Inspirational principal retires from De la Salle High School

Inspirational principal retires from De la Salle High School

5 July 2017

DE La Salle High School’s principal can retire with peace of mind this summer. Strangford man Barry Sharvin will leave a thriving school behind when his career draws to an end this summer after more than three decades.

Barry has helped turned the Downpatrick boys’ secondary school around since he first joined as a maths and physics teacher in 1981, before being promoted to vice-principal in September 1999.

Within weeks of this promotion, inspectors warned the school was failing, giving management just four years to turn it around.

Young and enthusiastic, Barry agreed to take up the mantle, brainstorming with staff about the best way forward.

An indication of the leadership style he would later fine-tune when promoted to principal, he tapped into the school’s teaching expertise.

“Our results were not good enough,” he conceded. “Our staff was always excellent but we needed to raise our expectations of what the boys could achieve. It was about raising the bar for students.

“It was a challenge convincing colleagues of a new way to go, but once our results started shooting up it gave us a great boost. Within two years we had turned it around.”

Low literacy levels were a big part of the challenge faced and Barry believed that if reading ability improved, the rest would follow.

The pupils were helped along by Jim Curran, a teacher at the forefront of his field at the time.

Trained in synthetic phonics in London, Jim brought literacy skills to De La Salle that Barry said “set it apart.”

“No one else was using phonics at the time,” he said.

“If you teach a boy to read he can succeed in geography, history and religion and all other subjects.

“It was a combination of things that made a difference, but focusing on literacy was key.”

Indeed, De La Salle High School flourished to such an extent that it once again captured the Education Inspectorate’s attention — this time for entirely different reasons.

By 2012, inspectors were so impressed by the school’s unusual practice of filming classes to promote effective teaching, they asked to share the footage with other professionals.

“Inspectors were blown away by this and wondered how we persuaded teachers to be filmed,” recalled Barry.

“There was an atmosphere of trust among staff and we agreed there would be no blame if mistakes were made.

“If something did not work in class we abandoned it, there was lots of tweaking and it worked very well.”

Barry said he also worked hard to promote a new mission statement “Take Care, Show Care, Teach Care, Evoke Care”, asking teachers to “go the extra mile” for children.

“Inspectors said they have never come across a mission statement as simple but so well lived,” he said.

“For example, a member of staff recently bought a pair of new trainers for a refugee child, another went to the chemist to buy Bonjela for a boy while another gave dinner money to a student who had lost his own money.

“It is important the boys feel cared for and that they can come to us like a mummy or daddy. If they know somebody cares for them they give it back and classroom relationships benefit.”

As a physics and maths graduate in the late 1970s, Barry said he was advised to consider a career in computer programming.

But he chose instead to follow in family footsteps, inspired by a cousin who taught him at St Columba’s College, Portaferry, and by stories of his great grandfather, the master of Kilclief Primary School at the turn of last century.

Coincidentally, Barry’s closest work colleague, vice principal Peter Deeny, is also his first cousin. 

Peter has also enjoyed a long association with the school where he started his own primary education in 1961. 

As part of the senior leadership team, he has overseen the development of the school’s post-16 studies and is delighted the boys are able to stay after their GCSEs, enjoying well deserved continuity in their education.

Peter and Barry will retire together and although they are content to be leaving a thriving school, which now has an enrolment of 362, they both admit to “slight disappointment” that they will not be part of a proposed co-educational college for Downpatrick.

Having been involved in negotiations about the all ability school since 2006, they agree the future of secondary Catholic education in the town should be co-educational.

“Our vision is for brothers of different abilities to go to school together, for brothers and sisters and for late developers to go to one school,” said Barry.

“It would take pressure off primary schools, and a larger school by its nature will have larger debating societies, football teams etc.”

“We would love to have seen it 10 years ago. We want what is the best solution for the town and I am slightly disappointed it has not happened on our watch.”

Mr Ciaran Maguire, from St Joseph’s High School, Newry, will take over the role of principal in September.