We are a school rooted in its community where aspirational learning and opportunities transform the lives of our pupils. Our Mission is to transform lives and strengthen our communities to make the world a better place

Dear CEC families

On Tuesday 8th October and Thursday 10th October we will be running our first Campus Pupil Progress and Wellbeing Evenings for Preschool up to year 11. This will provide an opportunity to discuss not only the academic development of your children but for the conversations to be open to learning, emotional and mental health, wellbeing, friendships, clubs or any other questions or encouragement you have. We are really looking forward to these moments of connection and opportunities for discussion.

Both sessions will be Face to Face and based on Campus. To sign up for a Face to Face session with your child's Tutor/Teacher on MCAS please select parents evening and select the time slot that works best for you. If you are unable to attend Face to Face, please email reception@cranbrook.education to arrange a telephone call instead.

We are excited to share that we will also be working with Dolce, our school lunch provider, to offer sample food tasting of items on our school menu during both evenings. This will give families a opportunity to get a flavour for the food on offer to our pupils each week.

As we step into Autumn, we kindly remind you to ensure your child is dressed warmly. Pupils should wear their school jumper, blazer, or PE fleece to stay comfortable inside the building.

We are collecting coats hats and gloves again for our community and we are also collecting old phones to support as translation devices for our EAL and FSA learning. Please drop donations to the main reception

The deadline for secondary school applications is quickly approaching! All applications must be submitted by 31st October 2024. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible to secure your child’s place at their preferred school—hopefully with us at CEC!

There is still time to view the Secondary Campus before making your application. Tours are at 9am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please visit cranbrook.education/openevening to book your space on a morning tour.

Please remember that even if you currently have a place in CEC Primary, you must submit an application to join CEC Secondary.

For more information or to apply, visit Devon Council or call 0345 155 1019 for assistance.

On Wednesday, we celebrated our amazing staff—Teaching Assistants, Teachers, Business Support, the Site Team, Kitchen Staff, Cleaners, and everyone in between. Their dedication fosters the positive culture we cherish at CEC. A special thanks to our PTA for treating us to a delicious breakfast, complete with bacon butties (and vegan/gluten-free options)! 🌱 What a fantastic way to start the day!

We are excited to share that we will be taking part in World Mental Health Day on 10th October 2024 to raise awareness and show support for young people’s mental health. We apologise for not sharing this on our Key Dates earlier in the year.

On October 10th, we are inviting all pupils from Nursery to Y11 to wear something yellow—whether it's a yellow sock, hairband, wristband, or even a t-shirt! If it has yellow on it, they can wear it, or they can just wear uniform with their yellow tie or PE Top. It's all about coming together to encourage important conversations about mental health. It’s not a competition, but a chance to stand together and remind young people that they are not alone.

By wearing yellow, we’re helping to brighten the day and show our support for mental health awareness. We kindly ask for a £1.00 donation per family, which can be made via MCAS or directly to the charity via this link. All proceeds will go to YoungMinds, a charity dedicated to supporting young people's mental health.

Let’s make the day a little brighter—because together, we shine brighter! 🌟 Thank you for your support!

We extend our sincere gratitude to the many families who offered their support during a challenging week on social media. We are incredibly proud of our inclusive community and remain committed to supporting all our pupils, families, and staff by upholding our PERKS values: Proud, Engaged, Ready, KIND, and Safe. Together, we are #Crantastic!

This week, we’re sharing the 10 a Day video from Normal Magic, which offers a gentle guide to balancing emotional wellbeing and mental health.
Watch Here: Normal Magic 10 a Day

Huge Thank you to Caroline from the PTA who captured some fantastic moments from this year’s House Games! From thrilling races to team spirit, these snapshots perfectly capture the energy and excitement of the day.

We are reviewing the photos taken to make sure that they only include children with consent and look forward to sharing how these can be purchased for just £1 to raise funds for the PTA in the next few days.

