Braeburn hosted a car boot sale and farmers’ market on Friday 16^th November which saw a great turn out from families and friends – even the rain held off. From blueberries and baskets, cookies and cakes, to flowers and feta, a huge amount of fresh produce and hand crafted wears were sold. By the look of the armfuls of items carried to cars, it looked like a successful day all round. Thanks to all those who took part and all those who bought!

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning

We will remember them.

During the week leading up to Sunday 11^th November, many classes looked into why we have Remembrance Day and the symbolism of the poppy. Children also created their own poppies out of recycled bottles. 

Charlie and Alice from Y6 represented the school at the BATUK Remembrance Parade and Service that was held on Sunday 11^th November at the Nanyuki War Cemetery. They read two poems beautifully to mark the occasion – thank you to them for doing so well. 

On Monday 12^th we held our own Remembrance Assembly at school. We listened to The Last Post and The Banks of Green Willow by Butterworth. We reflected on the sense of hope and the idea that good comes from bad. The recycled art poppies looked beautiful hanging on our backdrop.  

As part of out commitment to reducing waste, the plastic bottle poppies will be used again as part of our Christmas decorations as well as to mark Remembrance Day next year.

On Friday 9^th November our athletics team were in Nairobi for the annual Braeburn Athletics Meet at Kasarani. A total of 18 schools, from all over Kenya, took part in the event. U9, U11, and U13 age groups competed in track and field events. The opportunity to experience the atmosphere of an international stadium filled the athletes with both fear and enormous pride. It definitely ignited a desire in many to train hard to be part of future events and to consider professional athletics as adults. 

All 30 of our children were amazing in their individual events with almost all of them recording personal bests. Adrien, at 8 years old, was our youngest athlete to compete, running in the 800m event; Rafe brought home a medal for BNIS, coming third in his ball throw event; Jade finished in third place during her qualifying 200m heat; Robin and William both finished in sixth place in the final of the high jump; many children achieved fourth place in their events including Luca, Anika, Jade, Thomas and Theodore; and all relay teams finished in 5^th place - well done to every competitor!

Congratulations to the whole team, bring on next year!

On Friday 9^th November nineteen children headed to Pembroke to compete in the annual U7 football tournament. The coaches - Mr Mulongo and Cindy Mills – were full of nervous excitement but also confidence that the children would do BNIS proud. The boys and girls were lively throughout the journey, clearly full of energy and ready to play.  We were able to enter two teams this year as so many children had been taking part in training sessions. 

The A-team played in blue and the B-team in white. All players knew their roles and where they should be, using each other successfully for support. The children occupied the whole of the pitch and expertly negotiated their way to the ball. The A-team were on top of their game, knocking in goal after goal. Daniel, Dibya and Shiv were focused only on scoring which paid off, with only one loss for this team. The B-team demonstrated their prowess in defence, only letting a single goal in during their five games. Peyton has a natural skill in goal and many adults, supporting other schools, commented on her expertise.

The A-team made it through to the semi-finals which caused much excitement for all!  They were pitched against a team of an equally high standard which, despite a determined effort, resulted in stalemate and a full-time 0-0 score.  This meant only one thing......a penalty shoot-out!  Maxwell, Daniel and Dibya were the chosen penalty takers and Adrian took on the dreaded challenge of goalkeeper.  It was very tense and you could feel the nerves.  Adrian’s save of the opposition’s second attempt was something that could easily have been seen in a World Cup game – it was simply brilliant!  Sadly we didn’t make it through to the final though, but we finished the tournament in 3^rd place. 

It was a fantastic day, thoroughly enjoyed by every adult and child.  The children were brilliant and have vowed to continue training to become better and better!

Thank you to everyone who, despite the non-stop rain of the day, attended our annual bonfire event on Saturday 3^rd November. The rain finally abated as the event opened – phew – and the crowds arrived!

This year we added an ‘activity and treat’ element to the celebrations to mark Halloween. Children came in fancy dress ranging from fairies to super heroes, robots to old ladies and witches to wizards. Thank you to almost everyone for sticking to the non-scary theme which helped the children stay relaxed when the sun went down. Activities included the very popular Tin Can Alley, Guess the Popcorn in the container, Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin, Decorate a Cookie, the Doodle Zone, Tattoo parlour and Face-Painting. Mr Masafu’s obstacle course was busy throughout the evening and involved children weaving, climbing, balancing and leaping around the play equipment. The intrepid group of mums who face-painted were focussed and dedicated in their mission to adorn the faces of the huge queue of children. A big, big, BIG thank you to all the volunteers and staff who helped on the evening, you made many, many children VERY happy!

The bonfire and disco were ignited at around 6.30pm as the darkness set in. Children and adults were seen to strike a pose on the dance floor to some aptly chosen songs and many tucked into a sausage in a bun and cone of JP’s infamous, delicious chips. At 7.30pm the crowd counted down to start the firework display. Each bang was followed by the usual ooooooing and aaahhhhhing from the crowds and the final explosion was received with a huge round of applause. The display was fantastic and left most people with huge smiles on their faces.