The Pelican Press - The Packer Collegiate Institute

The Pelican Press
June 2009
A Commitment to
Excellence in Kenya
During Spring Break, Assistant Head of the Lower
School, Rob Cousins and art teacher, Elizabeth Eagle, made the 7,500 mile trip to Ndonyo Wasin Primary School in Kenya.
This was the latest development in the ongoing relationship between Packer’s Pre and Lower School and
the school in rural Kenya. This year alone has seen:
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A pen pal letter exchange
A video about Packer made by 4th Graders and a reciprocal movie created by Ndonyo Wasin students
A portrait project between the two schools (see the
article on Page 4)
The May Day Arts Festival’s focus on Africa including
the children learning the Ndonyo Wasin school song in
Swahili
A newsletter for Lower School parents
Produced by Andrea Kelly, Rob Cousins
and Chris Kavanaugh
Dear Parents,
As we wrap up another successful school year, I
invite you to take a few moments to enjoy our final
issue of the Pelican Press. This issue is devoted to
our growing relationship with the Ndonyo Wasin
Primary School in Kenya. You may recall at Parent
Night back in September, I shared the newly
adopted core values established by the teachers in
our division: discovery, diversity, joy, challenge and
nurturing. You’ll see our community service learning work (ably led by Rob Cousins and the Lower
School Community Service Committee) this year
enabled us to bring each of these important values
to life.
We look forward to continuing to build and
strengthen our relationship with Ndonyo Wasin.
Without a doubt, service learning is vital in enabling
children to “act with purpose and heart.” Enjoy
your summer and we’ll see you in September.
-Andrea Kelly
Rob Cousins writes,
“There was much that we knew about Ndonyo Wasin
before we journeyed there, but it was still a voyage
into the unknown. The children were keen to send a
gift to their Kenyan friends and through the student
council, the 3rd and 4th graders decided to hold a bake
sale in order to raise money to buy some recess
equipment. Thinking that an average Bake Sale
raises about $50, the students planned to buy a few
soccer balls and maybe a softball bat. Having seen
the movie that the Ndonyo Wasin students made, the
3rd and 4th Graders knew that soccer was popular
with the boys and netball with the girls. The softball
bat was an attempt to facilitate a game that could be
played by both boys and girls. In the event, nearly
Ndonyo Wasin students working in the library
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its adjoining village.
“We were greeted by the head master, Paul Lepartingat. Paul is a softly spoken man who was previously
a teacher at Ndonyo Wasin before becoming the
headmaster two years ago. His pride in the school is
evident as is his passion for education and the belief
that all his pupils can succeed.
The road to Ndonyo Wasin
$900 was raised so the students decided to buy textbooks with the remainder of the funds.
“The primary aim of the trip was to do some fact
finding. A little while before leaving, we met with
faculty and students to collect their questions about
the school. These ranged from general questions
about the weather to wondering if children missed
their parents. We armed ourselves with still cameras,
video cameras, sound recorders and two laptops to
record as much as possible and set off.
“After a six hour flight to Amsterdam followed by a
further ten hours to Nairobi’s Kenyatta Airport, we
stayed the night in Karen (named for Out of Africa’s
Karen Blixen). The next day we departed in two
Land Rovers for Ndonyo Wasin. Although only a
250 mile distance, the journey takes about 10 hours
due to the poor road. This was a great way to begin
to get to know the country even if the journey was
rather uncomfortable. After crossing the equator,
towns and villages become less frequent. It could be
over an hour before seeing another vehicle on the
road. The terrain, lush and fertile outside Nairobi began to look parched and arid the further north we
headed. A giraffe or zebra would occasionally run
across the road in front of us, children would wave
as we drove by a small village. Finally we came to a
turn off from the main road and after another 20
miles along a dirt track, we reached the school and
“It was interesting to get his perspective and
thoughts about the importance of the school in the
lives of the Samburu people and the school’s long
term goals. Paul firmly believes that education is vital if the Samburu are to retain their way of life. Ethnic groups still permeate all levels of Kenyan life.
The more Samburu children who become lawyers,
doctors, teachers or government officials, the more
voices there will be to advocate for the Samburu –
vital if their way of life is to be preserved. He
pointed to the example of ethnic groups in the south
of the country where the young no longer know or
appreciate the traditional customs of the group.
