Nick Jolly, Director of Academics / Deputy Head of Senior School

Dear Parents.

A reminder to families about the upcoming Parent Teacher Interviews Day from 8am-6pm on Friday June 7. Please keep an eye on your inbox for more information soon. Classes, including Year 12 classes,  will not occur on this day; students will be welcome to stay at home and engage with the interview process or to study and undertake work set by teachers. We appreciate your support of this important day.

A reminder also to families of Year 7 regarding the study skills webinar with Dr Prue Salter next Monday night from 6pm. Please see the separate email from me regarding this event. Next week we also have Curriculum Information Webinars for Year 8 and 10 occurring Wednesday 22 May at 5.30pm and 6.30pm respectively. I will send a reminder email to these families soon. Year 11 and 12 families might be interested in a free webinar hosted by Elevate Education at 6.30pm also on Wednesday May 22 on “How You Can Help Your Child Prepare For Exams”. Click here to register for this free event.

Parents might have seen a story in the SMH this week about Sydney Grammar’s adoption of a ‘no technology in class’ policy. Their position is that laptops and other technologies serve as a distraction, and take away from the development of writing skills in class. I have been asked this week why Cranbrook does not adopt a similar position.  Our view is that we seek to take a more balanced approach, blending the use of technology with the all-important work of developing other skills in our students, including a strong focus on writing.  We live in an increasing complex world where digital literacy skills are absolutely required; but we also know the benefits of continuing to foster handwriting skills. Research shows that students retain more information when they read from books compared with a screen, and that they recall information better when they handwrite notes versus typing them. It is also worth noting that IB Diploma and HSC exams are handwritten at the end of the day! We therefore require students to maintain a workbook for every subject, and we encourage our teachers to offer some handwriting activities in every lesson wherever possible.

To assist with the development of student writing skills, the School had adopted a programme called the Writer’s Toolbox. In one English lesson each fortnight, Year 7, 8 and 11 students use the online tool to complete interactive lessons about an aspect of written expression. This includes fluency, precision, or paragraph writing. Teachers across the Senior School then embed the fortnightly literacy focus into their own lessons in a way that is authentic to their subject area. In Term 1 alone, we have seen a 45% value add in terms of increased writing strength, while students have used the AI feedback tool a total of 5,430 times. Thank you to Ms Kate Kovalik, our Literacy Coordinator, for her leadership on this initiative.

If you have any questions or comments relating to these matters, please make contact with me.

All the best.

Nick Jolly
Director of Academics / Deputy Head of Senior School