Message from Grant Andrews, Acting Head of Junior School

Dear Families

It was a pleasure to welcome a large number of prospective families to our Open Day this week and to provide the opportunity for them to see ‘business as usual’ and experience a sense of who we are. I am always so proud of our Year 6 Event Leaders who speak so openly and honestly about the School in such a respectful and authentic manner. It takes a great amount of courage to speak and interact with visitors and our students truly rose to the challenge with integrity and courage.

This week, the Senior Leadership Team were delighted to host a sausage sizzle for our new students. It was wonderful to hear from them about their first few weeks at Cranbrook; the experiences they have enjoyed so far and the friendships they are forming. Our thanks to all CSPA reps and families who have gone out of their way to welcome newcomers (both parents and children), to help them feel connected. Your warmth, kindness, support and enthusiasm are part of what makes Cranbrook such a wonderful community. 

NAPLAN is well underway in Years 3 and 5 and will continue into next week. Our students have been incredibly well-prepared for this assessment process by the teaching teams, and we are thrilled to see them engaging with diligence and taking it in their stride. Whilst standardised testing provides us with valuable data to consider alongside numerous other assessment data points regarding academic progression, it is not a measure of kindness, respect, innovation, integrity, patience, grit, compassion and, above all, character. We are so proud of the students’ engagement, effort, encouragement and support of each other.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our CETOP Family Fun Day, this coming Sunday. I encourage families to pre-register their dogs before 6pm tomorrow, for the Pet Judging Competition, by scanning the QR code on the CETOP poster below. A special mention goes to Sophie Boniface for her incredible efforts and time in organising this fundraising event. I am enormously grateful to the numerous parents who have also been involved with the organising of this event and to the Junior School Staff for their show of support. I’ll be ready and waiting to be dunked at the Dunk the Teacher station!

Grant Andrews
Acting Head of Junior School