Message from Michele Marquet

Dear Parents and Carers,

It is hard to believe that we have come to the end of the first term! Thank you to all our Pre-school and Junior School families who have taken the time to thank the staff for the things we do and show their support – it has been a huge encouragement to us all, and we love working in partnership with you as your children navigate their learning journeys. We would like to thank our staff too – teachers, educators, educational assistants and our administrative team for their amazing flexibility, their unstinting and gracious support and their tireless efforts throughout the term.

Y5 – Y6 da Vinci Day with Ascham
Yesterday, we held another highly successful da Vinci Day with Y5 and Y6 students from Ascham. We were delighted to welcome some Y10 students from the Senior School and Mr Adams, High Potential Coordinator, who accompanied them. They assisted with the running of the different sections of the competition and provided support for the students.

If we are going to develop the right mindset to help our students to be ready to enter the global world, they must have opportunities to practise collaborative and creative problem-solving skills in broader contexts. Experiences like da Vinci are one of many ways the Junior School is looking to embed these skills and to help our students be ‘new world-ready’.

I thank the staff from both schools, particularly Mrs Cellini, Mrs Brodie, Miss Boniface, Mr Botto, Mr Cohen, Mrs Erickson-Adam, Ms Light, Ms Tedeschi and the Year 5 and Year 6 Teaching Teams who worked with passion to ensure the day was a success for all involved.

Staff News
After three years of dedicated and excellent work, Janine Delport, our Kindergarten Case Manager is leaving Cranbrook as she makes a move to the outskirts of Sydney with her family. We have been blessed to have Janine work with our youngest students in the Junior School, bringing early childhood development expertise and great wisdom and care to her role. We wish her and her family the very best as she starts a new adventure.

We are delighted to welcome Georgie Grant to the Kindergarten Team as our new Case Manager. Georgie comes from the UK having taught Reception at Norland Place School, the Merlin School and Garden House School in London. She is passionate about ensuring we are catering for the individual needs.

After 8 years of outstanding contribution to the Junior School, Fiona Donnelly has returned to Ireland with her family. We are so grateful for the benefits our students and families, as well as staff, have all gained from having her teach with us in a number of roles. We wish Fiona and her family the very best as they return home.

We are delighted that Ashleigh McCann has moved into the Case Manager role in Year 1. Coming to us from Victoria, Ashleigh is a highly experienced teacher with a wealth of knowledge about child development in the area of learning in the early years. Ashleigh is familiar to many, as she has worked with us in a variety of relief roles over the last year.

We know our families will welcome Georgie and Ashleigh warmly. We also look forward to welcoming back Rosie Heckes after a period of maternity leave. Rosie will mainly be working with the Year 1 and Year 2 teaching teams as an Educational Development Teacher.

The staff and I wish all our families a safe and relaxing holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone back at school at the end of April.

Kind wishes,

Michele Marquet

IPSHA Cross Country

The IPSHA Cross Country event, hosted at The Kings School on Wednesday, 10 April, was a successful day for Cranbrook Junior School. Amidst a backdrop of spirited competition and camaraderie, each student showcased their dedication and determination in their individual races. Among the standout performances, Eddie Crocker distinguished himself with an excellent 2nd place finish in the fiercely contested 10 years’ competition, closely followed by Teddy Bentvelzen clinching 6th place in the same age category. Oliver Fyfe secured the 9th position in the challenging 12 years’ event, while Samuel Partington finished an impressive 8th place in the 8/9 years’ category. Students who achieved top 15 positions have earned the opportunity to advance to the CIS Cross Country Championships. We wish them all the best for this upcoming event.

IPSHA Cross Country Participants

12’s
Oliver Fyfe
Oscar Rouse
Joseph Landman

11’s
Liam Simmons
Jerry Watson
Jasper Moore

10’s
Eddie Crocker
Teddy Bentvelzen
Hugo Croft
Louis Beeson

8/9’s
Sam Partington
Aryan Singh
Otto Buck
Aidan Pyne

From the Deputies

P-Y6 end of Term 1 and start of Term 2 Information

Please note: Term 1 finishes tomorrow – Friday, 12 April.

Term 2 commences on Tuesday, 30 April for all P-6 students. Students may return to School in either their full summer or full winter uniform. By the start of Week 4, Term 2, full winter uniform is required for all students.

For Junior School students, the holidays are an excellent time for students to have a haircut and for families to check that their son has only his own uniform items and each item is named clearly. We remind parents that the boys’ hair length should not fall below their collar.

Mother’s Day Morning – Save the date
We do hope you can join us on Friday, 10 May 2024 for our special Mother’s Day Morning at 7:45am. Mothers, grandmothers, aunts or other special females in the lives of our students are all welcome. Fathers are also welcome to attend!
Please follow this link to view an invitation to this special event taking place in Week 2.

