Pleased to meet you... Geoffrey Barham

Meet Marvelous Mr Barham

In the past few days, we have been interviewing Mr. Barham [a year 6 teacher]. We asked him a few questions about his personal life, teaching and other interesting things. In this article you will be reading facts that you never knew about him. Later in this article there will be questions that we asked and Mr. Barham's responses to them. We hope you enjoy the answers and the questions.

When did you start teaching? Why?

I started teaching last millennium – in 1999! I thought it was something important that I could do well.

What is the hardest thing as a teacher?

Recently it has been hard to do so much teaching online because you know the children are missing their friends and learning together. You must look for the opportunities that online learning brings and make the most of the time you have when you can be together.

If you could change anything in the world about teaching, what would it be?

I would like all children in the world to be able to have the high standard of education we enjoy at TBSW. We are incredibly lucky here, but not all children have the same opportunities. It would be great if everyone in the world could have such amazing teachers.

Would you rather eliminate all pollution in the world or end all wars?

That’s a tricky one! The environment is very important to me, but I would love to see a planet where no one must die needlessly and where people solve problems without using violence. Maybe we could stop war AND put our energy into helping the planet instead?

What is your opinion about Alpacas?

I’m more of a vicuña man.

How do you feel about being chosen as the subject of please to meet you?

I was beginning to think my opportunity had passed but I’m glad to finally get a chance to introduce myself.

If you were a plant, what type of plant would you be?

Bamboo is a bit of a rock star plant. It grows incredibly quickly and becomes extraordinarily strong, sucking up carbon while it does so.

 Would you rather live 100 years ago or 100 years in the future?

I suppose I’m quite curious about what the future will be like, and we already know a lot about the past, so I would choose the future.

Have you taught in different countries? If so, when? Where?

One of the best things about my job is that I have taught in different countries – it’s a great privilege to get to know about other ways of living. I have taught in the UK, Colombia, South Korea, Peru and here.

Who did you want to be as a child?

I think I wanted to be various things at different points, explorer, doctor, astronaut. However, I do remember playing at a very young age!

There were different answers to questions that we asked, some were about teaching, and some were about Alpacas, or about different topics. We can now say what does he likes and what does he dislikes. By the answers that we got. We get to know him better and we can also see what type of person he is by the responses that he gave us to our questions.

I hope you enjoyed our article!

Written by Franklin, Marysia, Olimpia, Alex