Michaelmas Term 2022
Letter from the Headmistress
No. 7
A Round Up
Highlights
Girls Cricket, IAPS Athletics & Final Assembly
Christmas Craft Fair, Shaggy Dog Show
Nativity Play & Christingles Carol Service
Sustainability Subcommittee
Sports Camp, Sports Tour, Seniors Trip to Lewa
ISI Inspection
Thank you & Happy Christmas!
Dear Parents,
I hope the holidays have started well and you are having a lovely time relaxing with your children and listening to all the stories from their time at school!
I am writing with a round up of the term and all the matters covered in our final assembly.
Highlights
Under 11 Girls and Senior Girls Cricket
Both teams performed so well over the course of the season and then managed to win their respective tournaments; very well done to these girls and their coaches -two tremendous victories!
IAPS Athletics
Our Athletics squad had trained so hard for this very special day and they set off early for the competition. Event after event took place over the course of the morning and our athletes performed with discipline and real talent. By the end of the day we heard we had come third which was extremely exciting. The result was confirmed late last week just before our final assembly and we had the greatest pleasure giving out the medals to our deserving athletes.
Results
Bronze Medals:
Under 9 Boys 200m - Anton Low
Under 11 Boys 1500m - Harry Elwes
Under 12 Boys High Jump - Topper Dunn
Under 13 Girls 4 x 100m Relay
Beanie Barclay, Milla Hastings, Isla Farquarson, Chloe-Evelyn Mulwana
Silver Medals:
Under 9 Girls 1500m - Zia Tundo
Under 9 Boys Long Jump - Anton Low
Under 9 Girls High Jump - Isabelle Campbell
Under 9 Boys 4x 100m Relay
Yarden Ben Yair, Jelani Wafula, Anton Low, Oscar Outram
Under 11 Girls 100m - Porscher Byamugisha
Under 11 Girls 200m - Matilda Mazinga
Under 11 Girls Long Jump - Matilda Mazinga
Under 13 Boys Javelin - Malachi Ouvry
Gold Medals:
Under 9 Girls Long Jump - Maia Perrett
Under 9 Girls Ball throw - Zia Yundo
Under 9 Boys Ball throw - Charlie Seagon
Under 13 Girls 200m - Chloe-Evelyn Mulwana
Under 13 Girls Long Jump - Chloe-Evelyn Mulwana
Under 13 Boys Shot Put - David Rust
Under 13 Girls Discus - Allyson Ajavon
Very well done to our medal winners and to the squad as a whole. To come third out of the 10 IAPS schools is a remarkable achievement and absolutely every result counts.
The Final Day of Term
This proved to be a wonderful day. Once our Final Assembly was over in the Christina Chapel we all headed down to the fields for our parent matches and the Christmas Craft Fair. This was just delightful with a fabulous selection of gifts to inspire and tempt us for Christmas. The matches were great fun, the Shaggy Dog Show, perhaps the highlight of our time on the fields, was a tremendous success and it added real fairy dust to make the day extremely enjoyable and memorable. I even wondered if children should be able to have dogs at school! (joke!) Then up we came for the Nativity Play. Mrs Standen McDougal and the Junior School had worked very hard to pull this all together and it was just lovely to watch the children’s smiling faces and the excitement they felt, at being on stage in front of you all. The power glitch towards the end just added to the poignancy of the spectacle and we pulled together and continued unphased! Thank you to all our Juniors, to their teachers and of course to Mrs Standen McDougal for engendering such a love of drama and ‘performing’ amongst the children. Thank you too to Laelia Surtees for lending us her dear little miniature donkeys which added much fun to the performance. Then we all enjoyed some (home made!) mince pies and a glass of mulled wine and it was on to the final Christingles performance. This is always such a touching Carol Service and watching the candle light travel to each and every one of us is a moving moment. The children sang beautifully and this year we were blessed with the Martlet Band which we all loved. A huge thank you to Ms MM for adding all your creative energy and talent to Pembroke’s journey.
Sustainability
Sustainability Subcommittee
Over the course of this term there has been a real drive at the level of Council, within our parent body and in school, for more action to take us towards a sustainable outcome for the school.
Richard Vigne, our Chairman, introduces matters in the passage below.
Healthy Children for a Healthy Planet
For the past few months Council and management have been discussing how best to make Pembroke House a more sustainable institution, in keeping with global needs, and with a strong focus on the health and education of our children. As we all know, the planet currently faces a number of existential threats, particularly around climate change and the loss of global biodiversity. As such we feel that the school has an opportunity to play its role in managing these threats by becoming a leading example of how institutions can be transformed to become more environmentally and socially sustainable in an economically sensible manner. The process of transformation will of course provide enormous educational opportunities for our children, especially around the safe production of food, reducing atmospheric carbon and the stewardship of biodiversity and natural capital.
