notion of seizing our existence and appropriating all its fullness and substance. Surely at its most profound, this is our purpose – to inspire everyone in our community to thrive.

Over the past months, we have been considering more deeply what are the qualities of thriving at Barker. The activities and events that we offer each term at Barker are a reflection of our mission to inspire students, teachers and families to thrive and through this thriving to bring hope to others around us. If this is true, what ideas help us to enable thriving? This is especially relevant in a large and busy school that is articulated into three sub schools (Junior, Middle and Senior) and a myriad of activities, curriculum divisions and pastoral structures.

We need the language of Mission, Vision and Values to bind us all together into a shared idea about what it is to be Barker. We have these statements on our walls and in our published material. Yet, we need more – we need the through-lines of learning and 4 I Thriving at Barker

being that allow everyone to pursue thriving at Barker in an age appropriate way in their season and at their own time, whether they be in Pre-K or poised to complete the HSC, whether they be an early career teacher or someone whose entire career has been dedicated to teaching at this great school.

We have begun to describe “Thriving at Barker” as standing on four pillars: Inquiry, Rhetoric, Gratitude and Service. The first two pillars refer to our cognitive or intellectual growth. The second two refer to wellbeing and resilience. A human being fully alive will hold their intellectual and spiritual self in a harmonious whole and this harmony will make them strong all their days.

Inquiry is learning to wonder, learning to imagine and to ask questions about the world around us. We want to educate students to wonder about their world rather than being passive learners waiting for teachers to tell them what they need to know. So many things are changing rapidly.

A 21st Century learner has a vast corpus of information at their fingertips. Good schools will educate students to wonder and inquire so as to be able to access this vast sea of knowledge.

Rhetoric is understood in the way that Greek philosopher Aristotle spoke some 2400 years ago – learning to think, to reason, to persuade. The contemporary information age requires each learner to not only know but to engage in what Aristotle referred to as the civic discourse. A thriving learner at Barker will know how to think and how to engage in respectful discourse with others at a time when so many things once taken for granted are being called into question. Barker students will be active in the marketplace of ideas.

Gratitude is learning to express thankfulness for the countless blessings that flow from our education, our community and our world. Deep gratitude amplifies the good things in our lives and is one of the best catalysts we know for resilience and for what psychologists call grit.

Service is learning to seek the welfare of our community for, as the prophet Jeremiah says “in its prosperity lies your prosperity” (Jer 29:7). Jesus calls upon us to reach out to all around us, not only those within our own gates but wherever there is need: “Whatsoever you do for the least of my

brothers or sisters, that you do unto me” (Mt 25:40). A thriving person at Barker will seek to serve others both now and all their days.

Gratitude and service will be a habit of mind and a deep pedagogy of the School.

The thriving that is celebrated at Barker is not new. It has been in place for many decades and defines who we are at our School. In future years we intend to build on this, to make it the universal experience of all students and, in the process, further influence the world beyond the Mint Gates. This is our calling and the Great Cause of education in a Christian setting.

Phillip Heath

Head of Barker College

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Inquiry

We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.

Ariana Huffington, 2014

Renowned anthropologist Jane Goodall attributes her ground breaking work on primates to one key factor; having an inquiring mind. Goodall (2017) describes the process of, “Curiosity, asking questions, not getting the right answer, deciding to find out for yourself, making a mistake and not giving up and learning patience.� Inquiry is a key pillar of a Barker education for exactly these reasons. We hope for our students to retain that desire, which all students are born with, to ask questions and to have the perseverance, knowledge and self-regulation to seek the answers for themselves.

The Barker approach to Inquiry seeks to enrich and extend students as they move to the more subject-based setting of Middle and Senior schools. A feature of the curriculum in Years 7 to 10 will be units of inquiry that connect and enrich subjects through shared content and concepts. These units will be delivered in a Blended Learning environment that allows students to work at

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their own pace with the guidance of their teachers. As the curriculum becomes more prescriptive in Years 11 and 12, students can use the inquiry mindset and skillset they have developed to complete assignments, major works, and to continue to support their learning by making connections between subjects rather than seeing them in isolation.

The number of questions arising is almost limitless. Groups of students will pursue their line of inquiry and develop a level of expertise. In this way, they learn about research, about data and evidence, about synthesising ideas and presenting them in a clear manner. Their literacy, numeracy and communication skills are enhanced NOT by rote learning specific skill based tasks, but by practical application of the skills they acquire.

Guided Inquiry is a student based program that sets the learner in the centre rather than the teacher. A well run Inquiry program will involve an Exhibition of student findings shared with the community.

