Our new term has got off to a very good start. The children are back in the swing of things and much has already been achieved in our first week.

I must, however, begin with an apology to the Cunnington family. Last term Maya took the pre tests for Uppingham School and we were all thrilled to hear that she passed this assessment and has a place to join her brother in 2014. My apologies for not acknowledging this in the last Letter, which was a summary of the news and happenings of last term.

On the subject of awards and our children’s success we heard news from Langley School in the UK early last week. Debra Stewart sat the academic papers for a scholarship to this school last term. We were all most excited to hear that Debra has secured the Kenyan Award.

The Sports’ Camp
Our sports’ camp went very well and all the children who managed to attend learnt a great deal over the four days of intensive coaching. The weather is fairly perfect for rugby (perhaps not for netball) so we have very happy, muddy boys on our hands most days! I am most grateful to all the children who managed to attend the camp and of course to the staff who also give up their holiday time to contribute to this valuable time at school.

Lucia Sdao, the netball coach, spoke to us all in Chapel at the start of term. Her talk was heartfelt and most moving. She took us right from the beginning as a 6 year old getting her first netball, all the way through to her selection for the England team in her early teens. Her message was clear; no matter what you wish to do, whether it is playing a musical instrument, singing, drawing, dancing or indeed playing netball you have got to love what you do. You have got to love it so much that all you want to do is practise, practise, practise and if you have any more free time, you will want to practice a little bit more. It is this passion combined with hard work which will tip the balance and help you succeed. Lucia has 101 caps for her country and she is now a National Selector. She was also an outstanding coach and we were very lucky to snaffle her for our camp before term starts back in the UK.

New Staff & Gaps
I am sure you would all like to keep up with our new staff and our gaps for this term so I will give you a brief introduction below.

New Staff: Susan Maina is our new school secretary and thank you to you all for your patience and helping her learn the ropes. Hannah Shoukry has joined us for a sabbatical term from the Royal Academy of Music. She is here to work with Carol Olum and Lola Akwabi in the Music Department and Rachael Potter on the Dance and Drama front. We have already benefitted from the magic they are making and I look forward to the term ahead and all we might enjoy over the course of the coming weeks and months. Whilst Mikhaila Barrett has been with us for over a term I am pleased to inform you that Miss Barrett has now been appointed as our Head of English.

Super Gap: Charlie Bartlett (BA Hons University of York & Coco’s sister) has arrived to work with us for a term. She has joined the pre prep unit and the children are thoroughly enjoying working with her.

Gaps: William Fortescue (Sherbourne) has returned. He was with us in the first term and enjoyed his gap term so much we found a place for him this term. Harry Davies (Leicester Grammar School) Among other things, Harry is Damian Davies’ nephew! Tristan Lamotte (Loretto) Tristan is with us for one term and as I type he is experiencing a Pembroke bus journey, this time to Babong! Sybilla Pease and Isabel Greaves come to us from St Mary’s Ascot. They have already been initiated in all things Pembroke with a day on the Potgieter’s farm helping with a Geography field trip earlier this week. All our gaps have made a super start to the term and everything looks set fair for sense and stability in this area of the school!

Leaving Staff: Whilst on the subject of staff I am very sad to say that Hannah Bird and Stephanie Marcellin have decided that they must move on to pastures new at the end of this term. Both Hannah and Steph have given so much to Pembroke House over the last four years. I have no idea how I am going to get through Speech Day this year!

Building Works
Scholes House: The new dorms in Scholes house were ready (just) for the start of term! We will carpet the dorms over exeat or half term. The dorms have allowed the girls to spread out somewhat in the House and they all seem very happy with the new state of affairs. The senior bathroom has also been given a makeover along with an extension. I have a Prefects meeting this evening and I await feedback on whether the showers work on a daily basis, whether the water is hot, whether the loos work and all such detail. My fingers are firmly crossed.

The Staff Room: Over the 17 days of the holiday Mr. Mathenge (our new MP for Gilgil not to mention  our builder) managed to create a new look to our staff room. With a wall having been knocked down and a new table the area has been transformed and there is much more room for us all to gather each day. The staff room is such a very important place. It allows staff to relax and chat amongst themselves, mulling over and talking through the intricacies of each day at school. This ensures the best communication possible.

The Theatre: The theatre is now above ground and this is very exciting. We hope to perform the play on the stage in the amphitheatre but if we do indeed make it, we will certainly be ‘al fresco’.

Communication
All staff aim to reply to your e-mails, phone calls or text messages within 24 hours. Should this not happen do please ring or text again and check your e mail or SMS has arrived. Of course homework may well be necessary to answer your query or concern but you should receive an acknowledgment of your original communication within this time.

