Amidst celebrating Barker College’s 50-year journey to becoming fully co-educational, Principal Mr Phillip Heath AM spoke to Education Matters about the ‘why’ behind some of the school’s newest initiatives.
In the past decade, Barker College Principal Mr Phillip Heath has overseen the opening of three Indigenous primary schools, a model that prioritises reaching out to communities instead of bringing in boarding students to its main campus in Hornsby.
“We close the gap before it opens,” he says.
Darkinjung Barker on the Central Coast opened in 2016 on the site of the original Yarramalong Public School. Ngarralingayil Barker in the Lower Hunter opened in 2020 on the site of the former Wollombi Public School. The third school, Dhupuma Barker, opened in 2021 in partnership with the Yothu Yindi Foundation and the Gunyangara community in northeast Arnhem Land.
Now, Barker has opened a co-educational special assistance school for children of refugees, known as Marri Mittigar, which Mr Heath describes as “a school within a school” on the College’s main campus.
“The Dharug people are the traditional owners of this place where Barker is located, in Hornsby. Marri Mittigar is a phrase that we use with permission that means ‘a place of many friends’ or in a different translation, ‘all are welcome’,” he says.
“Marri Mittigar is intended as a Kindergarten to Year 8 school for about 30 children who come from profoundly traumatised backgrounds. All the children enrolled have been either in refugee camps or had profound trauma in their families as they fled war and conflict to seek safety in Australia. Students come from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Gaza, to name a few countries.”
Mr Heath says the establishment of Marri Mittigar emerged from a profound commitment to addressing critical educational gaps and supporting some of the most vulnerable young people in Australian society.
The school recognised that the independent school sector had historically been largely absent from meaningful work supporting students with refugee experiences.
“There is a sprinkling of work going on, but not really coordinated, and most of it is left to government schools, or to NGOs or welfare programs from the Catholic sector, for example,” he says.
“I don’t think that’s acceptable. Schools like Barker need to stand with our government school colleagues and offer support as well.”
Having experienced refugee camps, war, conflict, and forced displacement, Mr Heath is acutely aware that the children didn’t choose to be in Australia but need a safe, welcoming environment to rebuild their lives.
“We want them to feel the welcome of this country and feel that they have a place that’s safe and they can enjoy their school. We wanted to create an educational model that provided more than just academic instruction – a holistic approach focusing on literacy, numeracy, and cultural understanding within a sensitive, trauma-informed framework,” he says.
Planning for the school began in earnest during the pandemic, when border restrictions and refugee management became more visible. Mr Heath says the school’s leadership saw an opportunity to stand in solidarity with refugee families, rather than leaving support entirely to government sectors or NGOs.
“We noticed that there were many children who were in refugee camps or part of a transitional resettlement arrangement, and we wanted to stand with those who serve in an attempt to seek solutions, rather than leaving the work to rest on the shoulders of others.”
Practically, the school utilised seven unused classrooms on the Barker College campus in Hornsby, creating a “school within a school” concept. This allowed students to access broader school experiences while maintaining a dedicated, supportive environment specifically designed for their needs.
The NSW Education Standards Authority inspected the proposed site for Marri Mittigar, granting registration during 2021. It officially opened in 2024.
Crucially, the school didn’t simply develop in isolation. Barker College actively networked with refugee organisations and engaged local refugee communities to understand and meet their educational needs.
“There is a large number of families from the Ukraine in this area [Hornsby], so they became aware of it through proximity,” Mr Heath says.
“We’ve also worked with Mahboba’s Promise, an Australian non-profit organisation committed to aiding underprivileged women and children and other vulnerable groups in Afghanistan. We’ve also worked with Marist180, a non-profit organisation in Blacktown, together with a number of refugee organisations in Sydney.
“Our campus lead, Julia West, is magnificent at networking and sharing and talking to people who are very active in this space, who can train and work with us and help us to deepen our own awareness of the needs of children whose background is fundamentally different from most other people who come to this school,” he says.
Barker’s approach to trauma-informed teaching has also been guided by its experience from a decade of developing its three Indigenous primary schools.
The Indigenous schools have helped immensely with understanding the impact on students of lost culture, language, agency and a sense of relationship with country too. It has also enlightened Barker on the ways in which trauma is passed on from family to family.
“We practice a trauma-informed approach with our First Nation students and we have staff who demonstrate an outstanding capacity as educators to teach students with neurodivergence and individual differences. I’ve been touched by how many staff want to be involved in Marri Mittigar,” Mr Heath says.
