Located on Sydney’s upper North Shore, Barker College caters for boys in Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 and girls in Years 10, 11 and 12. For 126 years, the school has offered a broad-based education across its Prep, Junior, Middle and Senior Schools.
Learning at Barker is about inspiring in students a hope for the future. Preparing them to become confident leaders in a changing world where complex problems will need creative solutions. Learning to collaborate and innovate in teams, to solve problems and to provide transformative experiences that engage and inspire is a growing priority at Barker College.
As a school founded on Christian principles it makes sense that the school focuses on creativity, innovation, on relationship development/collaboration and also on providing a transformative experience for students.
Service Partnerships: This schoolwide approach to service learning provides all students with opportunities to partner and serve both within the school and beyond. Barker Service Partnerships provide tangible opportunities for students to “learn, lead and serve” which is the framework of the leadership model at the school.
There are many other service learning programs at Barker that offer leadership opportunities for all. The Middle School Outdoor Education program; the Year 10 Community Service and Adventure Camps; as well as the Year 11 Community Service program. In addition, the Cadet program at Barker offers leadership skills and life-skills taught so comprehensively and thoroughly. The Cadet Unit at Barker is voluntary, with more than 300 boys and girls actively involved each year.
STEAM @ Barker: Barker offers an extensive range of co-curricular activities to cultivate students’ interests and to extend their abilities and experience. Barker aims to meet the needs of the individual and to cater for a wide range of recreational, cultural and sporting interests. Music, Drama, Debating, Public Speaking, Mock Trial, Visual Arts, Design and Technology, Chess, Crusaders and Agriculture are just some of the activities available to students.
Barker Robotics provides a rounded educational experience, equipping students with skills that few other high school programs can offer. It teaches students communication, teamwork, leadership and initiative, while having fun and pursuing their passion whether technical, business or artistic. Students are taken through an engineering process that involves designing, prototyping, constructing and testing their robot so that it can complete the tasks required to be a competitive player.
Barker has adopted a whole-school approach to its Robotics program, with students able to participate in Robotics from Year 5. A dedicated Robotics Centre has been created for students to work together in a team-oriented environment. Through a rewarding and enriching program, Barker aims to maximise the creative and intelligent capacity of the students, challenging them to become better so they have the skills and confidence to do what they never thought they could.
The Barker Robotics team has enjoyed outstanding success at both a national and international level and the team in 2015 was ranked in the top 20 Robotics teams in the world.
Curriculum: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Science, Modern History, Ancient History, Economics, Business Studies, Geography, Music, Visual Arts, French, Latin, Japanese, Design and Technology, Legal Studies, Industrial Technology, Software Design and Technology, Drama, PDHPE.
Facilities: Sport is an integral and compulsory part of school life at Barker College. Participation in team sports, from Year 3, allows healthy competition and skills development which are essential elements in the development of well-balanced young people. Barker students are offered a wide choice of sports and benefit from the excellent sporting facilities available to them.