2023 October visit

1 Oct 2023

Long single-storey Emley Education Centre Junior High School buildings across a dusty yard under blue sky

After a long journey we arrived to glorious sunshine. The new High School had been running for nearly a year and was run by an excellent headmaster in Geoffrey and some superb teachers. The pupils really enjoy science in the new labs and music in the music lab. I observed a science lesson and took many photos.

Pupils in uniform lined up in front of the Emley Education Centre Junior High School building

School pupils

Pupils and teachers grouped in front of a wall painted with a large curriculum wheel

Five teachers, two in lab coats, standing with a visitor outside the science lab door

Science teachers

Pupils in uniform working with test tubes at a tiled lab bench

A visitor sits watching as a teacher in a lab coat leads pupils at lab benches

Observing a science lesson

We took out some recorders and bought the school some drums guitars and a keyboard. The school has some very talented music teachers and often comes first in the county music competitions.

Five pupils standing with acoustic guitars around an electronic keyboard on a stand

Close-up of a black electronic keyboard on a speaker cabinet

A large group of pupils gathered around guitars and a keyboard in a classroom

A new subject in the high school now is cookery

Three pupils in aprons giving a thumbs-up beside their teacher

Pupils in aprons and paper chef hats behind a table of fresh vegetables

Girls in headscarves chopping cabbage and greens at a wooden table

Six bowls of shredded cabbage and cooked green vegetables on a table

Graduation

This year Nursery children graduated to Primary School. Year 6 graduated to the new High School and for the last time Standard 8 pupils will leave so graduated to Secondary School.

Pupils seated in a large open-sided hall facing a speaker at the front

Prayers before the exams . I got a big clap as I addressed the pupils in Kiswahili.

Dida in a purple graduation gown and cap standing arm in arm with a woman in pink

Dida who we sponsor graduated

A long line of children in blue and purple graduation gowns in the school yard

Graduants

Young girls in white tutus dancing on sand with a woman behind them

Dancing in the rain

Two men playing tall drums in the yard as a crowd watches from under shelter

Drummers

A pupil in a black gown and sash stands beside a man with a microphone

New recorder played National Anthem

Two iced graduation cakes on a table with a blue cloth

A boxed white cake iced 'Emley Education centre PP2 2023' with a small mortarboard on top

Crowd gathered as pupils in gowns and tinsel garlands are fed cake

County Governer fed pupils cake.

Men and a woman in tinsel garlands holding a goat on a rope among pupils in gowns

Mr. Harrison, the headmaster, presented Fatuma the county governer a goat.

Eye Testing

A church in the middle of nowhere several kilometres from a road. Most could not read.

Roofless block walls of a rural building standing in long grass

Villagers seated on plastic chairs under a shelter with spectacles laid out on a blue cloth

A volunteer shows a reading card to a woman at a green table outdoors

Second eye camp was very busy in Kwale

People seated under a tent at tables during an outdoor medical camp

Two volunteers testing a man's eyes with reading cards at an outdoor camp

A Rotary Club banner hanging beside the tent where people wait for eye tests

Finally we erected mosquito nets to vulnerable children

A white mosquito net hung over a bed in a small room

A man sitting with two women and a child on a bed under a new mosquito net

A man sitting with a woman and a girl on a bed under a white mosquito net

News from 2024

We did not go out to Kenya this year but invited Harrison our headmaster to visit us in the UK.

The school has continued to do well under the guidance of Jeffrey the new head of the School.

He is very enthusiastic and well organised. The science lab is well equipped and thanks to a generous donor new ;lap tops were bought so now junior High school has 20 lap tops. Ideally we could do with more as the children still have to share. The popularity of the high school because government schools still dont have labs means our school is full.

Four girls at a table using laptops connected to a projector

Music is very popular and we bought some new instruments and drums

Harrison during his visit said he wanted to start a baby class in 2 vacant classes and needed some good quality toys and books. Kenyan toys are all second hand or cheap chinese plastivc toys which soon break.

We invested in wooden toys , dolls baby books and educational jigsaws and other toys. Harrison went back to Kenya with 2 suitcases of toys.

At the end of the year was the usual graduation.

A large white marquee decorated with tinsel and balloons over rows of chairs on red earth

Children in purple graduation gowns and caps walking in a line