Kenya Visit September 2024

Sitting at home with my cup of tea watching bullish clouds of rain drench the misty South Downs (again), I recall this time a fortnight ago when I sat on the terrace of old Eastbournian Pete White's (Pennell 1978-82) wonderfully idiosyncratic home in Gilgil Kenya, watching a kaleidoscopic cornucopia of noisy garden birds tuck in to breakfast served from the various precariously balanced Heath Robinson styled bird feeders positioned strategically around the verandah. 

My trip to Kenya was remarkable in many ways and a wonderful opportunity to catch up with parents of current and former pupils, a former teacher from St Andrew's Prep, OEs and OAs and other friends of the Eastbournian Society community.

Vicky Burford, our International Coordinator and I visited five Kenyan Prep Schools and Vicky represented Eastbourne College at the Academic Families Expo. This gave her the opportunity to talk about all we can offer Kenyan families, share the recent highlights magazine with those we met  and discover how much we share in terms of values and ambitions for our children.

Not only that but we align closely with our temperate climate (well, sometimes), cross country running, swimming opportunities, horse riding, golf and such an enormous variety of sport for all.

We were extremely grateful to OE Eric Koops (Gonville and Nugent 1959-63) who sponsored a reception at the Muthaiga Club in Nairobi and were delighted to catch up with other Eastbournians based in Kenya along the way including Adrian Hughes (Gonville 1981-86), Shela Davis nee Nightingale (Nugent 1987-89) and James Down (Wargrave 2005-10). 

James is our new ES Rep in Kenya and we hope to continue to nurture this burgeoning relationship and visit again next year for the Ndume 7s tournament at Pembroke House School. Please do get in touch if you have any links with Kenya, as OAs, OEs, former members of staff or as current parents or parents of former pupils - we would love to hear from you.