Term 2 – Upcoming Events
Please follow this link to view the Term 2 Key Events Overview.

Notice of CSPA Meeting

CSPA Term 2 Meeting to be held on Wednesday 8 May at 6.30pm in the Governor’s Ballroom. Click here for the Agenda.

Daisy Turnbull, Director of Coeducation and Academy

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It has been an incredibly busy term for coeducation at Cranbrook. In Week 5, we hosted an afternoon tea for our incoming Year 7 students, including some of our Year 5 Junior School students, incoming boys and incoming girls. The students were led by our current SRC representatives and learnt the basics of Bin Ball, as well as getting to know each other with some physical bingo.

In Week 10, we hosted the Young Change Agents Academy of Enterprising Girls workshop with over 50 female students from Years 5 – 9. The students were tasked with coming up with a social enterprise idea that solves a problem in their community. From food to a robot delivery service, to banning social media and dog friendly green spaces, the girls showed how effective they can be in solving problems for the future, working as risk takers, thinkers, inquirers, open-minded people, communicators and in a very short amount of time with only a few dozen Taylor Swift mentions throughout the day!

On Monday this week, we hosted Year 10 Kincoppal Rose Bay for the students to listen to Katrina Marson speak on the topic of Relationship education: what’s the point? In this interactive session, Katrina worked with students on the topics of consent, communication and boundaries. Sessions such as these are very important for our students, and even more so to be having the conversation with girls, rather than only hearing half the story, for half the room. 

We have also held information sessions for parents and at the start of Term 2, we will be holding an open evening for Year 9 girls to commence the enrolment process for Year 11, 2026. If you have any questions regarding coeducation, please do not hesitate to contact me or Meredith Stone, Director of Admissions. 

Coeducation – Curriculum Update: 

As Cranbrook readies for coeducation, work is being done across the school to ensure holistic preparation. This is being overseen by the Coeducation Transition Committee which includes senior leadership staff and some council members. The committee is divided across fourteen workflows from curriculum and sport to facilities and policies. Over the coming weeks, I will take you through some of the preparation happening in each of the workflows run by the Coeducation Transition Committee.  

The first area which is fundamental to the coeducation transition is our curriculum. As an IB continuum school, all students study the NESA curriculum through the lens of the Middle Years Programme. It is important to note that the vast majority of IB Schools are coeducational.  

Cranbrook will be introducing new curriculum courses in 2025, the year before girls start. We will be looking at the potential of offering HSC Dance and, in time, HSC Food Technology as well, but the latter requires specific learning spaces. Within the IB Diploma Program, we will be offering a World Religions course that aligns with the HSC Studies of Religion course.   

Work is underway in all faculty areas where programmes are being reviewed and where there is a need to refine or rewrite, we are implementing them for 2025. For example, in English, the new and streamlined Stage 4 and Stage 5 Curricula has allowed for opportunities to focus more on an increased number of perspectives that reflects the essential knowledge, understanding and skills that students are expected to learn through the study of a wide range of literature. In Year 7, the students focus on ‘Unleashing Creativity’ in their opening unit, before they explore ‘A Hero’s Journey’ through close studies of The Hunger Games and Book of Dust. Each term brings an increase in rigour through the type of texts studied, but also the concepts and values evident within said texts. From ‘First Nations Stories’ to ‘Overcoming Adversity’ in Year 8, to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Orwell’s Animal Farm in Year 9, progressing towards the exploration of Macbeth in Year 10, along with a relevant and important ‘Politics and the Media’ unit, the students at Cranbrook are able to draw practical connections between their studies and the real world, preparing them for success in further study and in life. 

It is important to note that Cranbrook already has a broad range of subjects studied and our units of work reflect the world we live in, not the microcosm of a single sex school. So, while we are updating programmes, we recognise that we are already in a more gender inclusive space for many of our subject offerings. 

Daisy Turnbull
Director of Coeducation and Academy

Silly Socks and Crazy Hair Day Gallery

2024 Cranbrook Snowsports ENTRY Flyer

Click here to register by the 10 May.

Becoming a Member of Cranbrook School

Cranbrook School is a public company limited by guarantee which was established to provide students with a well-rounded, liberal education based on Christian beliefs.

It is governed by the School Council in accordance with its Constitution and has a membership comprised of eligible persons who have made significant contributions to Cranbrook or who are key stakeholders in its mission.

Parent of students in Kindergarten to Year 12 attending Cranbrook are eligible to become a Member of Cranbrook School for so long as they have a child attending the School.

The Members of Cranbrook School play an important role in the governance of Cranbrook. Being a Member entitles you to attend and vote at general meetings of Cranbrook School. This includes attending and voting at the Annual General Meeting, where the matters considered include receiving the statutory financial reports and electing members of the School Council.

