Siblings make 10pc of student body

Cranbrook Primary School only has 55 students, but six of them come from the same family.

Parehuia Broughton and Jason Taitapanui are parents to Danny-Troy, Annalisse, Destiny, Amber-Rose, Maia and Leah-Varnah, who for the first time this year will all be attending the same school at the same time.

Danny-Troy was the first of his siblings to be enrolled at Cranbrook six years ago, and with Leah-Varnah joining kindy this year, it means the whole family will attend school together, with the six kids making up 10.9 per cent of the school’s student body.

Ms Broughton said it took about an hour to get all six children ready for school, with the time also including efforts to find missing school shoes, hats and water bottles.

Cranbrook Primary combines a number of year levels, so each of the family’s children has one sibling in their classroom with them. Leah-Varnah and Maia are together in kindy and pre-primary, Amber-Rose and Destiny are together in Years 2 and 3, and Annalisse and Danny-Troy are together in Years 5 and 6.

School principal Michael Smith said it was great to have all six children at the primary school.