Michaelmas Term 2022
Letter from the Headmistress
No. 5
New Prefects
New Appointments
Match Results & Bonfire Night
Online Safety - Jon Taylor
Mini Martlets
Upcoming Events & Activities
Feedback on half term
Busy Time
Dear Parents,
Prefects
This morning it was a great pleasure to appoint four new Prefects: Allyson Ajavon, Medza Chebos, Lyndsay Sayer Ulyate and Henry Trevor. Congratulations to them all and I look forward to welcoming them to our Prefect’s meeting on Thursday morning.
New Appointments
Head of the Junior School
Kirsty Rust
We are most grateful to Catherine Gatheru for her time at the helm of the Junior School. Ms Gatheru has been the most tremendous support to her colleagues and of course SLT and we are so grateful to her. However, Ms Gatheru is now fully involved with the Learning Support Department and she has understandably decided to focus fully on this area of the school. Consequently it is my pleasure to announce that Kirsty Rust, presently teaching 4H, will take over as Head of the Junior School.
Year 4
Ashleigh Harrold
As some of you may be aware, Ms Harrold and her family are sadly grieving the loss of their beautiful baby girl, Isla. All of the messages of love and support have been greatly appreciated and always welcomed as they navigate this difficult period. Ms Harrold is looking forward to getting back to school in January to be with her Year 4 class.
Year 3
When Ashleigh Harrold returns to take up the reins with 4H, Kirsty Rust will move to Year 3 to kindly support Louise Foxton. We will be in touch with our families in Year 3 to explain matters in more detail.
Head of Pupil Tracking & Development
Ed Hawkins
It is also my great pleasure to announce that Ed Hawkins has kindly agreed to step up into this new position at school. This role will be pivotal in supporting John Wright with the Martlet Award, which we all feel most passionately about. Part and parcel of this initiative is to help each child in the Middle and Senior School to develop an online portfolio to track and record their own development and activities. Mr Hawkins will also work closely with SLT to improve our ability to track the progress of each of our children and make sure we have the necessary information at our fingertips to improve outcomes all round.
The Weekend
We have just had a very busy weekend and I hope those of you who could join us had a wonderful time. Saturday dawned with beautiful blue skies and after our recent rain the grass was lovely and green and the fields were filled with players, parents and coaches. A total of 12 matches were played against the Banda and the final tally was 6 wins each. However, we were very pleased that 5 of our first teams managed to win.
The Banda matches followed our Braeburn fixtures on Friday and again we recorded some good results.
Results
Friday 4th November vs Braeburn
1st XI Boys - Won
U11A Boys - Won
1st X Girls - Won
U11A Girls - Won
Saturday 5th November Bs The Banda
1st XI Boys - Won
2nd XI Boys - Lost
U11A Boys - Lost
U11B Boys - Won
U9A Boys - Won
U9B Boys - Lost
1st X Girls - Won
2nd X Girls - Lost
U11A Girls - Won
U11B Girls - Lost
U9A Girls - Won
U9B Girls - Lost
Well done to all our teams, some super results.
Bonfire Night
We then moved onto Bonfire Night. It was a wonderful evening. The bonfire was lit by Chalbi Francombe and Drew Stapleton, our two youngest full boarders and they were ably assisted by Archie Camm and Chloe-Evelyn Mulwana, our Head Boy and Head Girl. The bonfire was just the right size and this year we didn’t have to worry that we might lose one of our trees! The fireworks were absolutely spectacular and I know you will join me in thanking our generous sponsor for helping us put on such a wonderful display. The evening was finished off with the traditional sparklers and marshmallows and much fun was had by all.
This year we had a number of you who decided to join us and camp and I believe it was a relatively good experience! The forestry area is always available for those of you who might like to camp and please just let us know so that we can make sure that we have an askari on site and we light up the kuni booster.
OnLine Safety 4 Schools
Jon Taylor’s visit went very well with workshops that included parents, teachers and children. Here at school we will continue to teach and guide the children with this and we are in the process of preparing a booklet that we can share with you to try and highlight the most effective ways you can keep your children safe online.
Evonne also has a WhatsApp group to try and help us all by circulating and sharing tips that she feels will raise awareness and keep us safe. If you would like to be included in this group please do let Evonne or me know.
Evonne Wheeler +254 721 924020
evonne@pembrokehouse.sc.ke
Kenya Simbas Pembroke Visit
Kenya’s senior Men's rugby team also known as the ‘Simbas’ visited Pembroke just after half term and they spent quite some time working with groups of children during games and free time. The team is now in Dubai and they sadly lost on Sunday evening putting up a very brave fight against the USA’s Eagles. There are two more matches to play against Portugal and Hong Kong and our hearts are with them.