If you are not already a Member of Cranbrook School, and wish to become one, please indicate your willingness to do so by completing and returning the application form which can be found on Cranbrook Connect here.

Applications are subject to approval by the School Council, and will be considered at the next possible School Council meeting after receipt of your completed application.

We encourage you to apply to become a Member of Cranbrook School and to take up the opportunity to contribute to the governance of the School.

If you have any questions regarding membership of Cranbrook School, please contact Sarah Deveson, Company Secretary, by email on councilsecretary@cranbrook.nsw.edu.au.

Geoff Lovell
President of School Council

Y3-Y6 2024 ICAS

Some Y3-Y6 families may be interested in their sons sitting ICAS assessments. These assessments are suitable for students wishing to extend themselves academically and take up the personal challenge of competing in an international assessment. ICAS papers are competitions, not standardised assessments. Please take the time to consider seriously your son’s suitability to participate in such challenging competitions. If you would like to learn more about ICAS, please follow this link.

Families can enrol their sons to sit for these competitions which will be held at an external venue. The closest venue for most families is Janison Exam Management Testing Centre which is located in Ultimo. This centre usually runs the assessments on Saturdays during mid to late August. Bookings should open shortly. To book into the external venue, please click on this link.

Working together to sharpen the mind

Da Vinci teams from Years 5, 6, 7, and 8, met for four hours on Sunday, 24 March, engaging in challenging tasks in preparation for the upcoming da Vinci Decathlon competition in Term 2, 2024.

The da Vinci Decathlon, held each year at Knox School, is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students. Students compete in teams of eight across 10 disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography, and Legacy. The Decathlon is designed to celebrate the academic gifts of Australian youth by providing a stimulating and challenging competition run in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon.

For the inaugural time, students from both Cranbrook Junior and Senior Schools united in preparation for the competition. This collaborative effort proved to be a profoundly enriching experience for all involved. Not only did students enhance their personal and teamwork skills, but they also built meaningful connections across year levels. The collaboration not only bolstered the seniors’ leadership abilities but also empowered the juniors with guidance and support, fostering a sense of friendship and shared achievement. The reflections below from some of our participants serve as a poignant testament to the impact of this collaborative endeavour.

I really enjoyed the da Vinci Decathlon prep day last Sunday. I loved pushing myself on the papers and at the end, I felt satisfied with the work I had done and what we had achieved as a team. It was valuable to learn how the Y7 and Y8 students prepared individually and as a team for the day. I think one of the biggest challenges we encountered was the first half where we split into different teams with the Year 7s. This was a challenge because of the different roles that we had to play. It was a real learning experience to see the time needed to decide who should do what paper. I have learned we need to do this before we go into the competition. Tully Sharpe (Y5)

During Sunday’s session, it became apparent that our team’s organisation was not as effective as it should have been. This made it challenging to respond to questions that required multiple documents, leading to unnecessary time spent searching for them. Additionally, there was confusion regarding task assignments, resulting in an uneven distribution of workload across different papers. Remembering to apply our majors and minors would have facilitated better coordination in task delegation. Kaspar Buck (Y6)

Despite these challenges, our team demonstrated strong collaboration, with each member contributing unique perspectives. This diversity of viewpoints enhanced our ability to comprehend questions and expedited our problem-solving process. Improved clarity regarding our majors and minors would undoubtedly have facilitated more efficient task allocation. Overall, while there were areas for improvement, our teamwork was commendable and we successfully navigated through various challenges together. Ethan Chang (Y8)

The event of helping the Junior School students was a very memorable experience. The day consisted of teaching students who were new to the system and competition and giving tips to spend their time wisely and working well within a team. I learned from the younger years that we should try as many possibilities as possible before the time runs out. The event was very engaging and memorable. Darren Cai (Y7)

I have greatly learned about how the use of teamwork is greatly effective, even when in teams with other year groups, with whom we had to pair up and use our knowledge to help the younger years. Logan Hsiao (Y8)

Christina Koika-Celllini
Assessment and Data Co-ordinator P-6

Junior School Music News

Dear Families

Below are some reminders as we look ahead to events in Term 2:

• Training Band performing at Assembly – Wednesday, 8th May, 2:30pm (Week 2)
• Music Morning Concerts in multiple music rooms – Friday, 17th May, 8:00am (Week 3)
• K-2 Junior School Music Showcase, JS Gym – Thursday, 30th May, 1:30pm (Week 5)
• 3-6 Junior School Music Showcase, JS Gym – Thursday, 30th May, 6:30pm (Week 5)
• Junior School Soirée, Senior School’s War Memorial Chapel, Thursday 13th June, 6:00pm (Week 7)
• Gala Concert, Sydney Town Hall – Monday, 24th June, 7:00pm (Week 9)

Once again, thank you for your support over the course of Term 1. I wish you a restful holiday!

Warmest wishes,

Peter Fox
Head of Music, Junior School