Coming UP
This was the list I highlighted from the calendar for the staff when we had our staff meeting at the start of term. There is very much more so please have a very good look at the detail of each week in the calendar. Calendar Events to note:

• Gilgil Sports week-end – gone!
• Year 7 trip to Babong Sat 21st April
• Exeat Thursday 2nd May
• Year 4 to Ol Jogi Sunday 12th May
• School Photo –Thursday 16th May
• Chairman IAPS visit – Nicholas Allen Sunday 19th May
• Half Term 8 am Thursday 23rd May
• Year 8 Revision week-end Sat 1st June
• CE exams & school exams start Monday 3rd June
• ABRSM exams Monday June 10th
• LAMDA exams Monday & Tuesday 17th / 18th June
• Open Day / Ndume 7s / Matilda / Widgery Cup  13th, 14th, 15th, 16th June with 20 visiting schools
• Year 8s final Chapel Sunday 23rd June
• Lewa Marathon – Year 8s Saturday 29th June
• Mount Kenya Trip Sunday 30th June
• Disco Thursday 4th July
• Year 8 Dinner Friday 5th July
• Speech Day Saturday 6th July

NB
There is however, one change to the publicised calendar dates. This year Robin and I must take Georgina off to school in the UK. Unfortunately we will not be back until 5th September. As a team at school, we feel we should all be together for the start of the academic year. This is still very early in the term and so we have decided that we will postpone the start of term until Sunday 8th September. Term will finish on Friday 13th December, one week later than originally advertised. This still gives us a 14 week term with one week off for half term. Half term and exeat remain as before although we have added one night to the second exeat over the Open Day weekend. As always there will be a sports’ camp in this final week of the holidays, focusing on the main sports of the term ahead, cricket and rounders. Please accept my sincere apologies for this change. I do hope you can rearrange things if necessary without too much disappointment or inconvenience.

Finally
Library Monitors: This morning I had the pleasure of appointing four new library monitors. Rider Hartley, Max Green, Phobe Owor and Hannah Wood. All four will work closely with Mrs. Clegg-Butt and Peter Maina to look after the library and our growing choice of books throughout this term.

Benches: We have some lovely benches at school and many have been sponsored by families with children who have been at Pembroke in the past or who are with us now. The cost of a bench is now Ksh 21,000 which covers the bench itself and the brass plaque where we put your children’s names and the dates they were at Pembroke. We certainly need some more benches so I wonder if you might like to contact me if you would like me to arrange one for you.

I hope you feel happy with how the term has begun. Remember to contact any one of us to sort out any concerns you may have.

We all look forward to seeing you for one reason or another at school in the coming weeks.

With warmest wishes,

Debs

I am writing this letter to you from Kibwezi. Robin, Georgina and I are here over half term and as you can imagine we have been watching the elections with great interest. Today, we heard the exciting news that Uhuru Kenyatta is to be our next President. On behalf of Pembroke House, I would like to wish our new President many successful and wise years in office. We join the Kenyan people in prayers of gratitude for a peaceful time during this democratic process.

Fortunately, half term arrived just in time and I think we all reached home very ready for a good rest. The children and staff have had a long stint without a proper pause and the build up to Open Day and to the exams is always one fraught with tensions and emotions.

Over half term however, I am sure reports will have been written and children will have shaken off the concerns from their pre exam weeks and we will all return to school to make the most of our last few weeks. Post mortems of our school exams and lessons spent revisiting the mock CE papers will take place. Going over exams is always a little difficult. It is not a process children particularly enjoy and yet if done well it yields fruitful and helpful results.

Whilst we have been away there has been a flood of correspondence to give us the outcome from our many and various entry assessments and scholarship exams that took place just before half term began.

Sasha Hewett and William Millar are both in Year 7. However, both children hope to join Marlborough College in September 2014. Thus the entrance tests and interviews are held this term. We are extremely proud to announce that both Sasha and William are now on the ‘A’ list for Marlborough College. Good news indeed and quite a relief given the importance, in this particular case of the ‘A’ list.

Turning to Year 8, we had exciting news from King’s Bruton just before Open Day. Megan Ward had been to the school earlier in the term and following a competitive few days we heard that she has been awarded a Sports’ Scholarship. Congratulations Megan.

Over the past few months Tabitha McIntyre Brown has been preparing herself for an Art Scholarship to Stowe. She duly set off with her parents armed with art portfolio and filled with helpful tips from Mr Lovatt and Miss Olsen. Whilst the initial news was not hopeful and we all feared Tabitha might have missed the scholarship by one place, Dr Wallersteiner, the Headmaster, has subsequently been in touch and I am very happy to say that Tabitha has been awarded an Art Scholarship to Stowe.

Whilst the majority of our children sat their school exams this term we had six children sitting their Scholarship exams for entry to their ‘next school’. Two results are in and I am thrilled to announce that Cody Cox has been awarded the Kenyan Scholarship to Gordonstoun and Michael Cunnington has been awarded an Academic Scholarship to Uppingham. Super news indeed and congratulations to them both.
We await news from Sedbergh and Greensteds and we hope there are still a few more awards in the pipeline and I will let you know as and when we have any news.