To that end the Council has now formally created the Sustainability Subcommittee. The broad vision of this subcommittee will be to find and recommend ways in which Pembroke House can become a leading example in the education sector of how the broad societal goal of sustainability can be achieved, where the needs of current generations are fulfilled without compromising the requirements of future generations, whilst ensuring a balance between economic needs, environmental care and social well-being.
In the immediate term the Subcommittee will be focusing on how we provide food and drinking water at school, to both pupils and staff. This will involve a thorough assessment of all food inputs and menus to ensure everything we provide is EU safe at affordable rates, and that menus are healthy, wholesome and sufficient. We will also be developing traceability systems to ensure that data around sourcing and safety can be made to all children, parents and staff. In time we will also consider the creation of Pembroke Farms as a healthy, interactive and fun way of producing great food for the school.
Once we have satisfactorily addressed food and drinking water, the Subcommittee will then start to look at other opportunities to create a sustainability "journey" for Pembroke. This will focus on how to reach "net zero" from a carbon perspective, how to manage, recover and nurture biodiversity (think bee keeping, flowering meadows and regenerative agriculture) and how the school may start to play a broader role in local initiatives to support poor and marginalised people living in the communities around the school.
The Subcommittee will report directly to Council and will work closely with the School Sustainability Committee, that will be formed to implement all recommendations that have been adopted and to act as a conduit of information to staff and pupils.
We will publish more information on this exciting initiative in the very near future.
Action so far
Fortunately, such concerns and thoughts have long been part of Pembroke’s mind set. For over 20 years each new child at school has planted a tree. Caroline Kennedy helped us with environmentally friendly ways of cleaning and we have continued her example using ‘Grounded’ products to look after our grey water and the chemical residues in school. Thanks to Terry Coulson and Council the wetlands were established at least 30 years ago. The kitchens, whilst humble, produce meals all made from scratch and this rules out so many additives that are commonly hidden in today’s food. Furthermore, Caroline taught us so many delicious recipes: our own muesli, mayonnaise, dressings and so many more. Our water is tested across all outlets at least three times a year and we have our own filtration plant for our drinking water.
With this extra initiative in mind we have continued this work with added energy and we have been looking further into the sources of our food at school. We have been looking for more organic solutions and ways to reduce the amount of sugar we use, along with reducing any processed food items involved in the preparation of our menus.
In recent weeks we have been visited by a dietician to look closely into our menus and how we prepare our daily fare. We have already made some substantial steps towards our goals and we have managed to find some simple ways to cut down the amount of sugar the children consume each day. We have sugar free peanut butter, marmite and bovril available for breakfast and in the sandwiches at break and tea. We have been making our own rusks for cocoa in the evening and we have taken away manufactured ‘juice’ replacing it with our own ‘home made’ orange juice twice a week. Already, we have sourced and we are using affordable, locally grown organic vegetables and our visiting dietician was impressed with the fact that all our menus are prepared from scratch in the kitchen, including all our puddings, muffins and cakes as well as the muesli, mayonnaise and dressings I have already mentioned. Furthermore, we are going to make our own bread next term employing our own baker and sourcing the best flour. This will cut down on many additives and added sugar that are in locally made bread. Pembroke House used to make its own bread and many of you as Pembrokians can remember the days when you would enjoy warm bread from the oven.
As a school we are looking forward to this journey and we are most grateful for all the advice and enthusiasm powering us forward.
