Message from Michele Marquet

Dear Parents,

We excitedly await this evening’s performance of our JS Production, ‘Alex in Wonderland’. The first two performances this week were warmly received by the K-6 students and families attending, so we are eager to share our final performance tonight.

Our Year 5 students, under the expert guidance from our Drama Teacher, Miss Sophie Boniface, have put in many hours of dedicated preparation and we have been thrilled to share the show with our live audiences. A big thank you to Mrs Heather Brodie, who supported the play through the set, prop and costume creation. We also thank other Junior School staff who assisted with backstage management and supervision and assisting the performance in a plethora of other ways.

It was terrific to see so many fathers, grandfathers and other special males in our students’ lives attend last week’s Father’s Day morning, despite the rain on the day. The boys and their dads enjoyed breakfast together before taking part in a wide range of fun activities. A huge thank you to all the Junior School staff, overseen by Deputy Head – Curriculum, Genét Erickson Adam, who organised and ran the fun activities for our families to enjoy. Please follow this link to view photos from the morning.

Year 12 Farewell Assembly
Tomorrow, we will welcome to the Junior School our current Year 12 students who started their Cranbrook journey in the Junior School, along with their families, to say farewell. We look forward to wishing them the very best, as they take the next steps towards a new chapter in their lives. The occasion will also be a lovely opportunity for the students to reminisce with some of their former Junior School teachers.

Student-led Conferences
Next week our K-5 Student-led Conferences (SLC) will be held. Parents are warmly invited to spend a couple of hours with their son who will explain his learning. Please see the ‘From the Deputies’ section in this newsletter for the specific information about these conferences.

CSPA Second Hand Uniform Sale
Thank you to all our families who donated unwanted school uniforms for sale at the CSPA’s second hand uniform sale last week. Enormous thanks to the team of supportive parents who assisted with sorting the uniforms and manning the stall! Sam Roberts, the CSPA President, reported it was a hugely successful venture: “We recycled more than 750 uniform items and raised $7,755, all of which will be donated to Thread Together.”

Kind wishes

Michele Marquet
Head of Junior School

From the Deputies

Student-led Conferences

Next week, all parents and carers of students in Kindergarten to Year 5 will be able to join us on campus for our annual Student-led Conferences. We are so excited to welcome them into the classrooms for this significant event.

Student-led Conferences are one component of our formal reporting of student progress to parents, in addition to progress and semester reports, parent-teacher interviews and check-ins, plus the sharing of student workbooks. The responses from previous Student-led Conferences have been overwhelmingly positive, with parents noting how valuable this experience is to share with their child. It has been flagged in past years as one of the most important days in the year, with almost 100% attendance.

Students in the Junior School are empowered to share their work, talk about their achievements, explain their learning, answer questions and receive feedback on their efforts. This ‘one-on-one’ time between parents and children in the classroom is an extremely powerful opportunity. Parents and guardians are encouraged to provide support for their child, to be active listeners, to ask questions, to help students share their learning and to facilitate self-reflection and goal setting throughout the conference.

The important dates are:

Prayer Morning

Due to last week’s Father’s Day activities, our monthly prayer morning for parents and carers was postponed to tomorrow, Friday, 8 September. It will be held at 8am in Music Room 2 on the Junior School campus. It is an opportunity for any parents or carers in our JS community to spend time in prayer for each other and the school.

Father’s Day Gallery

24 Hour Row for Mental Fitness

Term 3 is all about our core value of Community in Boarding and next weekend we will be supporting Gotcha4Life in their ongoing quest to improve mental fitness and increase suicide prevention awareness. 

From midday on Saturday, 9 September until midday on Sunday, 10 September, the Boarding Community will be undertaking Gotcha’s non stop 24-hour row. Boys, boarding staff and families will be on an erg on the Rawson balcony at all hours of the day and night, smashing out the kms and raising money for a great cause. 

The boys and boarding community are undertaking this great challenge for charity and if you would like further information about the fundraising please contact Matt@Cranbrook.nsw.edu.au directly.

Many thanks for your support. 

