Cranbrook School, Kent
Cranbrook School is a co-educational state funded boarding and day grammar school in the market town of Cranbrook, Kent, England.
Selection is made of pupils at age 11 and 13 although plans are being made to only accept pupils from the age of 11 in the future. The current Headmaster is Dr John Weeds.
History
The school was founded after the death of the John Blubery, a yeoman of the King's Armoury. In his will he decreed that if the child of his daughter be a girl, then his mansion house be turned into a free school for the poor children of Cranbrook. Queen Elizabeth I granted the school charter in 1574, which is now housed in the library.Recent history
In 2003 alumnus Piers Sellers, a NASA astronaut, took a copy of the school charter into space with him. A photo is exhibited in the school cafeteria. In 2005 Sellers opened the school's observatory, which is named after him. This observatory houses the 22.5 inch Alan Young telescope operated by the Cranbrook and District Science and Astronomy Society. In May 2010 Sellers took into outer space aboard the Space Shuttle an original watercolour portrait of Cranbrook School painted by Brenda Barratt. The painting was later returned to Cranbrook School with the official NASA verification that it has travelled into space. In 2018, a new day house specifically for the 120 students in Years 7 and 8 was named after Piers Sellers.In December 2019, current headteacher John Weeds announced he is leaving at the end of the academic year.
Campus
Barham House
Barham House is the school’s main office. It contains the reception room, the offices of both the headmaster and the deputy head, and meeting rooms. The school medical centre is also in Barham House, but has its own reception and entrance. The building was originally the local vicarage.The Library
Central to the school, there is a large library which is one of the oldest parts of the school. It was once the school hall, but it was converted to the library after the amount of pupils became to big to fit in the hall. School assemblies are currently held in the local church, St Dunstan’s, or the Queen’s Hall Theatre. The library also plays host to the original royal charter provided to the school by Queen Elizabeth I in 1588.Queen’s Hall Theatre
The school is home to the local theatre, the . It is used for a number of both internal and external productions, as well as some school assemblies. Many external productions are performed by . The school has their own technical team who help with most internal productions.Houses
Since September 2019, the school has five day houses and six boarding houses. Formerly the day houses Allan, Horsley and Webster were split along gendered lines with the total number of houses (both day and boarding arriving at: seven for boys and five for girls. The reasons for the recent merger were not provided but rumours circulated among the student body that it was due to the increasing visibility of transgender students. Each house works in conjunction with the main school to provide pastoral care and academic support.Boys' boarding houses
- Cornwallis
- Crowden
- Rammell
- School Lodge
Girls' boarding houses
- Blubery
- Scott
Day houses
- Allan House, formerly split:
- * Allan Boys
- * Allan Girls
- Horsley House, formerly split:
- * Horsley Boys
- * Horsley Girls
- Webster House, formerly split:
- * Webster Boys
- * Webster Girls
- Lynx
- Sellers
Notable Old Cranbrookians
- General Sir John Akehurst KCB CBE, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from 1987–90, and President from 1991-9 of the United Kingdom Reserve Forces Association
- Sir Anthony Barnes Atkinson, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford
- Air Chief Marshal Sir John Barraclough CB CBE, Station Commander of RAF Biggin Hill from 1954–56
- Emma Biggs, mosaic artist
- Hugo Burnham, drummer for the English rock group Gang of Four and Associate Professor at the New England Institute of Art
- Canon John Collins, radical clergyman and political campaigner
- Michael Croucher TV film producer
- Barry Davies, sports commentator
- Phil Edmonds, cricketer
- Dr Henry Ford Professor of Arabic and Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford
- Karin Giannone, Journalist and news presenter at BBC News
- Henri Gillet, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago
- Harry Hill, comedian
- Sir Victor Horsley, pioneering neurosurgeon
- Wing Commander Sir Norman Hulbert, Conservative MP from 1935–50 for Stockport from 1935–50, and for Stockport North from 1950–64
- Arthur Surridge Hunt, papyrologist
- Prof Richard L. Hunter, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge since 2001
- Hammond Innes, novelist
- Wing Commander Hugh Kennard, World War II pilot and later civilian aviator
- Kevin Lygo, television executive and Director of Television and Content since 2007 of Channel 4
- Richard Middleton, poet and short-story writer
- Brian Moore, football commentator
- Sir David Muirhead CMG CVO, Ambassador to Belgium from 1974-8, to Portugal from 1970-4, and to Peru from 1967–70
- Tony Nicklinson, Right-to-die campaigner with Locked-In Syndrome
- Stuart Organ, Actor
- Colonel Mike Osborn DSO OBE MC, British military officer and former commander of the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment
- Richard Pilbrow, theatre producer
- William Rootes, co-founder, along with his brother, of the Rootes Group car manufacturers
- Piers Sellers, astronaut
- Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton, FRS, distinguished earth scientist, Professor of Quaternary Palaeoclimatology from 1991-2004 at the University of Cambridge
- Edwin Shirley, Rock and Roll tour organiser
- Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project
- Henri Tebbitt an English-Australian painter
- Air Vice-Marshal Sir John Weston CB OBE, Station Commander of RAF Halton from 1952-3
- Peter West, television presenter
- Sir Charles Wheeler CMG, BBC journalist
- Jacqueline Winspear, Author
- Wallace Duffield Wright, VC recipient
- Louise Dean, Novelist
- Ruaridh McConnochie, Silver Medal winning member of the Great Britain national rugby sevens team at the 2016 Olympics and England Rugby Union player
- Jon Cleary, Grammy award-winning musician
News items