Inquiry learning also serves as an exceptional strategy to extend the learning of students of high intellectual ability. Highly capable students are likely to master content and concepts quicker than their peers. At Barker, academic extension programs offer these students the ability to deepen their learning through opportunities for personal inquiry, with questions that are more complex and more abstract.

Inquiry learning is often criticised for undervaluing subject knowledge and overlooking the value of explicit teaching. At Barker, we do not see these approaches as mutually exclusive. Effective inquiry learning rests on students being knowledgeable and being open to seeking deeper knowledge through asking questions. The IB Learner Profile seeks for learners to be open minded, principled inquirers and risk takers. None of these things can be achieved without deep knowledge. In a recent study, the McKinsey group referred to a learning ‘sweet spot’, where inquiry learning and explicit teaching meet. At Barker College we seek to take advantage of this sweet spot by providing learners with expert teachers and many opportunities for them to find answers to their questions through inquiry learning.

From the moment our learners start their journey at Barker College, we challenge our students to be inquisitive and engaged learners. In designing curriculum, we look closely at emerging global trends, research based frameworks, innovative approaches to learning and informed practice. We continue

to seek, question, inquire and research how best to be a leader in Christian education that is characterised by a global vison that inspires hope.

Increasing global interdependence, rapid growth of knowledge, environmental concerns and the expanding role of technology all mean that we need to prepare our children for an uncertain but exciting future. We must teach them to think and to find ways to nourish their soul and inspire hope in the world.

A Barker education aims to do more than other curricula; we have an intentional focus on academic rigour and students’ emotional well-being which we nurture by developing inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who are motivated to succeed. In a world where knowledge itself is constantly growing and evolving, ACARA states that “students need to develop a set of skills, behaviours and dispositions, or general capabilities that apply across subject-based content and equip them to be lifelong learners able to operate with confidence in a complex, information-rich, globalised world.’

by Greg Longney

Director of Learning and Enrichment

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Rhetoric Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Philip Dow argues the centre of intellectual education is enabling students to seek and find truth. He continues by explaining that truth can often be obscured. Rhetoric describes how Barker students will develop their minds such that they might be pursuers of truth. If Inquiry is the desire to search for the truth, rhetoric is the toolset to search for truth especially in collaborative environments.

Specifically, it is the ability to think, reason and persuade, both individually and in community.

The traditional definition of Rhetoric surrounds how language (written, spoken, and even visual) is constructed. The focus is on the language, but extends to how the language is used to communicate, persuade, create change, and create knowledge. Barker’s conception of Rhetoric extends beyond just language to knowledge and thinking processes amongst students.

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While the term Rhetoric can be used with negative connotations to describe when language is used contrary to the discovery or communication of truth (e.g. ‘empty rhetoric’), many philosophers consider Rhetoric a more noble pursuit. Aristotle’s notion of Rhetoric was concerned not only with persuasion, but persuasion for the purpose of conceiving and promoting truth and the good life.

Richard McKeon (a 20th Century American philosopher) contends that “rhetoric organizes and gives structure to the other arts and disciplines… it becomes the study of how we organize our thinking on a wide range of subjects”. Rhetoric is a fundamentally philosophical pursuit.

Rhetoric at Barker has three subsets, each of which relate to skills essential for academic, corporate and social situations. These are; learning to process information, learning to

persuade, and be persuaded by truth and finally learning to communicate effectively, and work collaboratively.

The Australian Curriculum requires students to learn how to process information, to “reflect on thinking – think about thinking, reflect on processes, transfer knowledge into new concepts.” (ACARA, 2016). The focus moves from only being on the knowledge to the development of understanding and thinking processes which is the domain of philosophy (Lipman, 2014). Programs are designed for students to develop logical reasoning skills and assess the validity of their own decision making processes.

Students are required to analyse, synthesise and evaluate information. Students are taught information processing skills that are generally applicable to many situations but also specific to each learning area. Students develop the capacity to distil relevant information from various sources including, but not limited to, scientific graphs, tables and equations, historical sources, digital media, and works of literature. Students also grow in their abilities to understand information when it is presented by others, whether their teachers or their fellow students, improving their opportunities for learning.

In the current educational climate it is inevitable for students to sit formal examinations. As students develop their ability to process information they will be able to better understand exam questions in terms of what is being asked and what information is being provided to be used in the generation of their answer.

