Cranbrook School News:
Cranbrook School: An IB Continuum School
Cranbrook is an Anglican independent day and boarding school for boys, Pre-school to Year 12, and an IB World School. With today’s students increasingly competing on a global stage, Cranbrook School strives to develop enthusiastic and inquiring learners who possess an international perspective as well as the skills and attitudes needed to succeed in the 21stCentury.
The School currently offers the Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, and the Diploma Programme. Cranbrook School’s Headmaster Nicholas Sampson said Cranbrook’s mission, to enable all students to explore, enjoy and fulfil their potential, is the most important lesson taught to students creating a culture perfectly aligned with the IB educational vision.
Cranbrook possesses a distinctive, and increasingly relevant, educational philosophy which reaches back to the School’s foundation; it is based upon integrity as well as the warm rigour of the great liberal tradition of education and includes both a love of cultural and co-curricular breadth, and respect for individuality. We energise the educational environment by offering a well-rounded and distinctive schooling both within and beyond the curriculum, and give powerful pastoral support to each student in our care.
As a School we are aiming for the development of potential and a recognition of each other’s individuality and value. A sincerity and wholeness, and a realisation of humanity’s possibilities.
The School motto esse quam videri means ‘to be rather than to seem to be’ and this resonates through all that we do.
At Cranbrook Junior School we believe that learning is life’s greatest adventure and we challenge and foster the individual talents of each boy to help them fulfil their potential. We provide a positive and caring learning environment to inspire all our boys to thrive.
Cranbrook Junior School provides learning opportunities for every student that not only encourages self-confidence and intellectual development but instils a sense of independence, responsibility and consideration of others.
Our programmes are based upon academic, cultural and personal development to ensure the potential of each boy is realised in accordance with his particular abilities and aspirations. The construction of knowledge, understanding and the importance of skill development are central to all that we do at Cranbrook within our Primary Years Programme.
The Junior School provides a nurturing educational environment that promotes boys’ self-confidence and builds on their natural enthusiasm for learning by developing their full potential intellectually. Boys are encouraged to develop consideration for others, independence and a sense of responsibility.
The curriculum for all students, Kindergarten to Year 6, is the prescribed Australian Curriculum in New South Wales. We use the International Baccalaureate, Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) curriculum framework to guide our approach to teaching and learning. The programme promotes global mindedness and a focus on students making a difference and taking action.
Alongside academic excellence, we aim to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better world, through inter-cultural understanding and respect, inspiring excellence and a celebration of difference. We put our children at the centre of their own learning and place great emphasis on nurturing skills and attitudes such as resourcefulness, resilience and co-operation.
In Years 7-10, the Middle Years Programme builds on Cranbrook School’s traditions of holistic education with the aim of producing well-rounded students with capabilities across a range of disciplines. It does so while developing in students an appreciation of global issues and a strong sense of service to their community and to the international community.
Students at Cranbrook engage in learning that is inquiry-driven and supported by conceptual understanding. This approach is grounded in strong disciplinary frameworks encouraging students to become systematic and rigorous in their approach to learning.
Assessment is seen as a tool for improvement. Formative assessment emphasises progress and teachers provide students with regular feedback and provide opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and target areas for improvement.
Ownership of the learning process is also emphasised in Years 7-10. Students are equipped with skills that enable them to collaborate and communicate more effectively, to conduct independent research, and to manage their relationships with others in a positive and constructive manner.
The curriculum is not restricted to the classroom, however, and students are encouraged build on their understanding of global contexts to engage in interdisciplinary and project-based learning. Students become the drivers of their own learning as they come to design their own inquiry cycles and launch initiatives of their own that seek to improve the lives of members of the local, regional and global community.
The Middle Years Programme prepares students for a culminating Personal Project which allows students to pursue an area of personal interest leading and produce real world outcomes.
