End of Hilary Term Peponi Post

Peponi Post

END OF HILARY TERM 2022 EDITION

A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.

Rebecca Nurse in the ‘Crucible’

Peponi School

Discover more about life at Peponi School We are a boarding and day school for ages 11 to 18 on a stunning site just north of Nairobi with excellent airport access.

Peponi School offers a dynamic academic and vibrant extra-curricular programme.

Come in and see how we can help your son or daughter fulfil their potential.

Our Headmaster and Housemistress will be pleased to meet you at our Drinks Reception at the

Hyatt Regency Hotel, Dar es Salaam on

Thursday, 12th May 2022 from 5.30pm in the Zanzibar Room To book individual appointments on Friday, 13th or Saturday 14th May from 10.00am to 4.00pm please email: registrar@peponischool.org

+254 (0) 794 586733 | registrar@peponischool.org | www.peponischool.org @peponischool

@peponi_school

Peponi School

peponi_school

I felt that this week witnessing Ukraine's continuing defiance and hearing President Zelenski echoing Churchill in his address to the British House of Commons and indeed his following speeches to the United States Congress and now other legislatures around the globe, declaring that his country would keep fighting to the very end. The images of the suffering of the people of Ukraine is heart breaking, depressing and, in many cases, beyond belief.

However, day by day we hear of fortitude, courage and endurance – even young seven year olds who have lost everything manage to entertain other refugees – just for a short time to take their mind off their suffering.

Message From The Headmaster Two weeks ago, I watch with amazement the film footage of the famous ship, the Endurance, that sank in 1915 in the Antarctic sea. In the profound silence of the deep ocean, 3000 feet below the spot where sea ice crushed it, a camera, on an unmanned submarine, scanned the remains of Ernest Shackleton's ship.

Rigging and shattered masts strewed the deck. The hull is barely decayed since it sank in 1915. Across the stern we clearly see the ship's name - Endurance.

We naturally ask where heroic figures discover their strength and wonder how we would respond if our professions of courage where really and genuinely tested. As the character Leonato in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing says “there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently.”

Most of us will never face was happening in Ukraine but its teachings approach forbearance and endurance as a practice, starting with the small things like toothache. From this perspective problems aren't simply something to be endured but they are lessons.

Some Buddhist traditions say we should regard difficulties as our teachers. We should take them onto the path or even consider that they are the path.

Christians have the same belief - Most people fail when it comes to enduring hardships, trouble, and adversity and there is a very good reason they fail. We often fail at endurance because they have not built up the strength to endure.

Ernest Shackleton was an Irish Explorer who become obsessed with Antarctica. He was defeated in terms of getting to the South Pole but made a number of exploratory expeditions to the continent and made an attempt to cross it from sea to sea. It was on this expedition that left Europe in 1914 where the attempt failed. The Endurance became stuck in pack ice and was crushed.

The ice defeated Shackleton's attempt to cross Antarctica and the images in photographs from 1915 show the ship trapped like a dying animal in the frozen Ocean. The Crew famously survived thanks to the fortitude of Shackleton and his comrades on their astounding homeric journey to safety. Human weakness requires no explanation. The instinctive urge to avoid pain, if we can, is deeply rooted so we distract ourselves, deny what's happening or blame others. The courage, patience, and endurance and, indeed, the capacity to keep going despite hardship, are always surprising.

03.

...CONTINUED FROM PAGE 02

Real life, the time when we can be happy and fulfilled and at our best does not happen when our problems abate or cease to exist. Real life can only occur in the midst of whatever difficulties life may have brought us. Christian and Buddhist teachers sometimes say that the path or our life journey, the source of authentic meaningful life, is nothing other than the process of changing our response to difficulties. Put more simply, people have to endure in order to endure. An athlete has to build physical endurance to succeed in their sport. Christians, indeed all spiritual believers, have to build up their spiritual endurance.

Perhaps courage and endurance are surprising life lessons because they demonstrate that along with our weaknesses we actually possess strengths that may be hidden even from ourselves.

That, I think, is the power of Shackleton's story and the image of the submerged undecaying ship.

Mark Durston Headmaster

04.