Each day students are invited to participate in a community of discussion and persuasion where they are invited to discourse with others to determine what is true, good, and beautiful in the world. The process of learning in any classroom is characterised by individuals learning to persuade and be persuaded by truth. Students are taught to come to this understanding through a communicative process involving expert teachers, carefully selected resources, and the wisdom and ideas of fellow students.

Students are taught to be persuasive so that other people can understand their perspectives and how they came to their views. This is an essential leadership skill.

However leaders know that they must also be listening to the ideas of those around them. By understanding persuasion, students are then able to critically assess the views of their teachers, various information sources, and their peers as they collaboratively learn together.

Rather than simply accepting what is true from the loudest voice, or the voice that they tend to agree with, by heightening the persuasiveness of arguments students are challenged to reflect deeply on their understanding of the world. They learn to participate in debates not to win, but to determine what is true.

Students learn to communicate effectively, and work collaboratively to be able to express themselves in both formal and informal situations. They will be able to follow communication conventions of various learning areas. This allows them to participate in discipline specific collaborative communities where they can build on other people’s ideas.

They will be knowledge creators not just knowledge consumers.

Social awareness and social management are also key areas developed under the pillar of Rhetoric. Students learn to be able to negotiate and resolve conflict, appreciate diverse perspectives, understand relationships, recognise emotions, and therefore make informed and considerate decisions. Effective communication is an essential skill that allows students to be generating knowledge and creating artefacts as well as equipping them for work and social situations in life after school.

by Dr Matthew Hill

Developer of Hearts and Minds Research

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Gratitude

Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

WHO, 2014

We delight in the breadth and depth of the many things that are occurring in the life of the School. Yet, in the midst of this thriving, there is a growing concern about the impact of the contemporary struggles of life on the mental health of our children and young people. Our students are not immune from the epidemic of anxiety that now appears to be besetting the culture in which our community is operating. One of the challenges that our School faces is to enable students to continue to thrive in a world of uncertainty and insecurity.

There is a worrying reality that we must all confront: how do we make the good stronger than the bad? According to researchers Baumeister, Bratlvsky, Finkenauer and Vohs (2001), “Bad is stronger than Good”.

Across a broad range of experiences, “bad experiences” seem to have a deeper impact on a person than good ones. Bad things leave a stronger impression on our minds and can make us feel negative about the world around us. The impact that this could potentially have on our young people is a great concern.

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This is a critical point for schools because so much of the character of a school is formed in the context of the social interactions in which learning occurs. A great school will build a culture where it is safe to try, safe to thrive and safe to be involved.

In recent years, however, there is strong research to suggest that the antidote to the “bad” is gratitude.

Watkins (2016) argues that an attitude of gratitude can prepare the mind to amplify positive events in such a way that in the conflict between the bad and the good experiences, good stands a better chance of prevailing. This research has enormous implications on the way in which we foster thriving in schools.

It is for this reason that we are exploring how we can build a new model of wellbeing and resilience on the big idea of gratitude.

Building a pedagogy of gratitude, making the practice of gratitude a habit of mind across an entire community. Gratitude, when it becomes a genuine community action that is shared conscientiously, has a powerful impact on learning as well as the strengthening

of mental health. Gratitude, according to Howells (2016) is a strong antidote to disengagement in learning, builds resilience and encourages commitment.

It is for this reason that Barker provides numerous outlets for our students to thrive.

It is also the reason why we must continue to work hard to ensure that we can delight in a positive community where everyone has a place to be and is celebrated for who they are. Each of us is a gift to one another and we all need to learn to express gratitude for the ways in which our lives are enriched by the lives of others.

One of the most frequently repeated sayings of the Old Testament is “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His steadfast love

endures forever” (Psalm 107). There is a reason why we are encouraged to express thankfulness - we are fortified deeply by the sense of humility and hope that it brings.

Modern researchers are rediscovering the ancient truth that an antidote to anxiety could well be found in expressing a thankful heart.

‘Where there is no gratitude, there is no meaningful movement; human affairs become rocky, painful, coldly, indifferent, unpleasant, and finally break off altogether.

The social ‘machinery’ grinds along and soon seizes up’. Margaret Visser

by Melissa Brady

Director of Coeducation Transition

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Service

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Gandhi

Service has become increasingly popular in educational contexts due to its potential to enhance student citizenship, increase communication and reflective practice skills, develop empathy and extend student learning beyond the classroom (Bettencourt, 2015). Thriving at Barker looks to move beyond this interpretation to a more altruistic approach whereby service empowers the other. Authentic service is not so much about “doing things for others” or “helping others in need”, true service ennobles and builds up the other through meaningful and transformative relationships.

