Michele Marquet, Acting Head of School

Dear Cranbrook families,

Welcome back to Term 2! It has been a pleasure to see all our students from Pre-School to Year 12 return from their holidays, ready to start a new term of learning. Students across all the year levels have settled back into routines and classes, and the campuses are already buzzing with positive activity.

One of our Cranbrook values is ‘Service’ and, frequently, activities in this area intersect with another value we hold dear, ‘Respect’. Both these values are only truly seen in actions that match words. Rhetoric alone is not enough.

Over the recent holidays, we saw both values displayed beautifully by some of our students across different age groups.

In Junior School, one group of 19 Year 6 students travelled to Nepal with a parent each and Junior School staff, Sophie Boniface, Elinor Hewett and Amelia Laumberg, for our annual CETOP tour. It was an amazing opportunity to experience firsthand another culture, and to engage and learn from the Nepali people. Always a life-changing experience, this year was no different. Students participated in a range of service opportunities with enthusiasm and sensitivity. Real learning takes place when it changes us in some way – engaging with others in a manner that builds respect for other people, and participating in experiences that show us every person can truly make a difference, are some of the most significant life lessons we can have. Our Year 6 students have come back inspired and eager to share their experiences with the wider Junior School community. Please see the wonderful photo gallery of the trip in this newsletter.

Students in the Senior School experienced a life changing tour too – this one to Central Australia. Liz Fletcher, David Thomas, Elissa Galbraith and Julian Wrigley accompanied 17 Year 10 students. While there, they visited Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs. The group engaged in breathtaking walks, cultural lessons, service activities, handled some of the magnificent reptiles and snakes, and shared time with the community at Lilla, maintaining our School’s friendship with the mob there, discovering the beauty and profundity of Indigenous Cultures and the Red Centre, and completing some service at Lilla by cleaning the local school and campsite. Students engaged in a beautiful reflection at the end of the trip, commenting on the friendships that had formed within the group, the knowledge they felt they had been lucky enough to gain from the community of Lilla and their desire to ensure they remained more informed about Aboriginal culture, current/national issues and the need to build stronger relationships. Many students expressed that they wanted to now ‘do something’ to build upon everything they had gained form the experience, whether that be raise awareness of this trip, raise funds for the Watarrka Foundation or do something in their future, such as bring their families back to Central Australia. Please see the photo gallery of the trip.

Another group of Year 6 students headed for Armidale at the very start of the holidays to take part in the Annual TAS Inter-schools Rugby Competition, the biggest of its kind in NSW. Accompanied by Junior School staff and coaches, Joshua Cohen, James Roughan and Jason Gribbon, and cheered on by many of their families, our team played very well, convincingly winning all five games. More importantly though was that the students throughout the entire competition demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship. Winning without sportsmanship is never true winning. It was a joy to be able to celebrate their success wholeheartedly.

Our Senior School First XI Football Team participated in the St Andrew’s Cup over the holidays and we were thrilled they played so well across many matches that they won the competition! Again, the winning of the cup is a superb achievement – and we are undoubtedly proud of their football prowess – but the way our older students conducted themselves during the competition, their graciousness to their opponents and their courteous interactions with match officials speaks volumes about their character. We are even more proud of them as people.

Our character is determined by the values we hold dear and is formed through thousands of choices we make over our life, especially as we grow up. All these students have shown they can make wise choices in the moment, and so develop characters of which we can all be proud. They bring honour to themselves, their families and the school.

Enormous thanks to our Cranbrook staff who gave up their time during these holidays to ensure our students were able to take advantage of these wonderful opportunities.

We look forward to an exciting and busy term ahead.

Kind wishes

Michele Marquet
Acting Head of School