Janet Silburn Barker said she was thrilled to be back at ESHS as the principal. Photo: Geoff Vivian.
A former Esperance Senior High School (ESHS) student has returned to the school but this time as the new principal.
Janet Silburn Barker attended the school as a teenager and later returned as a teacher and the head of English between 1992 and 2014.
Most recently she was the Associate Principal at Rossmoyne Senior High School in Perth.
Her heart still lies with ESHS and the Esperance community.
“It has just been wonderful coming back — I feel incredibly welcomed by the community and the school community,” Ms Silburn Barker said.
“Esperance kids are lovely – they are polite and friendly and really keen to do their best.
“I applied for this job because I care about this school and this community and also ensuring that regional kids get the very best of education.
“We have the tyranny of distance here but I think it’s so important that our students understand they are as good as any students anywhere — that’s one of my key messages for our students.”
Ms Silburn Barker said she was a country kid and one of many alumni who excelled at ESHS.
She studied law at university but said she had always been drawn to teaching.
“If you asked my father he’d say I always wanted to be a teacher… I love learning so it was a bit of an obvious thing in the end,” she said.
“Here I had some wonderful teachers who really encouraged me to love deep learning — really thinking about yourself and your place in the world and how you can contribute and serve.
“What better way to serve than through education — it is such a phenomenal leveller, it is a great way of lifting children out of poverty, it is a wonderful way of encouraging our clever thinkers to be contributors in the world.”
Ms Silburn Barker said education had changed significantly since she was a student, with the introduction of technology and Artificial Intelligence.
But she said the school had adapted with the changes and continued to produce high achievers.
“If we look at the proud history we have of producing fabulous individuals who contribute to the global economy, our students need to know that they can be anything,” she said.
“We have students who’ve won the Beazley Medal and we have students who’ve gone on to do all sorts of things at university.
“We make sure that whatever field the students want to achieve in, we can offer them that at Esperance Senior High School.
Ms Silburn Barker started her position as the ESHS principal at the beginning of term two.
Former ESHS principal Ian Maserai is now principal at Katanning Senior High School.