Final Assembly
Academic Achievement & Effort Awards
Year 1: Academic Effort & Achievement: Siena Cork
2W: Academic Achievement & Effort: Gray Keith
2PK: Academic Achievement: Felix Brooks
Effort:Timothy Njenga
3F: Academic Achievement: Charlie Horsey
Effort: Clementine Adams & Noor Zuurbier
4A: Academic Effort & Achievement: Lucy Yiannakis
4H: Academic Achievement: Tian Goodchild
Effort: Aaron Jensen
5M: Academic Achievement: Ryan Aung
Effort: Iona Elwes
5H: Academic Effort & Achievement: Ella Horsey
6S: Academic Achievement: Abigael Kariuki
Effort: Kiara Perrett
6R: Academic Achievement: Adrienne Kamau
Effort: Florence Adams and Abbie Aung
7D: Academic Achievement: Michael Thayu
Effort: David Rust
7S: Academic Achievement: Joshua Mugisha
Effort: Joshua Mugisha and Tamara Wood
7O: Academic Achievement & Effort: Natalie Yanda
8W: Academic Achievement: Benjamin Le Court
Effort: Benjamin Le Court & Nyssa Kendi
8F: Academic Achievement :Jack Foxton & Lionel Laurence
Effort: Lionel Laurence
8S: Academic Achievement: Chloe-Evelyn Mulwana
Effort: Chloe- Evelyn Mulwana, Vesper Murray & Robert Rust
Academic Colours to Digby Nightingale for his All Rounder Scholarship to Gordonstoun
House Point Awards
Fosters
200 House Points
Caroline Hemsted
250 House Points
Abbie Aung
Hazards
200 House Points
Porscher Byamugisha, Finn Cross, Teegan Taylor, Natalie Yanda
Turners
200 House Points
Louise Camoin, Jolie Zuurbier
250 House Points
Deborah Mugisha, Libby Obwoge
Opies
200 House Points
Draymond Ajavon, Iona Elwes, Isabelle Charitatos, Adrienne Kamau, Ryan Kamau
300 House Points
Viana Sanghrajka
Sports Awards
Cricket
U9B Girls Most Improved: Tyga Church & Clementine Adams
U9B Girls Player of the Season: Ella Biribonwa
U9A Girls Most Improved: Chloe Cordingley
U9A Girls Player of the Season: Isabelle Campbell
U11B Girls Most Improved: Summer Huish
U11B Girls Player of the Season: Rony Ben Yair
U11A Girls Most Improved: Caitlin Neylan
U11A Girls Player of the Season: Abbie Aung
2nd Team Girls Most Improved: Seiya Macfarlane
2nd Team Girls Player of the Season: Teegan Taylor
1st Team Girls Most Improved: Jordan Rune
1st Team Girls Player of the Season: Mieke Schutte
U9B Boys Most Improved: James Tomblin
U9B Boys Player of the Season: Zako Barlow-Ngugi
U9A Boys Most Improved: Alexander Hellings
U9A Boys Player of the Season: Charlie Seagon & Conor Froome
U11B Boys Most Improved: Angus Burden
U11B Boys Player of the Season: Archie Macfarlane & Kelsey Kibet
U11A Boys Most Improved: Archie Wright
U11A Boys Player of the Season: Ishan Nanji
2nd Team Boys Most Improved: Gabriel Freeman
2nd Team Boys Player of the Season: Arlo Hallam
1st Team Boys Most Improved: David Rust
1st Team Boys Player of the Season: Max Lankester
Football
U9 Girls Most Improved: Isabelle Campbell
U9 Girls Player of the Season: Zia Tundo
U11 Girls Most Improved: Adrienne Kamau
U11 Girls Player of the Season: Porscher Byamugisha
1st Team Girls Most Improved: Beanie Barclay
1st Team Girls Player of the Season: Jordan Rune
U9 Boys Most Improved: Alexander Hellings
U9 Boys Player of the Season: Yarden Ben Yair
U11 Boys Most Improved: Laurence Trevor
U11 Boys Player of the Season: Kelsey Kibet
1st Team Boys Most Improved: Digby Nightingale
1st Team Boys Player of the Season: Malachi Ouvry
Sports Colours
Girls Cricket
Half Colours
Isla Farquharson, Michaela Kiptoo, Coco Llewelyn, Jordan Rune, Enna Davies
Full Colours
Mieke Schutte, Natalie Yanda, Megan Heath, Vesper Murray
Boys Cricket
Half Colours
Sabien Davies, David Rust, Jack Foxton, Robert Rust, Ryan Hill, Rafe Carey
Full Colours
Archie Camm, Max Lankester, Lionel Laurence, Digby Nightingale, Topper Dunn
Boys Football
Half Colours
Malachi Ouvry, Robert Rust, Kian Murigah
Athletics
Half Colours
Milla Hastings, Megan Heath, Ryan Hill, Jordan Rune, Michelle Owor
Full Colours
Digby Nightingale, Jack Foxton, Archie Camm, Malachi Ouvry, Isla Farquharson, Chloe-Evelyn Mulwana, Robert Rust, David Rust, Allyson Ajavon, Topper Dunn
House Matches
Michaelmas Term
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |
| Athletics | Fosters | Hazards | Opies | Turners |
| U9 Football | Opies | Hazards | Fosters | Turners |
| U11 Football | Turners | Fosters | Opies | Hazards |
| U13 Football | Turners | Opies | Hazards | Fosters |
| U9 G & B Cricket | Hazards | Opies | Fosters | Turners |
| U11 Girls Cricket | Fosters | Turners | Opies | Hazards |
| U13 Girls Cricket | Fosters | Turners | Hazards | Opies |
