Dear Parents and Carers,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Student voice and leadership is fundamental to a school’s culture. At Cranbrook, our Prefect body is elected through the Houses, with student and staff voting and interview processes.
As we commence coeducation in Year 7 and 11, 2027 will be the first year of coeducational student leadership. For four years, we will have girls enrolling in Year 11 before the first Year 7 cohort matriculate through to Year 11 in 2030.
The prospect of having female Prefects across the Day Houses to be role models for all the younger cohorts, both boys and girls, is very exciting. The benefits of closing the gender gap on leadership in organisations has been shown across industries, as highlighted by Harvard University and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
Cranbrook has often had students enrol in Year 10 or 11 and become House Prefects, and we have always considered students’ leadership experience, especially in the area of service, prior to commencing at Cranbrook. The female students who are joining Cranbrook for Year 11 2026 are a strong, independently minded group of young women, who have shown leadership throughout their schooling career.
2025 brought a change to the Cranbrook senior prefect structure, increasing the number of positions from two to five. We now have:
- Head Prefect
- Second Head Prefect
- Academic Prefect
- Co-Curricular Prefect
- Community Prefect
All Houses will continue to have:
- Student Head of House
- Academic Prefect
- Co-Curricular Prefect
- Service Prefect
The Houses also continue to give Prefect ties and roles to students throughout Year 12, recognising students who may not have been chosen as a Prefect initially.
We expect the incoming girls will nominate and be engaged across these various Prefect roles.
For some of our students in Year 10 and below, this may feel worrying, and raise for them the idea that they may not become Prefects because girls are coming. This is not true, but more than that, it is vital that our Year 10 and under students understand that the Prefect process has not even begun. Two years ago, I spoke to the current Years 9 and 10 about student leadership and reminded them that while the Head of School’s office has many books in it, none of those books is a Book of Future Prefects with their names written in it.
If you are hearing from your sons on the way to Saturday sport, the kind of rhetoric around Prefect positions being chosen by gender, may I please recommend you consider asking these questions:
- How are you showing leadership right now?
- How are you becoming involved in the service programme at School?
- How are you wearing the school uniform?
- How are you living out the school values?
Focusing on our inner locus of control, in all cases, is better than that which is beyond our control. Accountability is important. To quote Michael Jordan “earn your leadership everyday”. Last week, the Red Shield Appeal was a huge success across the school community, but it was disappointing to see that only 16 students in Year 10 were involved. Events like this, and the upcoming Push Up Challenge are opportunities for students to lead through service, and to those who participated, well done! Mr. Nolan, our Director of Service, is working on a new student leadership program which formalises many of the activities students do that contribute to leadership in the senior years. This will help students understand what is expected of them as leaders in the school.
And for the parents of our current Year 11 students, your sons are already showing great leadership across the school, volunteering at coeducational events and engaging with the student coeducation committee. Their leadership next year will be foundational to the establishment of a positive and inclusive coeducational culture of Cranbrook, and I am looking forward to working with them through SWP next term as they start their student leadership process.
Daisy Turnbull
Director of Coeducation
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