Daisy Turnbull, Director of Coeducation and Academy

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day (IWD). The theme is ‘Count her in: invest in women, accelerate progress’. 

I recognise it seems strange to write about IWD when we made the decision to postpone our breakfast, but we did not want recent media attention to overshadow what has been a very well thought out celebration of the women who make Cranbrook and educating our current students in important gender issues. 

Throughout the term we have been highlighting female staff because they are leaders in the classroom, in pastoral care, and in sports. At Cranbrook we have around 60% of all staff female and we have a negative gender pay gap of 9.3% which means the median woman earns 9.3% more than the median man. 

Our Director of Student Wellbeing, Angelique Sanders, and I worked together on the Student Wellbeing Programme for students in Years 8-12 (Year 7 were preparing for CITF). For Years 8 and 9 they focused on gender biases and understanding the way our views on gender are shaped. Year 10 had a session on understanding the gender pay gap as well as hearing from young parents at the School, including young fathers who support their partners’ careers. Years 11 and 12 had a session on how women are not ‘counted’ fairly in the media, including understanding the impact of the male gaze for women, as well as the treatment of women in the media. They learnt how their awareness of this, and behaviour, can accelerate progress. 

International Women’s Day is an important day in the calendar to remember the work that has been done, and more that needs to be done to promote gender equality. The theme of ‘count her in’ and investing in women gave us as a school the opportunity to invest time in educating our students how to count women in, in a society that often shows them the opposite. 

But IWD should be more than a day, too. 

As we move to coeducation, we are holding events for our incoming 2026 Year 7s and hosting waitlisted and enrolled girls for a workshop with the Academy of Enterprising Girls, where they will have the chance to work together and think entrepreneurially. 

So again, I am sorry that we have postponed the breakfast, but please rest assured much has been done to discuss the importance of investing in women to accelerate progress. 

Daisy Turnbull
Director of Coeducation and Academy