Richard Barrie - Head of Aurukun Campus

Role

As Head of Aurukun Campus, I am responsible for ensuring our students achieve academic and social outcomes that are comparable to or better than any other school in Queensland. It is my job to create, support and lead a staff team that will continually challenge themselves and each other to ensure each and everyone of our students are able to achieve to their full potential.   I am have been very fortunate to have been very well supported by Aurukun Deputy Principal, Andrew Shaw.  Click here for up to date information on Aurukun Campus strategic directions.

Current Focus

Behaviour Management

• Orbit Class re-entry Process

School Transition

• Support the Transition Support Unit in their endeavours to assist our students to Boarding School.

School Attendance/ Positive Community Engagement

• Work with our attendance team to constantly review current strategies and pilot other programs.  Establishment of a Campus P&C and support of the Justice group. 

Curriculum

• Work closely with college Heads of Curriculum Liz Mackie and Mandy Whybird to ensure the effective delivery of the bound for success Scope and Sequence strategies and moderated college and cape wide tasks. (improving continuity of positive systems)
• Engage community in the You Can Do It program through Investing in Parents program.  Ensure teachers are using the program everyday in class and provide support to do so.
• Effective utilisation of Aurukun campus expertise in these areas as well as college expertise. 
• Better align our 2007 tasks with the college timelines to ensure �cross campus� sharing of expertise. 
• Improve our results in the 3, 5,7 reading writing and numeracy testing through the teaching of the testing genre and test readiness of our students. 
• Be continually vigilant that every aspect of our curriculum development is underpinned by Bound for Success.

Facilities Priorities:

• P-3 perimeter fence
• Whole of school perimeter fence
• Refurbish classrooms
• Refurbish tuckshop

My particular areas of interest in the immediate future are:

• Indigenous education
• Mentoring and supporting quality personnel in small and remote schools
• AMP schools and the effect of the AMP on staff
• The welfare of remote teachers/ administrators, in particular AMP placed teachers
• Career Pathways for small school administrators.

Personal

My teaching career in indigenous education began in 1990 when I was doing my Bachelor of Teaching Degree at QTU, where I was asked to tutor a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait students.  I began teaching at Redland Bay Primary School in 1996 as a Physical Education Teacher.   I won my first Principalship at Givelda, a one-teacher school. I went on as Principal to Saibai Island, in the Torres Strait and then to St Pauls State School on Moa Island.  Living and working in the Torres Strait proved an excellent opportunity to learn how cater for the complexities of ESL learners (proving to be a great benefit to me when I met my beautiful Thai wife, Pim) and I will always be grateful for the hospitality and generosity of Torres Strait Islands� people in my time there.  Working in Torres Strait and actually living with the tyranny of distance and geographic isolation highlighted the importance of effective transition between primary and secondary schooling as I was seeing many children slip through and out of the education system.  

I am still in my first year as Head of Aurukun Campus and I love working and living in Aurukun due to the warmth and friendliness of the Wik people, the collegiality of the  Western Cape College and the harmonious staff of Aurukun Campus.