Holiday Camps

With the Summer Sports season upon us, below are a list of sports camps available for the upcoming school holidays. Please click on the below links for more information and to book, or to contact the provider for information on the camps:

• Junior School Basketball Camp (JS only): https://events.humanitix.com/cranbrook-junior-school-basketball-camp-september-2023

If you have any questions please contact Eddie Lewis lewiseddie98@gmail.com

• Cricket Camp (open to both SS and JS): https://properformancecricket.com/sydney-cricket-camps/

If you have any questions please contact David Dawson david@properformancecricket.com

• Water Polo (open to JS and SS) : https://events.humanitix.com/cranbrook-water-polo-holiday-camp-september-2023

If you have any questions, please contact Greg McFadden gmcfadden@cranbrook.nsw.edu.au

Christmas Lunch Hat Competition

Plans are currently underway for this year’s Y3-Y6 Annual Christmas Lunch held later in Term 4. As part of the tradition of this lunch, we invite all students in Y3-Y6 to make a special Christmas hat to make and wear to the lunch and we award a prize for one that demonstrates wonderful creativity and cleverness, as well as having a group of honourable mentions. Students might like to start thinking about what they might make for their hat and use the upcoming holidays to start their creation. Seeing everyone’s hat is always a highlight of the day!

Learn to Swim – Transport After School Lessons

Starting from next term, Junior School families whose children have a Learn to Swim lesson after school (i.e. lessons that commence before 4:15pm) will be able to book a seat for their child to travel on the Inner West bus that goes directly from inside the Junior School to the Senior School, at the end of the school day, each day of the week. Students will be dropped off near the AFC and then walked from the bus to the pool by AFC staff and supervised while they get ready for their lesson. Parents can meet their sons at the pool. For ease when changing, it would be best if students with lessons wear their swimmers under their school uniform. Please email bus@cranbrook.nsw.edu.au if you are interested in booking a bus spot for your child and we will send a booking link once it is available. The cost is $100 per term.

We are also pleased to let parents know that if they prefer to pick up their child in carline or if their child has swimming lessons a little later in the afternoon, they can now make use of the school carpark next to the pool after 3:30pm to park during the LTS lesson.

We hope these new opportunities assist with the busyness of the traffic near the AFC in the afternoons.

Letter from the President of the CSPA

The Cranbrook School Parents Association (CSPA) is a not-for-profit association of all Cranbrook parents run by an elected committee of Year Representatives, General Committee Members and the Executive. The primary role of the CSPA is to support Cranbrook School, particularly the parent community, fostering goodwill and creating a community that is inclusive and welcoming to all. We are seeking nominations from parents across the whole school community for volunteer roles on the CSPA Committee.

Pre-Schools’ Update

Dear Parents,

Last week, we had three fantastic Father’s Day Breakfast BBQ mornings across St Michael’s and St Mark’s. Our Pre-schools would like to say a huge thank you to all the fathers and special people who joined us. The children and staff had a delightful time.

This week, on Wednesday, 6 September, we celebrated Early Childhood Educator Day! Thank you to the families who sent in their kind words to share with the teams at both Pre-schools.

Kind regards,

Abigail McFarlane
Pre-schools Coordinator

IPSHA Parent Code of Conduct

IPSHA, the Independent Schools association which organises all our sporting fixtures, has asked all member schools to remind families about the Code of Conduct for Parents whose children are engaged in our Interschool Saturday Sports competition. Sadly, there has been unfortunate parental behaviour reported at different venues and IPSHA are keen to remind everyone that the purpose of school sport is student enjoyment of the game and that there are clear expectations of how we engage with staff and coaches, as well as how spectators should behave on the sidelines during games. Please see the IPSHA Code of Conduct here.

We ask our families to fully support this protocol, so our children enjoy their sport and staff are treated with respect.

Alex in Wonderland Gallery

Optional Co-curricular for Term 4

The Term 4 Co-curricular enrolment package was emailed to parents on Monday, 4 September. Please complete the online Google enrolment form via the link in the email by Monday, 11 September.

No enrolment forms will be accepted after this date.

Please contact Annabel Boyd (jscocurricular@cranbrook.nsw.edu.au) if you have any queries.