From the Desk of the Deans As we come to the close of what has been a whirlwind Hilary term there is a great deal to celebrate. There is an overwhelming sense of positivity as the school begins to move closer to what we all remember as the ‘old normal’ – which has seen a COVID-cautious and controlled return to in-person meetings.

But perhaps, best of all is that we have seen the return of the KAIISO inter-school tournaments, which our Peponi students are rightly enthused about.

Our remit as Deans, to support the Deputy Head (Academic) with the day-to-day management of the Common Room, has made for a busy term. As Deans we have supported the reinvigoration of educational trips taking pupils to Mombasa and Naro Moro to complete geography fieldwork, we have engaged with the various Scholarship weekends that will see our Peponi family grow in the next academic year, we have taken an active role in the marketing of the school overseas to encourage new members of the East African diaspora to join our ranks, to name just a few activities.

As we look ahead to the final Trinity term and the examination season, our focus will be to find the opportunity and time to continue to adapt and modernise our school working practices; with a view to support the Common Room as they in-turn engage and develop our Peponi pupils next year. Looking ahead there is still a great deal of exciting change that is coming in terms of curriculum, internal staffing practice and up-skilling that we look forward to sharing with you in our next update.

Seoras Strain

The Deans would like to take this opportunity to wish the very best of success to all our Peponi examination candidates. In order to support our pupils in these endeavours we wish to remind parents that all pupils have access to ‘clinics’ with members of the Common Room in the Trinity term.

The format of such sessions can be a focus on academic content; or indeed to review effective revision techniques and general examination skills also.

Best wishes for the holiday season, Jimmy Ogodo

Sirocco and Mistral Dinners On the last night of the Hilary Term, Peponi School staged the Mistral and Sirocco Dinners. In recognising Peponi School’s pastoral history, the two Dinners configured members of our current four Houses into the original two co-educational Houses that were in place until 2007: Sirocco (from which Chala and Jipe evolved) and Mistral (Magadi and Elementaita's original House). We still retain these pairings as brother/sister Houses and the last night of term provided an inaugural opportunity for them to be reunited!

04.

With a special menu, House Tutors with their Houses, and a convivial atmosphere following a busy final day, our pupils enjoyed the occasion. It gave Prefects and UVI in the Houses in particular an opportunity to speak to their Houses and accord 'thank you’s’ and ‘congratulations’ where appropriate. Housemasters and Housemistresses were also able to address their Houses and Tutors in recording their thanks for the past year, and especially this busy Hilary Term.

Karl Cook Deputy Head (Pastoral)

05.

School Production

The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible by Arthur Miller, ‘a story from the past brought crashing into the present’ was the Peponi school production for the academic year 2021-2022. It was directed by Ms Okech and despite having a cast that was predominantly Junior students, they did justice to this riveting play which was quite a treat after the dry spell occasioned by the pandemic. It ran for two days; one for the whole school and the other for the school community and both had a truly appreciative audience, responding to the delicate nuances of the play and often times dark humour. The Headmaster’s introductory remarks drew parallels to our modern context, encouraging us to not only identify with the victims of the persecution but also with those who would judge them. At one point, Zachary Gardner-Hutchinson(SHELL)(Ma) playing the role of John Proctor makes an impassioned plea to the audience at the end of Act three, when he says, ‘You are bringing Heaven down and raising up a whore!’ and ‘…we will burn, we will burn together’ This chilling play studies the events leading up to the 1692 infamous witch hunt trials in Salem Massachusetts. It is based on true people and events and revolves around the accused, the accuser and their fates.

One of the highlights was the opening scene which had a flashback of the girls dancing in the forest and Tituba performing her witchcraft. This had a local flavor of juju in Kenya with the drum beats and the cauldron emitting smoke and cleverly accentuated with the lighting and use of levels.

Overall the costumes, the set and the acting helped transport the audience to its historical time and contributed to the great success of the play.

Sabina Okech Teacher of Drama

Find the full play on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hJEc-oXgIY&t=301s

06.

07.

