Spirit of The Banda

Friday 17th March 2023

A WORD FROM THE HEADTEACHER

I have recently received further excellent scholarship news about some of our Year 8 pupils.
Congratulations to Coco Bouloux-Dwek on gaining the Usanii Art Scholarship and to Simran Choda
and Leti Moorhead who gained Art Scholarships to King’s College, Taunton, UK. Simran has also
been awarded the Thomas Sanders Award, as well as the Art and Drama Scholarships, to
Blundell’s School, UK. Keza Nyakairu must also be congratulated for gaining the Thring
Scholarship into Uppingham School. These are competitive awards and we are very proud of their
achievements.

The children and teachers definitely made me proud during this week’s three day inspection. They
engaged confidently with the inspectors and were involved in several group meetings and lesson
observations. The whole experience was rigorous, but extremely worthwhile and once we receive
the report in a few weeks time, this will be shared with you all.

Today’s musical charity day has been a fun and enjoyable time. Ghetto Classics performed in
assembly and later with our Chamber Choir. The money raised will go towards supporting Ghetto
Classics which is a very worthwhile community programme.

I wish all of our swimmers the very best of luck at tomorrow’s various IAPS Swimming Galas. The
Banda will be hosting the Under 11 IAPS Gala, the Under 13s will be at Kenton and the Under 9s
at Brookhouse.

Ali Francombe

See Week 11 events overleaf. Follow us on:

 UNDER 11 & UNDER 13 IAPS GIRLS HOCKEY
TOURNAMENTS
The U13 girls’ first team played in the IAPS hockey tournament last weekend. We were pooled
against Turi, Peponi, Braeburn Garden Estate and Kenton. Having only played Kenton in the
season, we faced unknown opponents and the girls were careful in their approach. The team was
without the services of Zana, the captain, who is also the team’s top goal scorer this term.We
created numerous scoring chances but unfortunately couldn’t get the ball over the line in all our
games and that meant we did not qualify for the semi finals. A lot of lessons were learnt and the
girls can only get better going forward. At the end of the tournament, we had three girls
nominated to play in the Nairobi West team. Leti Moorhead, Serena Lakhani and Tatiana
Lawrence put up an outstanding performance on Sunday for the Nairobi West team at Kenton.
Tatiana scored a great goal from the top of the D that ensured her team collected maximum points
for an overall win against Upcountry and Nairobi East teams.

The Under 11 team were defending champions and expectations were high for a team that had so
far been unbeaten this season.

The team started strongly with a 2-1 win over BGE and followed this with a hard fought 0-0 draw
with Hillcrest Prep. Thanks to some quick passing and some excellent finishing in front of goal, The
Banda pulled out 2 more wins in the group stages, comfortably beating Braeburn Gitanga Road 3-0
and Peponi B team 2-0.

This meant that The Banda qualified as top of their group and were drawn to play the hosts, Peponi
A in the Semi-Finals. A clever start from the first pushback saw The Banda score within the first 10
seconds of the game and this was backed up by a further goal in the 2nd half to book a place in the
Final against our group stage opponents, Hillcrest, once again.

With hundreds of people watching the game, the pressure was on and The Banda made a nervous
start. Hillcrest opened up the scoring to lead 1-0 but The Banda team never gave up and continued
to press for the equalizer which came in the 2nd half. With both teams level on 1-1, the game went
to 5 minutes extra time with the golden goal rule applying, What followed was an impressive
display of determination, resilience and teamwork from both teams, but with just 4 seconds left on
the clock, The Banda managed to break the deadlock when a reverse flick found the back of the
goal which meant that The Banda were victorious for the 2nd year in a row!

A huge well done to all the Under 11 A girls’ team - it really was a team effort and I am so proud of
the attacking brand of hockey they displayed and of the fighting spirit with which they played.
 IAPS U13 UK NETBALL TOUR
Two of our Year 8 girls (Arabella and Zana) and one Year 7 girl (Netty) were selected to be part
of the IAPS Kenya touring team and played in the IAPS U13 National Netball Finals at Bryanston
School, UK. The standard of netball was exceptionally high but The Banda girls learnt a huge
amount through the experience and have come back with many more skills than when they left.
They showed that they can be great ambassadors for the school and we are very proud of the way
that they conducted themselves on tour both on and off the netball court.

