Barrie is the Deputy Director of Education for the Diocese of Birmingham. He was previously Vicar of St John the Evangelist, Perry Barr between January 2015 and January 2023 (during which he had a part time secondment for two years to the Diocesan Education Team) and Honorary Assistant Priest (SSM) at St Michael’s Handsworth for sixteen years prior to that.
Between 2004 and 2015, Barrie was Headteacher of two different schools in the Midlands, having previously served as Deputy Headteacher, Head of Modern Languages and Advisory Teacher for Languages in schools across the Midlands. Barrie was headteacher of Granville Community School in Swadlincote, an 11-16 comprehensive school, which moved over 3 years from Serious Weaknesses to becoming the best school in the area, the rise in KS3 SATS and GCSE results making it one of the top ten most improved schools in the country. Following this, Barrie became Headteacher of Cannock Chase High School, a large 11-19 comprehensive school in Staffordshire and oversaw its successful conversion to a free-standing academy and a rise in results of 18% on GCSE headline measures and a comparable increase in A Level/sixth form results. The school also saw a rise from 4% to over 20% of sixth-formers obtaining places at Russell Group universities, and was a founding Stonewall School Champion.
Barrie was elected to the Association of School and College Leaders National Council in 2011 and was a member of the Ofsted monitoring and the Curriculum and Standards committees and the Academies and Direct Employers Group until 2014. He was also involved in writing the successful bid to the DfE for Christ Church C of E Secondary Academy, which opened in Yardley Wood in 2021.