Such Scholarships and Awards are the result of years and years of hard work by the children themselves, their teachers across the board, in all the different and varied disciplines and of course the staff in the House and you their parents. My sincere thanks to all the teachers for their continuous input, advice, teaching and real care; to you for believing in Pembroke House and allowing us to tutor and teach your children and to the children themselves for trying so wholeheartedly to do their best in everything they attempt. These are exciting times for Pembroke House and I could not be happier to see our children doing themselves and their talents justice.

To turn back the clock a little, we must just recap on our Open Day. The parent  teacher meetings seemed to go very well and the day culminated in quite a flurry of excitement. The next schools ‘talk’ with our guest speaker Dr. Purdy was well attended and certainly served to give our audience some food for thought. We had prepared a booklet on the subject and we had this ready to hand on the evening, to give parents some ready facts to mull over as they left. Please do contact Rob or MJ if you would like a hard or soft copy to help you with your initial considerations on this very important subject. As we said at the talk nothing is more important than making an appointment to come and see me and the other senior staff at Pembroke House to begin the search for the ‘next school’.

Following the talk we moved to a cocktail party outside the Art Room. I hoped this would serve as an introduction to this area of the school to which we have recently given quite a ‘make over’. The result is an area most conducive to creativity and the resultant ambiance, located close to our Year 8 classrooms is appreciated and enjoyed by us all.

In the Art Room Cat Olsen, Ben Hudson, Fleur McDonnell and Bedan had all worked hard with their pupils to put together a super set of displays and the whole scenario was set off perfectly with the Mad Hatters Tea Party which took center stage.

The cocktail party heralded the Middle School Plays and the audience merely had to turn and fall silent to appreciate the marvelous and perfectly stylised plays that our Year 6 pupils had prepared. Children and parents alike enjoyed the entertainment enormously and I could not be more grateful to Rachael Potter for putting together such a creative and inspiring evening.

The plays were perfectly finished off with Caroline’s supper outside the Science labs and all in all I do not think we could not have made more of our 24 hours with your company.

Friday dawned with the school keen to start the Swimming Gala. Boats preceded the Inter House Competition and thus all children managed to swim on the day. We were treated to some exciting and hard fought races and Opies managed finally to pull off a victory.

Thus, thanks to Mr Hudson and his team with some precision timing and careful preparation, half term got off to a very good start as the clock struck noon! My sincere thanks as always, to each member of staff at Pembroke House for their hard work and constant desire to do what is right. Thanks to much forethought and attention to detail, not to mention everyone’s good humour we all enjoyed a wonderful
Open Day and the scene was set for a happy and restful half term.

Our next highlight is the IAPS Rugby Tour to the UK for the Rosslyn Park 7s Competition. The boys, 5 from Pembroke House (Brayden Barrett, Benedict Shaw, William Millar, Thomas Farren and Dominic Coulson, Tour Captain) have been training hard and this trip has been long awaited. Our best wishes to the whole team who may well be in the air and starting their adventure as this letter arrives!

As a school we now have the various hockey tournaments to look forward to, a swimming gala at the International School and all the fun and activity which accompanies the end of term.

As I said in the last letter we will not be packing this term and the children will return home, minus their trunks. Of course we will willingly prepare your child’s trunk should you particularly wish but we would rather carry on with business as usual, if possible. As I am sure you have realised the Easter holiday is only 17 days long and if you are sending your child to the sports camp this reduces the holiday to a mere 12 days; value for money indeed!

This sports camp is always extremely popular and well attended. Pembroke takes on an even greater vitality in the rugby and netball term and we have some excellent coaches joining Mr Raikes, Mr Hudson and Miss Bartlett for this particular camp.

Our coaches for this camp are coming from Sedbergh.  James Tiffany, played at a very high level in the UK with Leeds Tykes, as it was previously named and entertained fans in the Guinness Premiership. He then focused on the coaching side of the game, where he moved to Wharfdale RFU in National League One and he is currently Director of Rugby at Sedbergh School in Cumbria. Lucia Sdao, is our guest netball and she is a Commonwealth bronze medalist and former England vice-captain with 101 international caps to her name.  As such she is not only the ideal choice of coach for our netball girls but she seems the perfect choice of speaker to start off our Trinity Term. Thus we have invited Miss Sdao to speak to the children in Chapel at the start of term. This is a slightly unusual venue for such a ‘Talk’ but Miss Sdao must of course return to Sedbergh promptly and I do not wish to lose this opportunity for her to speak to the children.

I think this brings you up to date. I will write one more Letter as the term comes to a close, in order to let you all know the various awards we give out in our final assembly.

As always do let me, MJ or any other member of staff know if you feel unhappy or concerned about any aspect of school life. Most unease is as a result of misunderstandings of one kind or another and communication is the only way forward. If a problem is not the more common misunderstanding, then such a situation must also be resolved as quickly as possible, so again open discussion must take place to get to the bottom of things.

We look forward to welcoming you all back on Wednesday (13th March) and I apologise in advance for any inconvenience that such a mid week start will bring.

I wish you all a very good two weeks and hopefully we can make the most of this short time before the Easter holidays begin.

With warmest wishes,

Debs