School Chapel Service

The Third Sunday of Lent

By Sarthak Nanda UVI(Ma) Sunday the 20th of March marked the final Chapel service for this term. It fell on Magadi’s shoulders to deliver one with enthusiasm and impact that was deserved. Magadi did this as we organized a service complete with hip hop, Victorian and contemporary music, that accompanied the set of prayers and hymns for the third Sunday of Lent. The service encapsulated the modern and youthful form of worship, that seem to supersede the older and more traditional ways of worship. The preacher of the day was Johnson Mwakazi, a former broadcaster with Citizen TV and a motivational speaker. His voice captured all listeners, as he delivered a short sermon entitled ‘The God Who Sees’. All the Chapel services this term have been evidential of this and pupils as well as parents have thoroughly enjoyed them. We are looking forward to next term, and we expect to live up to, if not surpass, the services of this term.

08.

LVI Trip to Sagana

By Anaya Jessa LVI(El) On Thursday 3rd March, the Lower Sixth excitedly set out to Sagana to enjoy some team-building activities.

It was a great experience as we were able to have a break after the long and stressful AS mock examinations. All of the pupils were able to engage in the interactive bonding sessions as well as participate in several activities including; white water rafting, archery, and zip lining.

This was a very enjoyable trip as we as individuals were able to push out of our comfort zone and it allowed us as a year group to create new friendships and strengthen old ones.

Throughout the trip, we were treated to delicious and nutritious food that was catered by our Peponi catering team. The trip was a great success and on behalf of all pupils in the Lower Sixth we are thankful for the teacher and staff who came with us on the trip and made it very exciting and relaxing.

Here’s to the rest of term - all of us fully refreshed!

Young Musician’s Competition I was delighted that the Young Musician’s Competition could take place this year. It certainly was different! The preliminaries were virtual with competitors submitting videos of their performance.

Perhaps surprisingly, the number of submissions was impressive with over 70 competitors, including some all the way from Uganda! The Finals took place, physically, at Kenton College. Our Finalists did themselves proud and I would like to congratulate the following pupils in particular: o Samyak Raja(LVI)(Ma) (Violin) – Winner of the Intermediate solo category o Ruchi Raja(LV)(El) (Piano) – Finalist in the Intermediate solo category o Maya Oluoch-Olunya(UVI)(Ji) (Violin) – 3rd place in the Senior solo category

09.

Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. ― Kahlil Gibran

Nairobi Orchestra Over the years, we have rightly been proud that some of our musicians have been able to rehearse with and participate in the Nairobi Orchestra concerts. The last concerts in November 2021 featured Maya Oluoch-Olunya(UVI)(Ji) on viola. This time, it was Samskara Shah(LV)(El) on the Harp in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite. Kudos! It was also impressive to see a strong Peponi schools’ staff contingent, including Mr Laight & Mr Wataka as conductors, Mr Stephens as trumpet soloist and Ms Davies in the cello section. Now that concerts are becoming commonplace again, I am confident that we will continue to get our best musicians involved with this Orchestra which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year!

End of Term Concert I am always proud that, even at the end of a very busy term, we can still put on a very successful End of Term Concert. This is a testament to the ability and hard work of our musicians!

The school ensembles have seen rehearsals somewhat fractured due to mock examinations and other events, but the School Orchestra continues to work hard and played the James Bond theme by Monty Norman. The Brass Ensemble, a new group under the tutelage of Mrs Wafula, has worked well and presented You Raise Me Up whilst the String Ensemble performed Prom Night.

It has been quite some time since we heard and saw the Staff Choir. I’m delighted, therefore, that they were back on stage in their rendition of Swing Down Chariot.

From our Senior pupils, we heard Maya Oluoch-Olunya(UVI)(Ji) (Piano) play the last movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Nyakio Koome(UVI)(Ji) (Voice) sing If I ain’t got you by Alicia Keys and Siana Thethy(LVI)(Ji) and Ronav Vora(LVI)(Ch) both on drum-kit. We also heard Miranda Kansiime(LVI)(Ji) (Voice) and Neha Shah(LVI)(Ji) & Samar Ahmed(LVI) (El)(Vocal duet) performing Vienna by Billy Joel.

11.

Elsewhere, I continue to be encouraged by the participation and musicality of our Junior pupils.

This time, we heard Ruchi Raja(LV)(El) (Violin) performing Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, vocal performances from Saiyana Pandya(LV)(El), Danielle Kavuma(SHELL) and Yara Mballa(LV)(El) (in another of her own compositions) and Aarav Patel(LV)(Ch) (Saxophone) performing a Medley.

