Cranbrook School was established in 1918 in historic sandstone buildings, which were formerly NSW Government House, and overlooks Sydney Harbour. Cranbrook challenges boys to be all that they can be. The School aims to develop and expand the unique potential of each individual boy and to equip him with the basis for acquiring vocational and leadership skills.

Facilities: In January 2011, Kindergarten to Year 2 students started at their new school in a park. In July 2011, the whole of the Junior School, Kindergarten to Year 6, will be together on one site in new, exciting, purpose-built educational facilities, which include a library, art rooms, a music centre, IT and science laboratories, a double gymnasium for Kindergarten to Year 12, tennis courts and traffic drop-off and pick-up areas. The Senior School is housed in modern classroom blocks, has 21st-century IT resources and sporting fields, an indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium and a strength and conditioning centre.

IB Primary Years Programme (PYP): Cranbrook’s Junior School for students in Kindergarten to Year 6, is an International Baccalaureate World School authorised to teach the organisation’s International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme (PYP). The program is international, inquiry-based and trans-disciplinary, designed to foster the development of the whole child, not just in the classroom but also through other means of learning. The PYP focuses on the total growth of the developing child, encompassing social, physical, emotional and cultural needs, in addition to academic welfare.

Electives Years 7 to 10: Commerce, Drama, Design & Technology, French, History Elective, Industrial Technology (Timber), Japanese, Latin, Music, Physical Activity and Sports Studies, Visual Arts, Visual Design.

Electives Years 11 and 12: Ancient History, Biology, Business Studies, Ceramics, Chemistry, Design &, Technology, Drama, Earth & Environmental Science, Economics, French, Geography, Information Processes & Technology, Japanese, Latin, Legal Studies, Mathematics, Modern History, Music, PDHPE, Photography, Physics, Visual Arts, Visual Design.

Sport: All boys take part in physical education as part of the school curriculum. Weekend competitions are arranged with other schools in most major sports including: basketball, cricket, cross-country, football, rowing, rugby union, sailing, skiing, swimming and tennis.

Co-curricular activities: AV Club, bands, ceramics, chess, choir, Crusaders, debating, drama & music productions, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, ensembles, lunchtime concerts, Open Day hosting, orchestras, outdoor education programs, Photography Club, production crew, public speaking, robotics, SCUBA Club, Student Representative Council, theatre sports, Travel and Explorers’ Club, weekly magazine editing. All boys in Years 7 to 12 are encouraged to involve themselves in community service.

Pastoral care program: The program recognises that the promotion of student wellbeing, and a safe and secure learning environment that challenges, encourages and supports all students, is fundamental to the achievement of the School’s aims. It promotes a whole-school approach and supports other initiatives to create an environment in which students feel safe, valued, engaged and purposeful.

Special features:

•      Excellent academic results.

•      Scholarships and bursaries program.

•      International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Program.

•      Cranbrook’s “Teaching and Learning Framework”, through which the curriculum is
taught in the Senior School, incorporates 16 intelligent behaviours that the School has identified as the key to success for boys, academically, socially and physically.

•      Cranbrook in the Field, where every boy in Years 7 to10 undertakes 10 days of outdoor education each year.

From the school: At Cranbrook we strive to ensure that when boys leave school they will have four things that we believe are essential:

•      an ability to think, to value thinking and to want to think, and to know that information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom;

•      an ability to stand on their own two feet, balanced by consideration of the needs of others;

•      a positive and spirited approach to life;

•      a fire in the belly about something really worthwhile.

At Cranbrook we know boys will be boys. So we’ve taken on the challenge and adapted our methods to suit the way boys learn. Cranbrook’s unique “Teaching and Learning Framework” is designed to take boys’ learning above all expectations and beyond the traditional, not just for the years they spend at Cranbrook, but for their entire lives.