| U11 Boys Cricket | Fosters | Opies | Turners | Hazards |
| U13 Boys Cricket | Turners | Fosters | Hazards | Opies |
Final Assembly Cock House - Michaelmas 2022
Sports Cup:
4th - Hazards (57 points)
3rd - Turners (59 points)
2nd - Opies (66 points)
1st - Fosters (78 points)
Work Cup
4th - Turners (77.7)
3rd - Fosters (81.3)
2nd - Hazards (85.6)
1st - Opies (92.0)
Conduct Cup
4th - Opies (31.9)
3rd - Turners (32.4)
2nd - Hazards (33.9)
1st - Fosters (35.8)
Cock House Standings - Michaelmas 2022
4th - Hazards (98 points)
3rd - Turners (101 points)
2nd - Opies (102 points)
1st - Foster (123 points)
Next Term
The Sports Camp
A great deal of progress is made during sports camps and we would recommend that as many children as possible join us for our upcoming camp just before the new term starts. Quite often staff have remarked that the children make such phenomenal progress that it is almost equivalent to three weeks of normal coaching at school.
The camp will be open to all year groups in the prep school, and we will be coaching both hockey and swimming, with a visiting coach from the UK, Polly Berraondo coaching at the pool alongside Ms Carol Ngori and Mr Seth Gumbo.
The camp will run on Thursday 5th, Friday 6th & Saturday 7th of January 2023 . The days will run from 9.00am to 4.00pm, with a boarding option available for those that do not wish to come and go each day.
The cost of the camp will be 5,000 kes per day (or 7,000 per day for the boarding option). The camp is obligatory for our children that have been selected for the Sports Tour, and the cost of this is included in the cost of the tour.
Sunday 8th January 2023
Children who need to remain at school because they live so far away or whose parents are not staying in Gilgil will of course be looked after at school and there will be a day trip on the Sunday to give the children a fun day before school starts on the Monday.
Please click on the link below to enrol your child for the camp.
https://forms.gle/vogpaAqPJMUkioTK7
Please Click
ISI Inspection
I hope you all managed to fill in the Inspectors questionnaire. Our two Inspectors start our inspection on Sunday 5th February and leave us on Wednesday 8th February. Much of the footwork has been managed and we now look forward to showing our Inspectors the school that we all love so much.
Reports
The reports should be with you on Tuesday.
Changes for the new term
Catherine Forsayeth who has been teaching TPR to our seniors and English to 5M is sadly leaving us this term. We wish her well and I am sure Catherine’s family will be thrilled to have her back at home in Australia. Paul Odera will kindly take on the TPR lessons for Years 7 & 8 and Catherine Gatheru-Therenja will teach 5M English. Ms Gatheru-Therenja will also take on Ms Forsayeth’s tutees. I do apologise for the change and we will do our best to make sure that the children experience as little disruption as possible. Fortunately, both Mr Odera and Ms Gatheru-Therenja are well known to these classes and they are both excited to work with the children once more.
The Calendar
Next term calendar is just being finalised but we attach it below for your consideration. I know the dates of the holidays and fixtures really help you to plan ahead. Should you spot what you feel is a mistake or a typo please do get in touch asap.
The Calendar
Please Click
Thank yous
Members of Staff
Before this final letter of the term comes to an end, I would like to thank each and every member of staff at school. The teamwork amongst us all has been quite remarkable and it has helped to make it a wonderful and very enjoyable term for everyone.
Our Parents
To you, our parents, who place such trust in us all at school, please accept our thanks and appreciation for your support, understanding, enthusiasm, patience and kindness throughout the course of this term. It is a privilege for us to have the opportunity to educate and nurture each and every child at school.
May I bring this letter to a close by wishing you a wonderful holiday and a very Happy Christmas and may Father Christmas find you wherever you may be!
I hope the holidays go well and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year all ready for the new term on Monday 9th January 2023 .
As always please do not hesitate to get in touch if I can help you in any way.
With very best wishes,
Debs
Mrs Deborah Boyd Moss MA (Cantab) PGCE
Headmistress
Pembroke House
+ 254 (0) 720 602 483
headmistress@pembrokehouse.sc.ke