Year 7 Team Building
The Year 7s camped together on Bonfire Night and on Sunday morning they set off for Malewa and some team building activities including the high ropes. The team from Savage Wilderness took charge with all manner of challenges and activities and I know our new seniors had a very good time.
Mini Martlets on a Friday
Starting next term, we are excited to extend Mini Martlets to a Friday morning. Ms Wambura Mitaru will kindly take a baby music lesson on these mornings. This means that going forward, all 4 classes in Pre Prep will be able to do five mornings a week.
Coming Up
Thursday 10th Nov
U9A Boys & Girls Cricket Festival at Kenton (9.00am)
Year 8 Trip to the War Cemetery
Friday 11th November
Athletics at Kasarani (9.00am)
Remembrance Day service 7 pm
Saturday 12th November
U11A Boys Cricket 6 a side tournament at Pembroke (9.00am)
U11A Girls Cricket tournament at Banda (9.00am)
Boys 1st & 2nd XI, Girls 1st & 2nd X vs St. Andrew’s (away) (1.00pm)
Tuesday 15th November
Visit from Bart Wielenga, HM of Blundell’s
Thursday 17th November
Pre Prep Sports Day (9.00am)
Sports Day Pre Events (9.30am)
Year 8 Dinner at the Head’s Hub
Friday 18th November
Inter-House Athletics
2pm Exeat begins
Monday 21st November
Back to school for Chapel at 9 am
School Exams begin
Thursday 24th November
U9 Boys & Girls Cricket v The Banda & Cavina at The Banda (a)
Thursday 1st December
Pre Prep Christmas Play (11.00am)
Community Carol Singing at Gilgil Club
Saturday 3rd December
IAPS Athletics meet at Hillcrest and School Disco
Sunday 4th December
Christingles Carol Service
Friday 9th December
Christmas Craft Fair, Shaggy Dog Show,
Nativity Play & Christingles Carol Service.
Planning for after Christmas
Sports Camp with Swimming Coaching
Thursday 5th-Sunday 8th January 2023
In order to accelerate the children’s readiness for the fixtures ahead both in the UK and for our hockey and swimming fixtures in the Lent Term we propose to hold a sports camp here at school for those in the tour party and other children who would like to join, at the end of the Christmas holidays. We are fortunate that term starts on Monday 9th January so there is some time in the week prior to the start of term to fit in a sports camp. We anticipate that the sports camp will be from Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th January and this will also include swimming coaching.
Swimming Coaching
Polly Berraondo
Polly is very kindly going to join us for the weekend of the sports camp and then she will be with us for a further two weeks assisting with our swimming. This is the swimming term and so all this extra expertise, time and care will really support our swimmers and help them to develop in the best way possible. I paste below some information on Polly.
Currently I head up the swimming programme for KING’S ELY in Cambridgeshire organising lessons and coaching for pupils from Reception up to Year 13. We have a wide ranging programme that includes intensive courses and weekly lessons as well as coaching teams from Year 4 and above. Alongside this I also have a Swim School business providing lessons to the local community to over 500 swimmers. I have been involved with swimming for over 20 years now and can safely say it is a passion rather than a job!
I am a Level 2 ASA teacher and Level 2 ASA coach.
Planning
If you would like your child to be included in the Sports Camp please let us know to help us plan for the children that will be with us. In the past we have found these initiatives to work extremely well in building skill, fitness and confidence in readiness for the sporting challenges of the term ahead.
Pembroke House Sports Tour
Lent Term 2023
The squad for the Hockey Tour will depart on Monday evening 9th January 2023. They will be back at school on Wednesday 18th January.
Please Note
For the children who are not going on the sports tour, Laelia Surtees will kindly organise a fun filled safari to cover much of this time.
This means that all Year 7 & 8 children should return to school as normal in the new year and should be very excited about either being part of the tour party or going away on safari.
Feedback on Half Term
So far the feedback on the few extra days we had at half term in October has been entirely positive so it looks very much as if we will continue with this initiative next year.
Busy Time
There are still 5 weeks of term ahead with a great deal going on. Please do not hesitate to reach out and seek help on any matter, be it transport to and from school, timings or a concern that you would like some help with. We are all here to help and it is our pleasure to listen and support you in any way that we can.
Contact details
Terry admin@pembrokehouse.sc.ke
+254 727 267 642
MJ registrar@pembrokehouse.sc.ke
+254 722 526 374
With very best wishes,
Debs
Mrs Deborah Boyd Moss MA (Cantab) PGCE
Headmistress
Pembroke House
+ 254 (0) 720 602 483
headmistress@pembrokehouse.sc.ke
