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Where Schooling Meets Safari: Enrich Your Child’s Education with a Sabbatical Term at Pembroke House

Where Schooling Meets Safari: Enrich Your Child’s Education with a Sabbatical Term at Pembroke House

When we think about giving our children a world-class education, we often envision classrooms, books, and well-planned curricula. Yet, what if you could broaden that vision, offering your child not only an excellent education but a life-changing adventure set in one of the world’s most enchanting landscapes? At Pembroke House School, nestled in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, a sabbatical term offers UK students the unforgettable chance to learn, explore, and grow in ways that few schools can match.

When we think about giving our children a world-class education, we often envision classrooms, books, and well-planned curricula. Yet, what if you could broaden that vision, offering your child not only an excellent education but a life-changing adventure set in one of the world’s most enchanting landscapes? At Pembroke House School, nestled in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, a sabbatical term offers UK students the unforgettable chance to learn, explore, and grow in ways that few schools can match.

Imagine waking up in the morning to ride horses at sunrise, then trotting off for breakfast and academic lessons interspersed with adventure learning until lunch, before enjoying games, sports, and afternoon tea under acacia trees. Pembroke takes full advantage of its 140-acre campus to really combine academic excellence with adventure in a way which completely reimagines education; it breaks open the four walls of a traditional classroom to take learning outdoors, offering students the chance to immerse themselves in hands-on challenges and collaborative problem-solving. Whether building survival shelters to camp beneath the African stars or engineering dams and bridges in a nearby stream fondly nicknamed ‘The Trickle,’ students are constantly engaging with their environment in meaningful ways. What makes Pembroke truly unique is its ability to seamlessly blend outdoor adventures with intellectual lessons: ratios come to life as students mix cement for real-world projects, and the principles of geometry are grasped not just on paper but while designing and building ziplines. These activities go beyond academic enrichment; they foster resilience, creativity, and a willingness to embrace challenges. 

Exploration and adventure are woven into daily life. When walking around campus, you’ll encounter everything from bird boxes handcrafted by students (home to a variety of feathered and buzzing residents) to shacks built in the forestry and even a dirt bike track for the school ‘Piki Club’. The kids craft bamboo fishing rods for weekends spent at the nearby Lake Naivasha, collect and catalogue butterflies, and are taught to safely shoot air rifles at Pembroke’s dedicated 50-metre shooting range. Wildlife becomes a natural part of their education, with student-placed camera traps capturing footage of bushbuck, porcupines, and white-tailed mongoose at an on-site watering hole built by the children themselves. Beyond Pembroke’s gates, the school has established what can only be called a full-blown safari outfit: whether it’s taking students on camping trips to Mt Longonot or on camel safaris in Rumuruti, they are always supported by teams of Pembrokian chefs, teachers, and specialised guides. 

In an environment as captivating as Pembroke’s, children become naturally curious. They begin asking questions not just in the classroom but in every outdoor adventure, every encounter with local wildlife, and every exchange with peers and teachers. They learn to appreciate the natural world deeply and personally, far from the screen-based distractions of modern life, and are truly allowed to be children. As a result, sabbatical students return home with a greater respect for nature, a lifelong love for learning, and stories to share that are far more engaging than anything they’d pick up from a textbook.

And all these outdoor adventures work alongside an in-classroom academic excellence that follows the British curriculum and term times, granting an invaluable continuity to any UK parents looking to give their children the opportunity of a Kenyan sabbatical; British students are able to seamlessly merge back into their home schools after their time at Pembroke, with the only difference being a wider perspective, confidence for life, and a deep, enduring love for East Africa. Pembroke House is not just a school; it’s an extraordinary environment where the breathtaking surroundings of the Great Rift Valley have been used to nurture critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving since 1927. At Pembroke, students don’t just learn academically—they discover, experience, and grow as people. And they have a whole lot of fun while doing it.

One of the most cherished aspects of a sabbatical term at Pembroke House is the sense of community: children attending Pembroke often describe feeling part of a family, not just a school. From the moment your child arrives, they’re welcomed into a warm, inclusive school environment with a support network of like-minded families, teachers, and staff who are passionate about education and fostering meaningful connections. The friendships formed here often last a lifetime, as students bond over shared experiences that are as unique as they are transformative. 

Join the Pembroke House Family Today

Whether you’re looking for a term of adventure or a full academic year, Pembroke House invites you to start your journey. A sabbatical term at Pembroke does more than just add a unique chapter to a child’s school year; it becomes a cornerstone of their development, where they get to experience the best of both worlds—educational excellence and life-changing exploration—in the heart of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley.

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