Nairobi School Partnership

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Seaford Primary School is partnered with the Church Army Academy School in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Church Army Academy is located in the Eastlands side of Nairobi, among a densely populated area where poverty and crime levels are high. Despite this, the school provides a wonderful & secure learning environment for local children, and also provides parenting seminars twice a year. The teachers at the Church Army Academy are excellent role models for the children and the school aims to provide a high level of education to children in adversity. The Academy is a Christian school and the children are introduced to Christian education at an early age. All parents are made aware of this fact and agree to let their children be taught in a Christian curriculum.

In February 2009, Thomas & James Webb (classes 2G & RSL) visited the school while on holiday visiting relatives in Kenya. The headmaster, Mr Kagunda, was thrilled to have visitors from Seaford and proudly showed off his various Seaford items, including a framed certificate of partnership, photograph of the school (and Mr Reynard!) and even a Seaford Primary School ruler. Children from class 2G had written letters to the children in Nairobi, and Miss Scott had put together an album of photos of class RSL, including some of them playing in the recent snow. Mr Kagunda was delighted with these gifts and amazed to see children playing so happily in the cold!

Mr Kagunda showed us around the school, going into many of the classrooms where lessons were under way. The pupils were all very welcoming and had all heard of Seaford and knew of the partnership. One class of pupils very enthusiastically sang us a song in English called 'Favourite Day', while an older class sang 2 songs, one in English and one in Swahili.

We joined the children outside at playtime where Thomas showed the children his football cards amid much excitement. The Kenyan children all seemed to have a favourite English football team and player. We found it funny that while we were stood in summer clothes struggling with the heat, the children all wore jumpers and some even had thick coats on!

The Church Army Academy aims to provide bursaries for children from the poorest families who would not be able to afford the modest fees. It costs about £250 to educate each child for a full year. Seaford Primary School pays for the education for 2 children each year, the money for this comes from the school's own fundraising efforts. Books have also been sent from Seaford Primary to Nairobi, and both schools have exchange letters from the children on occasions.

The number of children at the Church Army school has grown dramatically in the past three years, and they attribute this partly to the fact that through donors like Seaford Primary they are able to support more needy children. The kindergarten section has 196 kids, they are aged from 3 to 6 years.  The 3 year olds start in Baby class, then go on to Nursery, followed by Pre-Unit. From here they move up to the primary school.

The primary school has 398 pupils with lower primary having 230 children and upper primary having168, their ages range between 6-14yrs. In 2005 the primary school had only 182 pupils so it has more than doubled in size over 4 years.

The school is made up of a series of separate buildings including a small office, various classrooms and a dining hall. In 2006 the school had 10 new classrooms built at a cost of £120,000. The aim of this was to accommodate the expanding number of pupils and provide better classroom facilities for the children and teachers. Some of the original classroom buildings were made from very basic materials and Mr Kagunda hoped these could be removed once the new building was complete. However, due to the success of the school, the number of pupils now means that these old buildings still provide much needed classroom space so are still in use. 

The new classroom block has been built in such a way that it can be extended by adding further floors when funds are available, so perhaps the old classrooms will be retired one day.

The school provides all pupils with tea at 10.00am and lunch so as to make sure that they have the energy to concentrate in class. For many children the lunch will be their only hot meal of the day.

Everyone associated with Seaford Primary School should be very proud of the link with the Church Army Academy school and the excellent work it is doing to provide a better future for underprivileged children in Nairobi. Anyone fortunate enough to visit the academy will be bowled over by the positive nature of the children and staff, and the fondness and gratitude they display towards Seaford Primary school.