Daisy Turnbull, Director of Coeducation and Academy

One of the most important aspects of a school’s culture and community is the student voice. At Cranbrook, we have SRC representatives from Years 7 – 11, and our Prefect body, with a Student Head of House for each House, and House Prefects that work in their House community, and as a whole school Prefect body. We also have our Head and Second Head Prefect of the whole school. 

These groups work with students across the community, staff and parents to be leaders and role models that live out our School values. 

When the first female students start in Year 11 2026, they will go through the same student leadership training that our current students do and will be able to apply for House Prefects and Head/Second Head Prefect roles. 

In each of the Day Houses where there are girls in Year 11, there will be at least one female Prefect in Year 12. Being appointed as a Prefect if you have joined Cranbrook in Year 11 is not anything new in the House system, where we have regularly had students commence at Cranbrook in that year and have become Prefects in Year 12. The Heads of Houses will look at student leadership in Years 7 – 11 regardless of which school they attended, and the voting structure will ensure all students vote for at least one boy and one girl. 

The arguments for ensuring we have female Prefects from the first 2027 Year 12 cohort may seem obvious to everyone, but I wanted to share the evidence-based reasons for ensuring female Prefect representation in every coeducational House from 2027. Firstly, as we move to coeducation, we need to, as WGEA states, “challenge traditional views of merit in recruitment and evaluation.” (https://www.wgea.gov.au/women-in-leadership). This means we must ensure our Prefect selection process offers equity of access and opportunity to all students. 

This means we will ensure our application process recognises leadership activities from previous schools, as we always have, with numerous students commencing at Cranbrook in Year 11 and becoming Prefects in Year 12. 

For the SRC, each House chooses one Year 7 to Year 9 and one Year 10 to Year 12 student to sit on the council each year. We will be either be adding a female SRC representative from each coeducational House, or ensuring there is a representative amount across Houses in the first few years. 

This process is fundamental to ensuring Cranbrook is a truly coeducational school, encouraging young men and women to work together throughout their journey at our school. The story of coeducation is not one that will remove opportunities from any current students, but instead broaden the experience all students have of working together. 

Daisy Turnbull
Director of Coeducation and Academy