Message from Michele Marquet, Acting Head of School
Dear Parents and Carers,
At school, we strive to help our students to build a character that embodies the values that define a Cranbrookian: individuality, excellence, respect, global-mindedness and service. Individual Cranbrookians will live out those values in unique ways, such as our guest speaker at last week’s Assembly, Geoff Coombes OAM, who shared his story with the students about how he started a charity that raised $130 million for cancer research and is now working on a new fundraising initiative, Stryde4. The School’s values are qualities we want each student to develop within themselves now and then take with them when they leave school, into whatever careers they may pursue, wherever in the world they live and work.
Recently, we have been thinking about how we might celebrate individuality and have noted how it intersects with another value – respect. Respect also underpins a third value important to our School: Service.
Service requires us to put others at the centre of what we are doing – to give them a value equal or greater than we might give ourselves. This area of character development emphasises placing someone else’s needs above our own and giving our time, our words, our skills and talents, for the good or benefit of someone or something else. In this moment, we reshape our world view a little, and we are no longer the only person in the centre.
Of course, the irony is when we do this, what we get back personally is far greater than what we ever give. How it makes us feel to have genuinely helped someone else, to have played a part in something bigger than ourselves, fills our souls like nothing else. It is the ultimate reward. But in some ways, moving ourselves from the centre of our world is not how many people naturally operate. Cranbrookians, however, have always been prepared to craft a different path. We’re proud to have witnessed those who have had the guts to consider more than just their own needs and wants. I have known thousands of young Cranbrookians during my time and the best of them have shown the courage to not be bystanders, to step up and look for ways to grow into the kind of human that thinks about others and their needs, just as much as their own. They worked out that standing apart from others in this way was an intrinsic part of living out the motto, To be, rather than to seem be. And they understood something really significant: that when we chose to serve, it can be a powerful change agent in the lives of others, but also for shaping who we are as people.
So many of our students already engage in acts of service. Every term, stories of initiatives led by our students are shared with me – from those participating in the Kids Giving Back sessions, to students running a huge variety of activities to raise funds for CETOP or other causes close to their hearts. They volunteer in impressive numbers and think up creative ways to interest their peers in the various causes they might be promoting.
At Assembly, we challenged those yet to embrace service as a mode of operating to look for opportunities and grab them, to take up the chance to serve others by putting their needs above their own wants.
We want all our students to take the time to think about the impact of their choices on others: choosing to contribute in ways that are positive and uplifting, not just for them as an individual, but in a way that will have that kind of impact on the lives of others. We know that it will change them for the better. Our character is shaped by the many thousands of decisions we make over time. The opportunity to act differently, to be different, happens in quiet unseen moments just as much as when our actions are on public display. Building a character to be proud of is done, in part, by leading through service to others. It is exciting to see our students take up that challenge and be supported by our families in this vital area of character development.
Kind wishes,
Michele Marquet
Acting Head of School