Headmaster, Paul Lepartingat
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“He told us more about what the school is doing to
achieve this goal. The Pre Schools that ‘feed’ the
primary school are seen to be all-important. These
are the real ‘Thorn Tree’ schools. As four and five
year olds are too young to attend the boarding school
at Ndonyo Wasin (while their families move around
the countryside with their cattle), a teacher travels
with the nomadic community, setting up the school
in each new locale under the cooling branches of a
thorn tree. These Pre Schools began three or four
years ago with one teacher and a handful of children
and have expanded to ten ‘thorn tree’ schools each
with their own traveling teacher. Paul quickly
learned that providing lunch was vital for building
community support for the schools. Lunch ensured
that the mothers felt secure leaving their youngest
children with the teacher, knowing that they would
be well fed. A government initiative has provided
training for the Pre School teachers and Paul has
seen the benefits to students who come to Ndonyo
Wasin having first attended Pre School.
“Paul works hard to get the parents, many of who
never attended school themselves, to entrust their
child to the care of the school. Children as young as
five are given goats to look after so their absence at a
boarding school for ten months of the year can seriously impact a family. The school welcomes prospective parents to come and look around the school,
meet the teachers and learn about the program. They
Preschool students
Working on pen pal replies
get to meet the matrons and patrons – the adults who
live in the children’s dormitories and take care of the
children outside of school hours. There is also the
question of the school’s fee. Paul works with families and the Thorn Tree Foundation to see what they
can afford – the currency is usually goats or cows.
This financial aid is another thing that Packer and
Ndonyo Wasin have in common! The dropout rate
decreases every year – a sure sign of success.
“The National Curriculum is rigorous and dense and
the Kenyan Government requires that children be
tested in five subject areas at the end of every year.
These subjects are English, math, science, social
studies and Kiswahili. The children’s native language is Samburu and from Standard 3 (approximately 2nd Grade) the majority of lessons are conducted in English. This means that a strong foundation in English is vital to success in school.
“Primary School finishes after Standard 8 (7th Grade)
and children have the option to go to secondary
school which is also a boarding school. The secondary school is further away and considerably more
expensive than the primary school meaning that attendance is largely out of the reach of most Samburu
families. This is another area where the Thorn Tree
Foundation steps in. The charity finances all school
fees, textbooks and uniforms for any Ndonyo Wasin
student who manages to achieve 60% in all five sub-
The Packer Collegiate Institute • 170 Joralemon St • Brooklyn, NY, 11201 • (718) 250-0237
jects. This ‘60 x 5’ scheme is a powerful incentive
for the oldest children to work hard and achieve success. Out of twelve Standard 8 students in the current
graduating class, ten are expected to go to secondary
school. Next year the school should send twelve
children, including the first girls. Many of the Standard 8 students that we met are totally focused on
this goal. To provide additional incentives for the
students to study hard, the school also organized the
first field trip for 6th Graders. A group of children
spent three days in Nairobi, marveling at the multi
storey buildings and meeting with a Samburu airplane pilot.
“Walking around the school, there is an air of quiet
focus. Classes are not large – no more than twenty in
any grade - but days are long. Children rise at
6:00am and begin the day with self-guided study periods or ‘preps’. After breakfast and assembly, lessons begin at 8:00am and continue until 4:00pm with
a break for lunch. A two hour recess or study period
is followed by another prep session before dinner
and bed. Children are largely with the same teacher
for each subject (the model is an English primary
school) and lessons tend to be run along the lines of
a whole class model. In English for example, we
witnessed a didactic teaching model. Teachers would
recite a sentence in English and children repeat it.
Children also do a lot of learning from textbooks.
The Kenyan Government mandate that art and music
should be taught in schools too but fails to provide
any funding for the textbooks and other resources
required. The teachers take any opportunity to lead
the children in song and singing at assembly and at
church is a popular pastime.
Proudly holding their friends’ pictures
Portraits of Friendship
When Lower School art teacher, Elizabeth Eagle first
heard about Packer having a sister school in Kenya,
her first thought was to have a portrait exchange between the students from both schools. Elizabeth explains, “I wanted to have our students engage in a
global exchange of ideas and experiences through
not only writing pen pal letters, but by learning to
draw each other.”
The first step was to send a number of digital cameras to Ndonyo Wasin. Teachers there photographed
their 3rd and 4th Graders and Elizabeth and the other
art teachers, Risa Glickman and Kimberley Carmody
did the same here in Brooklyn. Then both sets of
photographs criss-crossed the ocean. The project
had a big impact on Packer students as Elizabeth
noted, “The Packer children were so excited about
“After hearing so much about the school, it was
wonderful to see it ‘in action’ and to learn more
about the commitment to excellence. Many possibilities suggested themselves for further collaboration
between our two schools and we will of course, continue to keep you informed about this exciting project.”
Working on a portrait
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having a portrait pal and they worked for weeks, first
drawing contour line drawings from the photographs,
and then learning about color mixing, using watercolors to create incredible portrait paintings of their
Kenyan friends.”
