Fun. Food. Family. (12 February 2014)

Post date: Feb 25, 2014 1:48:53 PM

Family@Barker Welcome Tea for Parent Volunteers (3.30pm-5.00pm)

Sec 1 Meet-the-Parents Session (5.00pm-7.00pm)

At the 12 Feb 2014 Welcome Tea for New Parent Volunteers held in the school library, the heads of the various sub-committees of Family@Barker, together with our principal Mr Peter Tan, were a choir singing from the same song sheet -- they espoused the value of community and working together as the solution to the anxieties faced by parents and their sons. Skeptics among us may roll our eyes at this kumbaya moment, but if we accept the premise that community is the answer, then the opportunities to be a part of and to build one are there for our taking. Because beyond the specifics of what each sub-committee does, whether feeding our boys through the Food Ministry, teaching them life skills through the Lighthouse Ministry, or even working behind the scenes through prayer support and publications, Family@Barker makes overtures of a sense of belonging and fellowship.

The Meet-the-Parents (MTP) session for all Sec 1 parents immediately followed the Welcome Tea and it echoed similar tones of teamwork and congruence between what happens in school and at home. Parents were invited to walk alongside our sons in three areas of development — academic excellence, strength of character and Christian service. But perhaps the strongest message we took away from the MTP lay in the challenge put to all our young sons — to decide what they want to be, who they want to be, and what they are willing to sacrifice now for what they believe they can be in the future.

Indeed, if we hit the right notes, we can, together with the school, make sweet music together.