Once again we were treated to a performance from the Dance Club and finally, two of our Young Musician’s successes (Maya Oluoch-Olunya(UVI)(Ji) and Samyak Raja(LVI)(Ma)) combined forces (or violins!) to perform the last movement of J. S. Bach’s concerto for two violins.

James Laight Director of Music & Creative Arts

11.

There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.

12.

- Derek Jeter

12.

End of Term Sports Report Peponi Sports teams have continued their dominance and have posted excellent results in the second half of term. There was a lot of effort in preparation for planned fixtures, tournaments and there has been personal growth among the pupils in various teams.

KAISSO Tournaments Under14 Hockey tournament. Both the boys’ and girls’ were in superb form and posted impressive results.

The Colts girls were 1st runners whereas in the boys’ category Peponi emerged the overall winners with Arthur Rousseau named as MVP. Peponi School made history by lifting the U19 KAISSO Premiership 2022 title whereas the Colt’s Boys basketball were runners-up in the same KAISSO competition. Colts’ Boys’ and Girls’ hockey teams finished 3rd.

The U19 Girls Football team finished third in the 1st Division at Nairobi Academy with Palvi Shah adjudged the MVP. The Colts Girls’ football had a remarkable outing and won their maiden medal in the KAISSO U15 football tournament at St.Christopher’s. The team lead by the captain Carla Rusagara won all their group stage matches without conceding any goal.

They finished 2nd after going down 1-0 in the finals.

Carla was adjudged the tournament’s MVP after scoring 4 goals and playing key role in the team’s success.

14.

House Competitions Inter-House swimming meet was highly competitive and all swimmers were enthusiastic and confident of good performance for their respective houses. All the houses had a full team to compete in every race scheduled.

The Junior Girls’ event was very competitive with a big pool of the girls’ swimmers having competed at the national level. Jipe won the girls trophy by 5200 points whereas Elementaita came second with 4990 points. The boys’ trophy was won by Magadi with a total of 5580 points against Chala’s 4300 points.

In Basketball, Chala won both the Senior and Junior competition. Jipe were too good in both the senior and Junior Football competitions.

Junior Inter-house Girls’ Hockey was won by Elementaita whereas the senior competition was won by Jipe.

The Boys’ Junior title went to Chala whereas the senior boys’ title was won by Magadi.

Congratulations to all who participated in sporting events during Hilary 2022 term and we look forward to more sporting events and Inter-House competitions in the coming terms.

Recipe from Chef Sylvester

16.

Eggs Mimosa Mimosa describes the fine yellow and white grated eggs in this dish, which looks very similar to the flower of the same name. The eggs taste delicious when garnished with black pepper and basil leaves.

Grated egg yolk can also be used as a garnish for a variety of other savoury dishes, such as sauces, soups and rice dishes.

Ingredients (Makes Twenty) 12 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled 2 ripe avocados, halved and stoned (pitted) 1 garlic clove, crushed From the store-cupboard 15ml/1 tbsp olive oil

Method Reserve two of the hard-boiled eggs and halve the remainder. Carefully remove the yolks with a teaspoon and blend them with the avocados, garlic and oil, adding freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste. Spoon or pipe the mixture into the halved egg whites using a piping (pastry) bag with a 1cm ½in or pipe star nozzle Serve the remaining egg whites and sprinkle over the filled eggs.

Sieve the yolks and arrange on top. Arrange the filled egg halves on a serving platter.

17.

Peponi Connect introduces the exciting prospect of work opportunity partnerships between Peponi parents and Peponi pupils.

Do you have an opportunity to offer work experience for our senior pupils? Help them develop their workplace experience, their soft skills, and their confidence within a profession to which they aspire. As we foster the next generation of university undergraduates and successful young working men and women, help us to engage, excite and enrich the next generation of leaders.

Please email: connect@peponischool.org #Peponicommunityworktogether

@peponischool

@peponi_school

Peponi School

peponi_school

Peponi School on Social Media The Official Peponi School Social Media Accounts

Facebook www.facebook.com/peponischool Twitter www.twitter.com/peponi_school Instagram www.instagram.com/peponi_school

Youtube https://bit.ly/2YUrnl8

14

Peponi School P.O. Box 236, Ruiru 00232 +(254) 020 354 6456 +(254) 0733 615 193; +(254) 0722 287 248