By Callum Ludwig
A stalwart of education in the Upper Yarra is giving it up as this school year comes to a close.
Millwarra Primary School Principal Rod Barnard is retiring after 51 years in education, 39 of which he served as a principal.
Mr Barnard said he’s very excited because he believes it’s time.
“Sometimes people might come to the end of their career and they might be feeling like they don’t know whether it’s time to stop or not and I just feel this is a perfect time for us, it’s time for my wife as well, for both of us to be able to enjoy ourselves together,” he said.
“We’ve got seven kids, so there’s plenty of time to spend there with our kids and then we’ve got eight grandchildren, so that’ll give us time to spend lots of time with them and any new ones that might come along.”
Mr Barnard’s career has spanned from the western suburbs like Sunbury, Sunshine and Altona before teaching on Bathurst Island in the Northern Territory. He moved to the Yarra Valley 36 years ago, starting at St Joseph’s in Yarra Junction where he spent a decade before three years at Bayswater Primary School. Following that he was the principal at Gruyere Primary School for six years before finally ending up at Millwarra where he spent the last 18 years of his career.
Reflecting on his career, Mr Barnard said he always had a special place for helping children who were underprivileged, as well as the memories of a number of people and the families he’s met over time.
“Bathurst Island was an Aboriginal community, I was the principal up there for two years and there were about 400 kids in the school up there, so that was an exciting time and we had lots of visitors up there because it was a bilingual school, and I had the privilege of actually having morning tea with (former Prime Minister) Gough Whitlam.
“But up here, it’s just being up in the Valley because it’s just a fabulous place to be, people come up in and they say ‘What a beautiful place’ and you say ‘We live here’ and we’re lucky because we live in this absolutely gorgeous place,” he said.
“I’ve had a lot to do with lots of families throughout that time, I’ve enjoyed all of that and I think people are the most important thing in the world, you can hang your hat on sometimes on things you’ve built or things you’ve done but I think I’d like to hang my hat on the fact that I’ve built relationships with people, with families, kids and staff, because that’s where schools really happen.”
Mr Barnard’s role as Millwarra’s principal is unique, with it being spread out across both its Millgrove and East Warburton campuses.
Mr Barnard said you can’t have a good school without a good staff.
“If they work together, care about each other, you have each other’s back and you’re only as good as the school next door, so you’ve got to build a good relationship with those schools around you and if you don’t do that, then you’re going to fail,” he said.
“I went to boarding school, I was at the Assumption (College) in Kilmore and there was a teacher there who was really influential, he was an absolutely lovely fellow, he cared and he really understood what was going on,”
“He pinpointed things in each student and he looked at them and helped them and supported them and when I looked at that, I thought, that’s what I want to do because I can see it’s going to make a difference.”
Mr Barnard also hopes to do some travel in his retirement, particularly around Australia which he hasn’t done for some time.
Mr Barnard said teaching is a matter of making connections.
“Teaching is about making connections with kids, making connections with your peers and with your colleagues at school, if you want a career and you want to be interested in making a difference in kids lives, interested in making a career where you enjoy the place that you come to you, where you want to get up in the morning and come to school because you love being there with your family at school, that’s to me what it is,” he said.
“They can talk about all the curriculum things and whether they’re good at teaching literacy or teaching numeracy and everything else but if you can’t make connections and you can’t work with your colleagues then you really can’t teach properly,”
“It’s a great career and I’ve got a couple of my children who are in the career and I think it’s just fabulous that they’ll be able to continue on with that.”