CONGRATULATIONS
The Ireri family took part in a Triathlon Sprint at
Karen Country Club last Sunday. Nula, Siana and
Mrs Ireri participated together in the team event
which consisted of a 720 meter swim, 20km bike
ride and a 5km run. They had a fantastic time.

The Muchauraya Brothers competed in the

Bumblebee Tennis 10s Tournament last
Saturday at Nairobi Sports Club. Christopher
(Year 4) played in the U10 Green Ball Category
winning 4 out of his 5 matches and emerging
as the overall winner. Joshua (Reception) was
the overall winner in his U6 Red Ball Category.
What a brilliant outing!
 THE BANDA INTER-SCHOOL HORSE SHOW
Last Sunday The Banda Equestrian Team participated in The Banda Dagoretti Interschools
Showjumping Challenge. This year the show was held at the new HAK showgrounds at Ngong
Racecourse. We had two teams from The Banda competing which were led by the Equestrian
Captain, Leti Moorhead. It was a challenging course at a new venue so we had some very cheeky
ponies and horses on the day. The children all rode brilliantly and worked together as a great team.
I would like to thank all the competitors and the parents for their support on the day as well as Mr
Foster and Mr Roberts for coming along to cheer on and encourage all the teams. Overall results
were: 6th Place - The Banda - Mariella Stanley, Isabella Sorensen & Artemis Oser and 4th Place -
The Banda - Christopher de Nowina, Kayleigh Nann, Leti Moorhead and Ava Lowe.
 CHARITY MUSIC DAY
IN AID OF GHETTO CLASSICS
 YEAR 8
Year 8 having been writing up their coursework in Geography this term. This is worth 20% of their
final Common Entrance Geography result. Their coursework is an impact study on the effect of
indigenous and non indigenous trees on biodiversity, in the Eburru forest. This week they have been
tackling the most challenging section, the data analysis.They have used their data
presentation graphs to describe, explain and connect their data to prove their hypothesis true or
false. Their hypothesis is that there will be a greater range of biodiversity at indigenous sites.

In History, Year 8’s have recently discussed and revised the slave trade. They have been focusing
on the journey slaves were forced to undertake from West Africa to the Americas. We examined the
route that slaves were forced to take and what happened if they survived the journey. The Year 8
pupils have shown great maturity in discussing this sensitive topic and a real understanding of how
difficult life was for the slaves.
 YEAR 7
If you have ever visited the Performing Arts room you will be familiar with Dimitri, our resident
stuffed monkey. Year 7 were shocked to discover that Dimitri has been reported missing! In
investigation teams, they gathered evidence and interrogated Miss W and other witnesses to crack
the case. Next week they will present their theories to a judge. Hopefully their court room
re-enactments will solve the crime and Dimitri can be returned home safely! Who do you think our
criminal is?

In Art, Year 7 pupils created their watercolour backgrounds. They will layer their work next week
when they use the stencils they made earlier to spray paint animals. What fun.
 YEAR 6
Year 6 recently concluded studying the 100 years war and in good Banda tradition they
recreated a battle in their form groups. All three Year 6 forms recreated the Battle of Crecy on the
school grounds. Great fun was had and the pupils all displayed an exceptional knowledge of the
battle. Unlike the real battle the rains arrived the day after! And how thankful we all are for that!

We also learned about Sikhism in RS and worked on our Creative Writing in English.
 YEAR 5
Year 5 enjoyed making posters, describing in French what they have in their school bags. We have
also been reading the novel Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell in Year 5 and this week, we put
finishing touches to our Creative Writing inspired by the novel.
 LOWER SCHOOL - YEAR 4
Year 4 has been discovering, learning and remembering World War 2. This week, we talked to the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission in London prior to our visit to the Nairobi War Cemetery.

In Numeracy, Year 4 has been looking at tenths as fractions and as decimals and matching
equivalents. Here we are drawing on teamwork!

On a very rainy Thursday morning, the Year 4’s were found collaborating enthusiastically to build an
epic dominoes track. Team work is fun!
 YEAR 3
This week in Science we have been learning about fossilization. We have speeded up the process
by several millions of years to see how a ‘bone’ will fossilize (our experiment should be ready next
week). It takes time so you will have to find a member of Year 3 in 65 million years time to ask them
the outcome.

Gabriel and Jason in 3GD completed an excellent

research project in History. They created a family
tree for the Greek Gods. It took a great deal of
research, reading and effort to create. Well done!