Thank you for your continued support. The funds raised will help the PTA continue to contribute to exciting events and resources for our school community.

A polite reminder to families that cycle or scoot to school that these should not be ridden anywhere on site. We ask please for you to dismount from your bike / scooter at the school gates and use the shelters provided. It is essential that bikes and scooters left on site are secured using bike locks!

We have a small car park at the campus that is intended for use by blue badge visitors and staff who live outside of Cranbrook only. Please walk to the campus where possible and if you do need to drive to the campus, there is plenty of on road parking available. Please remember to park sensibly and safely for our neighbours.

Thank you

We have a number of staff and students who have a severe allergic reaction to nuts and peanuts and it is important that we keep them safe. In this regard, we ask that students, staff and visitors do not bring products containing nuts and peanuts into school.

Products that should not be brought into school include:

· Peanuts and nuts and products containing peanuts or nuts

· Peanut butter and peanut based chocolate snacks (snickers / reece’s pieces, Nutella etc)

· Items where peanuts or nuts are listed as main ingredients

· Nut or peanut based oils or products

Products that are allowed:

· Items that “may contain nuts” and “may contain traces of nuts” or “made in factories that use nuts”. These present a low risk and are not direct ingredients in the products

· All other non nut-based snacks and food stuff.

If you wish to check your child’s eligibility for Free School Meals, please use the Devon Citizens Portal This is the quickest and easiest way to apply and will result in you getting an instant decision.

Alternatively, call the Education Helpline on 0345 155 1019 who will check eligibility, answer questions and help with your application.

We work closely with our catering provider Dolce to ensure students are provided with healthy and nutritious meals. If you have any comments or feedback you wish to share about the food, we welcome you contacting us by emailing reception@cranbrook.education

If your child needs to make a statement following an incident at school, please use the QR code to access the required form.

During our Future Friday session this week we went through the mock interview questions, I am so proud of how our year 11s engaged with the questions and thought carefully about their answers.

Our #crantastic year 11s were preparing for their mock interviews today. We will have 15 adults from many different job roles who will come in to give them an interview and then offer positive feedback. You are making us proud yeah 11 well done.

The Mock interviews will take place the 9th October in school time. This will prepare pupils for their college and post 16 provision interviews and help them to be ready for that interview process.

Thanks to all the pupils who joined us at the German language and food tasting after school on 26th September for European Day of Languages. Pupils enjoyed trying smoked cheese, smoked ham, German salami and rye crackers. They folllowed this with traditional German Christmas biscuits and cake, Lebkuchen and Stollen. For the most part, the pupils thought told me it was "lecker" (meaning delicious in German) but we had a mixed response to the rye crackers!

Well done also to the more than 20 pupils across all year groups who completed the CEC Duolingo challenge and received their rewards. Keep going with your streaks now - you don't want to make Duo sad!

Rehearsals for Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat are well under way! Our cast sounded #crantastic on our opening number ‘Jacob and Sons’. Well done all pupils in the cast for being engaged with the rehearsal. I can’t wait to see the finished product in February!

We are really pleased to share the list of available extra curricular clubs that your child can take part in this term. In addition to the weekly clubs we also run a daily breakfast and after school homework club. The breakfast club is open from 8-8.25 every morning and all pupils are invited to come and fuel up before the day begins. The after school homework club is from 3-4pm and is an opportunity for all pupils to get additional support in completing their homework. If your child is in year 9 they will also have the opportunity to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award and more information will be shared with pupils about how to sign up to this.

