Christian Environment

The School strives to offer each student the opportunity to come to a closer understanding of the Christian faith, and the teaching staff draw upon their personal and professional qualities in ways which provide our young people with a constant example of Christian living.

Barker is an Anglican School and welcomes students from a variety of Christian denominations and other faith traditions.

The role of our Chaplaincy team is to inspire our community through the Bible, to know God’s purpose for us. We consider this in the big questions of life but also in the details of how we live and learn; play and perform; grow and then eventually go from this School.

In a rapidly changing culture, we believe that Anglican schools should be a safe place where students can freely investigate, test and question biblical truth.

Our educational philosophy is grounded in the precepts of the Christian gospel and in Christian teaching. Christian values undergird all that we do. The School expects that parents, who may not necessarily themselves share the Christian faith, will nonetheless encourage their sons and daughters to approach Christian teaching receptively and openly, and that they will attend special family worship services each year with their sons and daughters.

You can read more about the School's historical Anglican roots here.

Chaplaincy Team

Barker's Chaplaincy team are fully immersed in the life and breadth of the School. 

The Chaplains

Reverend Pete Tong is our Senior Chaplain, and works closely with Mrs Joanna Yuen. Alongside teaching, our additional responsibilities are to conduct Chapel for each year group and play a pastoral role in the lives of the students and staff. 

In the Prep and Junior School, Rev Andrew Brown and Becky Shu lead a vibrant and engaging combination of Chapel, Christian Studies and Cru that makes an understanding of God, Jesus and the Bible accessible, relevant and fun for the youngest hearts and minds in our school. Rev Brown also visits Darkinjung Barker and Ngarralingayil Barker each week for Christian Studies and Chapel.

Three of our current Chaplains are ordained Anglican Ministers and all of them have completed, or are completing, theological qualifications ranging from Diploma to PhD level.

Barker's Chaplains are available to meet with students and their families to discuss personal issues that may arise from time to time. Pastoral matters are also addressed in Chapel services, Christian studies lessons and Cru. Students and parents are welcome to contact the School Chaplain at any time for pastoral assistance. 

Christian Studies teachers

Rob Hughes is the Head of Christian Studies and focuses on leading the teaching side of our team. All the Chaplains and Youth Works teach Christian Studies. 

Youth Workers

Our Youth Workers are graduate teachers who work closely with students to lead CRU and lunch time Bible studies. They also teach Christian Studies and other subjects. Mitch Derbyshire is our CRU Coordinator, so please get in touch with him if you have any further questions about CRU. 

CRU

The CRU group meets on Fridays at lunch in the CRU Courtyard and the CRU Room. It’s a place for students to connect with others from across Years 7-12, grow in their faith journeys as a community, and discover more about Jesus. There’s time for fun games and enjoying tasty food, as well as opportunities to get trained for service and leadership. CRU also puts on a lot of events throughout the year, including CRU Connect afternoons, InterCRU excursions, and our two major camps for the year, CRU Kickstart and CRU Senior Retreat.

CRU Small Groups also run each week and are an opportunity for students to meet in year groups to explore the Bible, to ask and answer questions about the Christian Faith, to pray and to get to know each other better. Some of our Senior School students gladly volunteer to help run the Middle School groups alongside our Chaplaincy staff.

Message from the School Chaplain

Thank you for visiting this page to find out more about Chaplaincy at Barker.

It's my honour to lead the Chaplaincy team at the School. I’m married to Katelyn, who works at another school as a school psychologist, and we have three children Chloe, Lily and Sam. As a father of primary and high-school aged children I know well the vital contribution that schools play in the raising of our children. Environments that are warm, open and safe provide the perfect context in which to grow academically, socially and spiritually.

Until recently, my working world was that of a local church. I’ve been an Anglican Minister in churches for many years, however I’ve always been convinced of the formative nature of school ministry. For me, high school was a time of questioning and testing my faith before slowly coming to understand that Jesus had given his life for me to create a personal relationship with God my Creator and Father. It’s a privilege, then, to come to a setting like Barker and assist students in their own journey of faith during such a foundational phase in their lives.

If you would like to support the Chaplaincy team by receiving regular emails with prayer points for the school, please email me.

The Reverend Pete Tong
Senior Chaplain

All students and teaching staff attend a Chapel service at least once each week. On each occasion, Barker’s Christian identity and mission is articulated and affirmed.