We really enjoyed the team games for Well-

being Wednesday. We battled against each
other to reign the ‘over, under’ game and then to
see how quickly we could send the hoop around
the circle. In 3HF we were all feeling very active
and enjoyed a variety of Just Dance activities.
 YEAR 2
Year 2 learnt about a healthy diet in PSHE, we created these balanced meals using craft materials
and went to the dining hall to taste test (not really - but it was fun to pretend). The children enjoyed
telling teach other all about the different foods on their plates, the food group they belong to and
what the body needs the food group for.

Fun with shapes! This week in Year 2 the children learnt about patterns. They enjoyed making
patterns with shapes on the iPads.
 YEAR 1
The Year 1’s had such a fun time during Well-being Wednesday with our focus on physical
wellbeing! We used team work in our classes and then our Houses with the year 1’s and 2’s
passing a hula hoop around to each person in the class holding hands! We then had such fun
doing a mini dance fitness class!
 PEGASUS EARLY YEARS
RECEPTION
This week Reception have continued with their theme of minibeasts and focused on the bee.
We loved having Tatiana, one of our Year 7 pupils come and talk to us about why bees are so
important and show us the hive she made for her Independent Project she has just completed.
We then looked at creating our own minibeasts using natural resources from the garden. We
looked at work from the artist, Andy Goldsworthy, to inspire us first.

NURSERY 2
In our phonics lesson this week, we had lots of fun doing the ‘Silly Soup’ game where we used
words that rhyme as our ingredients. We also took turns to say what did not rhyme by having an odd
one out card.
 NURSERY 1
We have been exploring what plants need to grow. We wondered how a small seed turns into a
plant. We discovered that first we started with a seed then we put in soil. We later watered our
seed and we are waiting to see what will happen next.

RISING STARS
From messy play with spaghetti, The Rising Stars skillfully peeled their own banana and enjoyed
munching on it.
 Week 11 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Menu
Cookies & Fruit Cheese Straws Banana Loaf & Focaccia & Fruit Home Made
Morning Break Fruit Fresh Fruit Flapjacks & Fresh
Fruit
Cream of
Lunch: Soup Tomato Soup
Bread & Butter
Spaghetti in Stir fry Beef & Chicken Tikka Crispy
Tomato Sauce Vegetables in Buttered Naan Meat Balls in Chicken in Batter
Mains Gluten Free Black Bean Sauce Gluten Free Naan Gravy
Pasta & Tomato
Sauce
Paneer Cutlets
Vegetable in Stir Fry Tofu & Paneer Tikka Vegetable Vegetable Rice
Veggie Pasta Bake Vegetables Crepes with Salsa Yogurt Sauce
Sauce

Crunchy Carrots Fried Rice Sautéed Carrots Brown Rice Potato Wedges
Sides Noodles Seasonal French Beans &
Vegetables Carrots

Fruit Salad & Pineapple Ice Cream & Fresh Fruit Bananas & Custard
Dessert Yogurt Crumble & Fresh Fruit Chocolate Fresh Fruit
Main School
Custard Hedgehogs
Fresh Fruit
Fruit Salad & Pineapple Yogurt & Honey Fresh Fruit Platter Bananas & Custard
Dessert Yogurt Crumble & Fresh Fruit Fresh Fruit
PEY
Fresh Fruit

Salad Bar - an assortment of salads are served every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday
Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber, Coleslaw, Carrot Sticks, Beetroot, Quinoa, Grated Cheese, Grated Carrots, Couscous, Two Beans Salad, Pasta Salad, Egg
Salad, Roast Chicken, Roast Beef, Avocado
Dressings - Honey Vinaigrette, Cocktail Sauce, Mayonnaise Menu subject to change. All meats are Halal
NOTICE BOARD

Have a lovely weekend!

NOTICE BOARD

Have a lovely weekend!

 NOTICE BOARD

The PTA are delighted to be hosting the Food Festival and Family Fete! Parents are invit-
ed to don their aprons and cook up a feast. Previously there have been food stalls repre-
senting the wonderfully diverse cultures represented in our school and showcasing dishes
from different countries.

If you’d like to get involved please contact Polly on +254 703987533 for further details.

If cooking for others is not your thing then save the date, come along and enjoy the day.
Besides the amazing food there’ll also be children’s entertainment.

Proceeds from the whole day go to Grevy’s Zebra Trust.

Have a lovely weekend!

NOTICE BOARD

Have a lovely weekend!