Bicton College Open Days:

18th January 2025: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

26th April 2025: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Bicton College Taster Days:

28th October 2024: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

17th February 2025: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

28th May 2025: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Events - Bicton College

25th January 2025: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

23rd April 2025: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Duchy College Stoke Climsland Taster Days:

29th October 2024: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

18th February 2025: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

27th May 2025: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Events - Duchy College

A polite reminder to families that cycle or scoot to school that these should not be ridden on site. We ask please for you to dismount from your bike / scooter at the school gates and use the shelters provided. Thank you

Artist shout out to Year 10 GCSE Art students! You’ve demonstrated lots of skill and knowledge to create these tonal sphere drawings. Well done 👏
Artists featured: Ella Tong, Caitlyn Dixon, Daniel Cheung, Milli Richards and Arneia Andrews

PROUD Ava Baylis for making amazing posters for sports day!

ENGAGED Rita Banda for being ENGAGED in sports day

READY Yousif Oryakhail for being READY to take part in sports day

KIND Issy Maddaford for being KIND to her tutor and her tutor group.

SAFE Heston Matthews for being SAFE around campus and checking before he acts!

Year 8

8AXZ - Evie-Mae Shaddick: Puts maximum effort into lessons and shows Pride in her work.

8CEJ - April Tidball amazing effort in sports day

8RCT - Charlie Cooper: sensible and level-headed in his approach to school work and routines.

8SXD - Gracey Hunter-Brown, always ready, polite and engaged.

8AXZ - Freddie Newcombe: So engaged in his lessons and making significant progress across the board.

8CEJ - Casper Ng: Proud of his work ethic and contributions to lessons.

8RCT - Kornelia Komza: For being an exceptional friend, consistently showing kindness while at school.

8SXD - Sean Adini: Ready and focused in lessons, following all behaviour expectations in school.

Year 9

PROUD - Kiara Simmonds-Williams for being proud of her work in lessons and being generally lovely

READY – Kaya Underhill for beginning ready to come back to school after the summer and making a really positive start to the year.

Engaged – Cruz Bradford for being engaged in lessons

Kind –TyeStewart, just a general kind good egg

Safe – Lily Harris for making “the world a safer place” by consistently completing all her homework

Year 10

Proud: Oliva Cox - helping for the Drama Open Evening.

Engaged: Olly Robillard - Listening and adapting his performance based on feedback.

Ready: Conner Valentine - Amazing in Drama learning their duologue.

Kind: Khloe Shaw - Representing the tutor group for pupil council.

Safe: Lexi Salter and Lily Attwood - Supporting the Primary sports day to make sure everything ran smoothly

Year 11

Sidmouth Science Festival begins in October and there is a great programme of events planned alongside talks designed to spark curiosity about the world of science. Check out the website or click below to view the programme

Do you work for a business who is invested in future careers? Do you enjoy speaking with young people and igniting a spark? Is the thought of copious amounts of tea and biscuits a deal breaker? Well look no further! We are really excited to announce that we are hosting our annual careers fair on Wednesday 13th November and this year we want to be bigger than ever. Please share this flyer with any business contacts you may have and email careers@cranbrook.education if you are able to be a part of finding your future workforce.

We have been made aware of a small number of youths, some who attend CEC, causing anti-social behaviour in the community. Firstly, we would like to praise the majority of our pupils and other Cranbrook youths who demonstrate the values of pride and kindness. Please remember, these are the majority.

However, for those who do not demonstrate our values and who are being anti-social and breaking the law, please report them and their actions to the police either by calling 999 or reporting via the Devon and Cornwall Police online 101 service here: https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

We’re excited to share our Key Dates document with you which outlines all the important events and deadlines for the upcoming academic year. This will help you stay informed and ensure you’re up-to-date with all the key activities such as Trips and PTA Events. Please take a moment to review the Key Dates and mark your calendars accordingly. If you have any questions or need further details please email

Pupil Progress and Wellbeing meetings - 8th and 10th October

Hello Yellow (World Mental Health Day) – Thursday, 10th October.

School Photos (During the School Day with Tempest)- 17th October

Just one Tree Day Non Uniform Day (wear green) – 18th October

PTA Halloween Bake Sale 25th October

End of Term - 27th October

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Have a lovely weekend and stay safe.