Michele Marquet, Acting Head of School

Dear Parents and Carers,

One of the School’s underpinning values is respect. In Pre-school and Junior School, it is articulated as ‘Expect and Model Respect’ and in Senior School, with their growing maturity, the concept is expressed as ‘Model and Expect Respect’.

Respect is at the core of all human relationships: its presence or absence determines the way we treat others and the way they treat us.

From the time our youngest Cranbrookians join us in Pre-school, teaching them about what respect looks, sounds and feels like has to be part of our curriculum. Although some may say respect is how you feel about a person or an environment, you see it demonstrated in the words spoken and actions taken. At every age, as our children grow up, new situations will be faced and can challenge their understanding of respect. It is vital that we work out with them what respect looks like in each of those contexts, so respect is not a concept understood once but many times over. School and family must work together to help our young people grow into adults who genuinely respect others as a core belief, one that flows from an acknowledgement that all humans deserve a certain level of respect just because they are human. A respect for others starts with a healthy sense of self-respect – something our Student Wellbeing Programme across the School aims to foster.

To help our students understand what respect looks like in our School context, we have Student Codes of Conduct for both Junior School and Senior School. These are also printed in the students’ diaries. As we start the year, parents might like to talk through with their child what these codes are about and why they are important. Understanding what the expectations are in different contexts helps us to know what to do and say. Of course, we have a Codes of Conduct for the adults in our School community too – respect is a two-way street – and our values are for all who are part of our community at Cranbrook. There is one for our Staff, and the Parent Code of Conduct can be found here. We cannot underestimate the power of adult modelling for young people when it comes to respect. How the adults in their world respond to others, address challenging situations, resolve conflict or disagreements and approach problem solving positively, speaks volumes to our children, no matter what their age. In a world that increasingly models incivility, the role families and schools can play to demonstrate a different and more humane approach can only be good.

By understanding what respect looks like in our School’s context, we can help all members of our community to interact with each other in a way that will bring better outcomes for all and we show our children a different way to resolve problems that might arise. We are incredibly grateful to our parent community who embraces this partnership and challenge wholeheartedly.

We look forward to a busy and productive week ahead.

Kind wishes

Michele Marquet
Acting Head of School