Over spring break Elizabeth accompanied Rob Cousins to Ndonyo Wasin and was able to hand deliver
the portraits to the children in Kenya. Elizabeth was
pleased with the children’s reactions, “The response
to the portraits and letters was just amazing. The
children at Ndonyo Wasin loved receiving them.”
Another of Elizabeth’s goals was to teach portraiture
to the Ndonyo Wasin students. This presented the
children with a number of challenges “They had
never had a formal art class before and when they
were asked to draw something, they would immediately get a book and find pictures that they were able
to trace. Everything had to be exact. This portrait
project allowed them to use their own eyes and translate what they saw onto the page. This turned out to
be an eye-opener for the students and the teachers
alike. They were so excited to draw and especially to
draw their new friends from Packer.” The lesson that
Elizabeth taught in Africa was essentially the same
as the one that she taught in Brooklyn except colored
pencils were used instead of watercolor paint due to
the shortage of water.
Elizabeth feels that the experience she had was life
changing, “We had a dinner party at our camp where
the entire faculty from the Ndonyo Wasin Primary
School came for supper. We all sat on a giant tarp in
the sand and ate roasted goat and vegetable curry.
My favorite part of the evening was talking about
education, child development, and what pizza is! The
evening still resounds in my memory as a wonderful
exchange of ideas, discussions of pedagogy and
sharing our love of children.”
Books chosen by 4KB and 3MD
What’s New in the Hart Library
In the Hart Library we are always looking for ways
to get involved with different aspects of Lower
School life. We were especially eager to support the
wonderful work that has been going on in the classrooms in connection with our new sister school in
Kenya, the Ndonyo Wasin Primary School. Of
course, our first thought was to help supplement the
Ndonoyo Wasin School Library. We knew that the
students there have a ravenous appetite for new
books. When we heard that Rob Cousins and Elizabeth Eagle would be traveling to Kenya over Spring
Break, we jumped at the opportunity to stuff their
suitcases with shiny new books.
Rather than simply donate a box of books, we
wanted to find a way to involve the children in the
process. We decided that each class would choose a
Books chosen by 2YR and KSP (The Lizards)
The Packer Collegiate Institute • 170 Joralemon St • Brooklyn, NY, 11201 • (718) 250-0237
4JL with their book choice, Living Color
book to send as a special gift, from their class to the
students at the NdonyoWasin School. We gave each
class two books to choose from. Before compiling
the list of choices we spoke to people who had spent
time with the students at the Ndonyo Wasin School,
and knew their needs and interests. The result was a
wide array of titles, including books about space and
animals, stories about family and friends, and books
of poetry. During library class time we read two
books with each class, and discussed their relative
merits and flaws.
the question: What is the weather like in Kenya?
Many of the students at the Ndonyo Wasin School
may never have seen snow. Does this mean that the
children in Kenya would be confused or bored by a
story that involves snow? Or might they be interested in reading about something outside of their
usual experience? We also discussed what Packer
students have in common with the students in Kenya.
We discovered that in both schools, students gather
at assembly in the morning, and work hard at their
studies. In both schools students love playing games
during recess, and enjoy singing and dancing together. The importance of family and friends was
another commonality. Packer Pre and Lower School
students gave these issues careful thought and consideration. They listened to the books they were
asked to choose from with an eager and purposeful
attention.
We asked the children to try to experience the books
through the eyes and ears of the students in Kenya.
In order to help them tap into this very different
point of view, we reviewed some of the things they
had already learned about what life is like at the
Ndonyo Wasin School. For example, we discussed
This book about Barack Obama was a firm favorite
1JG with their book choice, Watch Me Grow: Elephant
After we had read both stories, or, in the case of the
longer books, shared some excerpts, each class was
asked to vote. The children made thoughtful choices,
The Packer Collegiate Institute • 170 Joralemon St • Brooklyn, NY, 11201 • (718) 250-0237
and the end result was a fantastic stash of books in
Rob and Elizabeth’s luggage. We took photos of each
class with the book they choose, and sent these along
with the books, as a way to personalize the gifts.
In March, Elizabeth and Rob presented the books to
the students at the Ndonyo Wassin School. They reported that the children loved the books and were
excited to receive them, and see the pictures of the
Packer students who chose them. Meanwhile, back
in Brooklyn, Packer Pre and Lower School students
returned from Spring Break asking: Did you give
them the books? Did they like the books? On the
Hart Library bulletin boards we have displayed photos Elizabeth took of the students at the Ndonoyo
Wasin school with their new books. The smiles on
the children’s faces say it all.
-Talia Neffson
Important Upcoming Dates
• Opening Day: September 9
• Packer Plus Playgroup Begins: September 10
• PS/LS Parent Night: September 17
The Packer Collegiate Institute • 170 Joralemon St • Brooklyn, NY, 11201 • (718) 250-0237