He says parents and families also volunteer to support the students, reflecting a sense of community and shared responsibility.
Although the ‘school within a school’ is still in its infancy, Barker has a long-term plan for success.
“The short answer is that we want children who are spiritually, socially and academically ready to access the best of Australia in mainstream education,” Mr Heath says.
“That’s why we’ve targeted Kindergarten to Year 8. We think that that is critical foundational time, so that by the time students complete Year 8, they can choose electives and start having a great deal more agency about their own career choices and contribution that they want to make to their new country, should they choose to stay here.”
To date, three students have transitioned from Marri Mittigar into external mainstream schools. Others have joined the mainstream at Barker.
“Two went to non-government schools, and one to a government selective girls’ school in the local area. We helped place them, and it’s a marvellous example of partnership for all the right reasons.”
Gender inclusivity at Barker
In 2025, Barker College is celebrating 50 years since the introduction of coeducation in its Senior School. Now fully coeducational from Kindergarten to Year 12, Mr Heath says he is proud of the evolution of gender inclusivity at Barker, a school that has fostered a culture where gender is not predetermined in career choices or identity.
“The 59 foundation Barker women who made the step of enrolling in Year 11 in 1975 set in motion a cultural experience in our community from which we have drawn so much strength. Increasing coeducation to include Year 10 in 2000 made perfect sense,” he says.
“Likewise, the transition to full coeducation from 2018 to the present day has completed the story that begun fifty years ago and, perhaps, had its antecedents in those foundational experiences in Kurrajong in 1890 when the Rev Henry Plume included the Bowman sisters in the roll of Barker College.”
The milestone marks a new horizon.
“We’re thrilled this year, because for 50 years we’ve been exploring and deepening our understanding of what coeducation looks like, initially in the Senior School, but now all the way through, so young men and women can grow up together,” he says.
“Families can be together and gender need not be a predeterminate in your career choice, nor even in your identity and self-expression.”
Now in his 12th year as principal at the school, Mr Heath says it has been a thrill to deal with life’s most profound questions when character is not the driver.
“It’s been a wonderful experience to walk through the transition with Barker, and that has taught us a lot about developing culture in a way that actually allows us to then reach out to other communities in the way that we have,” he says.
“There is a nexus there, and it’s allowed us also to be an old school and love and cherish our heritage and tradition but also be thinking about the future. It’s a unique combination.”
However, the process of achieving gender inclusivity has not always been easy or straightforward.
“We’ve learned a lot and made missteps along the way. We’re not claiming to be perfect, but moving to a fully coeducational model has allowed us to say that we are more than gender and we are more than our cultural heritage. Our humanity surpasses those things.”
Gender inclusivity aside, Mr Heath reflects on the significant changes in education he has witnessed over the past 12 years, including the rise of generative AI in education. Despite these changes, he believes that the core of education remains unchanged.
“The longer I serve in my role, the more I’m convinced that the core of education hasn’t changed much at all. That is, it’s about the relationship between students and teachers, the effectiveness of the classroom, and the importance of creating safe and welcoming school environments,” he says.
“I think that’s never been more important nor profound than we’re seeing now. We’re seeing variations on the theme, but the theme hasn’t really changed.”
In his experience, students need to feel that they belong and matter, and that somebody notices them.
“In a technological world, your source of trust and confidence and safety and peace needs to be expressed in a lively way inside an institution. It needs to matter that you’re there and somebody needs to notice if you’re not,” Mr Heath says.
To help students understand that they are seen and heard, Mr Heath delivers hand-written birthday cards every morning, without fail. If a student’s birthday falls on a Saturday, he delivers their card on Friday (or Monday, if their birthday is on Sunday). He goes into their classroom, to their desk, to give them a personal greeting. With a student population of 2810, it’s a lot of birthday cards. If their birthday is in the holidays, he posts it to them. Nobody misses out.
“It is a way of celebrating that they’re alive and that life is a gift. Choose life, because you’re the only one of you that’s ever existed in all of history. That’s an astonishing thought. It’s a way of articulating and making it real.”
Reflecting on the school’s history and successes over 135 years, Mr Heath parts with a ‘clarion call’, emphasising the need for schools like Barker to use their blessings to make a positive impact on society.
“Schools need to take their responsibilities seriously. We at Barker have enjoyed so many blessings over 135 years in this school, what are we doing with that?
“Are we answering some of the nation’s biggest questions, or are we simply serving our own needs and reputation? Because that’s not enough. I think we need to – and schools like us – need to step in to work with our government school colleagues to answer some of the nation’s biggest questions.”
