Cranbrook School, Sydney

Cranbrook School is an independent Anglican day and boarding school, with multiple campuses in Sydney's eastern suburbs New South Wales, Australia for students from pre-school to year 12. The school was founded in 1918 with the Rev'd Frederick Thomas Perkins as the first headmaster. Cranbrook has a non-selective enrollment policy and currently caters for approximately 1,680 students from early learning (4 years old) to Year 12 (18 years old), including 80 boarders from Years 7 to 12. Cranbrook is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), the Australian Boarding Schools' Association (ABSA), and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. It is a founding member of the Combined Associated Schools (CAS). and the Independent Sporting Association (ISA).

History

On 1 December 1917, the former private home and vice-regal residence, Cranbrook, was bought at auction by an agent for Samuel Hordern. He was the main financial benefactor of a group of businessmen and churchmen aiming to establish an Anglican boys' school in the Eastern Suburbs.

From December 1917 to June 1918, a provisional committee of twelve, comprising the founders and six additional men, prepared for the opening of the new school. They held meetings, ensured building renovations were completed, drew up the first articles of association and appointed the first Headmaster, Rev. F. T. Perkins.

On 6 June 1918, the provisional committee reformed itself as the first council of Cranbrook School and organised the official opening of the school for 22 July 1918.

In July 2022, parents of students were informed that the whole senior school would be fully co-ed by 2029 with girls in Years 7 and 11 being enrolled from 2026, and other years being slowly integrated year by year. This integration method was based on Barker College's co-ed integration in 2020. In March 2024, the school was featured in a Four Corners investigation into allegations of a toxic workplace and sexist student culture, led by some former teachers. The report also raised questions around Government funding for Cranbrook School and its level of accountability for this.

Headmasters

Campuses

Cranbrook School is situated over five campuses; the Senior School (Years 7 to 12) are located on the main campus in suburban Bellevue Hill, while the Junior School, for students from Kindergarten to Year 6, is located in nearby Rose Bay. There are 2 pre-schools that Cranbrook offer: St Mark's in Darling Point and St Michael's in Vaucluse. The final campus is Wolgan Valley. This campus is a residential education site with an emphasis on experiential learning.

School Operation

House System

Cranbrook has a system of houses across the campuses. This system was created in 1931 as a way to organise students for a variety of sporting and intelectual competitions. It continues to this day as a way for students to socialise better between different year groups, where senior students would be acting as juniors' mentors within the House. In the Senior School there are currently 12 day-houses, with about 100 students in each. There are also two boarding houses with around 40 students each. The students attend a pastoral period every day where they engage with mentors and other peers in their house.

Curriculum

Starting from Pre-Schools, the school uses the IB framework to teach the NSW curriculum through to Year 12. Cranbrook School offers the IB Diploma Programme as an alternative pathway to the HSC credential. It uses the International Baccalaureate MYP program in years 7-10 as well as the PYP program in the Junior School.

Sport

Cranbrook School is a member of the Combined Associated Schools (CAS).

CAS premierships

Cranbrook School has won the following CAS premierships.

* Athletics (7) – 1930, 1934, 1936, 1943, 1951, 1952, 1965
* Basketball – 2007
* Cricket (8) – 1935, 1989, 1998, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
* Cross Country (9) – 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023
* Rugby (13) – 1930, 1931, 1933, 1943, 1960, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1994, 2014
* Swimming (8) – 1942, 1944, 1945, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1974, 1976

Notable alumni

Alumni of Cranbrook School are known as "Old Cranbrookians" and may elect to join the school's alumni association, the Old Cranbrookians' Association (OCA).

Controversies and criticisms

Anti-Semitic incidents

In 2022, there were reports that three students were the targets of anti-Semitic behaviour by fellow students. Later, video footage of a student doing a Nazi salute emerged. In September 2022, the school announced an internal review to look into it. Cranbrook has said it had built an improved and centralised incident behaviour register and strengthened its alliances with organisations including the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.

Mass resignation from school council

In November 2022, 10 of the 11 members of Cranbrook School's council announced their resignation due to a deteriorating relationship between headmaster and school council president, as well as disagreement over plans to admit girls to the century-old boys’ school from 2026. Subsequently, on 25 November, former School Presidents, Helen Nugent AC and Roger Massy-Greene AM, formed an independent Nominations Committee to make recommendations to the current Council on nominations for new members of Council. 13 new Councillors were subsequently appointed.

Four Corners investigation and allegations of sexual harassment and toxic culture

In March 2024, the investigative journalism program Four Corners released an investigation about the alleged toxic and sexist "boys club" culture within the school's student body and leadership. Multiple former staff members and students were interviewed about sexual harassment of female staff. Former teaching staff described being sexually harassed, insulted, and threatened by students. A former teacher, who was blackmailed by a student saying he would claim she was abusing him if she did not send him sexual images, said that the incident was downplayed by Head of Senior School and Deputy Headmaster Bob Meakin, who allegedly stated that "because I'm young and, 'I'm just going to say it – attractive,' it's not urprisingthat I've received attention from the boys".

After the investigation was aired and published online, investigative journalist Louise Milligan stated that she, the ABC, and multiple other journalists had received several legal threats regarding the content of the investigation. Headmaster Nicholas Sampson was forced to resign by the school council later in the week after it was revealed that he had not disclosed information to the school council about a teacher who, early in his employment at Cranbrook, had sent explicit emails to a former student of his at another, previous school in which he described sexual fantasies about her and other female students he had previously taught. While the teacher was investigated by police and not found to have behaved criminally, Sampson had in 2015 been informed about the emails and, in addition to not informing the school council about them, appeared have glossed over the teacher's behaviour.

The episode included details of how a petition in 2021, by Chanel Contos received over 2,500 testimonies of sexual assault from high school students, with many testimonies referring to Cranbrook students, as well as students from other elite all-boys schools.

Government funding

Cranbrook received about $6.5 million in state and federal government funding in 2022. This is despite the school charging up to $46,000 per year for domestic students (not including boarding fees), paying their headmaster over $1 million per year, having $168 million in assets and running a $10 million profit as recently as 2019.

In 2021, Cranbrook spent more on works ($63.48 million) than the total public school capital expenditure of Tasmania and the Northern Territory combined ($62.4 million).

See also

* List of non-government schools in New South Wales
* List of Anglican schools in New South Wales
* List of boarding schools in Australia
* Lawrence Campbell Oratory Competition
* ''Leura''

References

Further reading

* "Two magic words give the signal for a 'school in a park, 20 June 2006, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (now archived).

External links

*

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Boarding schools in New South Wales
Anglican primary schools in Sydney
Anglican secondary schools in Sydney
Educational institutions established in 1918
Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
Combined Associated Schools
Boys' schools in New South Wales
Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools
1918 establishments in Australia
Rose Bay, New South Wales
John Horbury Hunt buildings
Bellevue Hill, New South Wales