The Service pillar focuses on developing a culture of collaboration and compassion characterised by respectful relationships that contribute to each other’s personal development. This approach stems from Barker’s Christian traditions in which we uphold the character and life of Jesus Christ, a humble servant who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life for the benefit of others.

Thriving at Barker looks to capture the importance of growth and flourishing of students, staff and parents. The Service pillar is to be embedded in the language and practices of teaching and learning and the pastoral and wellbeing system. In doing so, a more holistic approach can be adopted with the aim to empower others and build meaningful and transformative connections between students and those within the local, national and global community.

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Building on the themes of “Inspiring Global Hope” and “Beyond the Mint Gates” the Service pillar provides the opportunity for students, staff and parents to use their skills and abilities in creative ways to find solutions to social and environmental challenges.

This provides an exciting avenue for the Barker community to leverage the broad range of unique knowledge and skills that exist to serve the broader community. As the apostle Paul, when speaking about the Church stated; ‘for the body does not consist of one member but of many… as it is, there are many parts but one body’ (1 Cor 12:14-20, ESV). In the same way, the Barker community is one body with many parts, each offering valuable skills and knowledge that can be used for the good of others.

What does this look like?

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Our academic achievers providing opportunities for disadvantaged students in the local area to access homework assistance.

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Our talented musicians running workshops for students with a disability.

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Our scientists tackling genuine environmental problems and developing sustainable waste management systems for the School.

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Our athletes running sporting clinics for local junior sports clubs.

Examples such as these will foster meaningful relationships, promote positive mental health outcomes, and provide opportunities for students to act in ways that are just and bold. Students will recognise their ability to generate change by simply becoming involved.

In order to ensure that students and staff are engaged in meaningful and authentic service opportunities that empower others and that fall in line with the goals of “Inspiring Global Hope�, the Service pillar focuses on four criteria. These are our long term focus, service that transforms the individual, links to teaching and learning and student centred involvement with the wider community.

A long term focus sees students form meaningful relationships with local, national and global communities. Added to this, Barker service programs grow relationships which enable us to make something good, just and compassionate happen in the world.

We aim for students to continue their service long after they finish their time at Barker.

Service is linked to the real life goings on in the classroom and has strong links to the teaching and learning programs. Barker has a globally focused 21st Century model of learning that promotes an outstanding educational experience for all Pre-K to 12 students. As a Christian educational community that inspires innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges, we look to areas both inside and outside

the classroom for means by which we can contribute even in small ways, to the future of Australia.

Education is about transforming the individual, to be able to see real growth and development in students. At Barker we look beyond our present successes and implementing creative and new ideas that transform individuals and empower their growth as future leaders. Our aim is to foster innovation using emerging research and educational practice, consciously striving to be educational leaders, transforming students and staff to be visionaries of global hope.

Students are at the centre of the educational experience and we want to inspire bold and authentic leaders who will exercise their compassion as they develop their God given gifts in service to their local and global communities.

The Service pillar aims to provide students with meaningful service opportunities that support and empower the lives of others.

Yet, through this approach, many of the Barker students who currently engage in service already speak of the lasting change that takes place in their own personal development as they work alongside others.

by Simon Walker

Director of Student Leadership & Service Learning

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Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.

Jamais Cascio

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Further Reading Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Angela Duckworth

Bettencourt, M. (2015). Supporting student learning outcomes through service learning.

Foreign Language Annals, 48(3), 473–490.

Baumeister, Bratlvsky, Finkenauer and Vohs (2001), Bad is stronger than Good http://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/71516.pdf Costa, A., Developing Minds: A resource book for Teaching Thinking Bowell, T., and Kemp, G., Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide Danielle, B., (2017) Jane Goodall Makes A Simple Case For Encouraging Kids To Be Curious https://education.good.is/articles/jane-goodall-startalk Dow, P., (2013), Virtuous Minds, Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove Duckworth, A., (2016) Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance, Random House: New York Herrick, J., (2017), The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction.

Mourshed, Krawitz, and Dorn (2017), How to improve student educational outcomes: New insights from data analytics https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/social-sector/ourinsights/how-to-improve-student-educational-outcomes-new-insights-from-data-analytics Watkins (2016), A State of Preparedness: Preparing our being with gratitude http://www. kerryhowells.com/a-state-of-preparedness-preparing-our-being-with-gratitude

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91 PaciďŹ c Highway Hornsby NSW 2077 Australia 16 I Thriving at Barker

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