Getting all ready for the new school term beginning Monday, 6th January 2014!

Christmas Holiday Update!

The school officially closes this Friday the 22nd November 2013. This year has had its ups and downs but we thank God that we have ended on a high note. We are poised to give the school a major facelift in terms of games facilities and infrastructure. During this holiday, the old school house (currently hosting the headteacher, staffroom and ECD) will be brought down and a new tuition block erected. This is to give room for more playground. Besides, plans are underway to put up a perimeter wall (made of bricks) around the school to improve security. The laptop project is underway too. So far the school has 4 laptops and continues to Friends of Upendo to help raise at least 10 laptops by January 2014. Three teachers will be proceeding for school-based teacher training on 2nd December. Thanks to Ms. Holly Fisher and the Landry Foundation who are supporting us in this worthwhile cause. The school badly needs trained teachers who will help achieve the much needed quality teaching and establish a friendly learning environment. The schol continues in its efforts to establish international links with friends in the USA, where children have had a penpal letter exchange with children in Georgia. Our partnership with Wadsworth Fields Primary Schol in UK slowed down a little bit following the withdrawal of the British Council from funding North-South School Linking Programme. I take this earliest opportunity to thank all those who have supported us morally and financially throughout the year and to wish you all a merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year 2014.

Visitors from USA

Next week, Upendo Junior School will with pleasure be hosting two friends, Maria Brown and Michele L. Turner. The visit comes at a time when the school is putting in place plans to put up new classrooms that will include a computer suite and a library and a modern kitchen/dining that is environmental friendly and one that would allow the children to eat while sitted.

Maria Brown Maria lives in Illinois. She believes in being natural as this she says "is the best state for all things." Working with children, Maria is nice, kind, family-oriented and a lover of children, people and life. Her favourite quote is "only give what you want to get". Of children, she advises that we should not worry so much about what a child will become tomorrow yet forget that the same child is someone today! Her advice is that we should do what is right NOW before it is too late. Maria is very charitable and has committed herself to supporting UJS morally, materially and financially. It was she who invited her friend Michele to accompany her on this visit. She has indicated that she will be able to bring along some basic school supplies and looks forward to meeting both the teachers and children.She would love to see any sights i.e. parks, beautiful outdoors scenery, water and the zoo if time permits! Michele L Turner In the 1990s Michele Turner caught the IT bug. Her job at the time was in business recovery. "I knew there was another, more technical side, and I wanted to know more about that," she says. She went into consulting, did some network engineering, built backup servers. "It was all a way for me to help people out," she says. "If an organization had been through a disaster and really wanted to make sure it could do things more proactively in the future, it was great for me to show them the big picture." Turner started college focused on music, but changed her career path and graduated from Roosevelt University (Chicago, IL) with a 1998 BA in professional admin. After moving to the West Coast and working for Washington Mutual, she saw a job opportunity with Microsoft (Redmond, WA) that excited her. "It was in business continuity. I put my resume in and got a call." That was five years ago. Today Turner is director of policy governance and risk management in the office of the CIO at Microsoft. "I make sure the IT organization understands the likelihood that a certain risk could occur, the impact it would have and the level of control that management has," she explains. "If we understand that, we're able to develop action plans and be more proactive around risk." She works across Microsoft IT to ensure consistency in the way risks are identified and action planning is conducted. "My job is a little different from what you normally think of as IT," she explains. "When people think of IT, they almost always go to the technical focus where we're ripping up servers or following packets through the system. Given her IT expertise,she hopes to support Upendo's IT development by networking with Microsoft Kenya. She hopes to come with Microsoft's surface tablet (http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-surface-pro-price-leaked-2012-11). She hopes to visit Mama Sarah Obama in Kogelo before her flight back to Washington. We are all looking forward to hosting our two visitors here next week. We hope to share with them our School's vision and mission and learn from their experiences in the USA

Visit by Terry Maxwell and Jane Sheppard

Upendo Junior School is once again privilegded to host Mr. Terry Maxwell and Mrs Jane Sheppard from Wadsworth Fields Primary School in Nottingham, UK. The visit is part of the continued relationship between the two schools under the Global Schools Partnership programme. Terry and Jane arrived here on Thursday 21st June 2012 and will be around until next Thursday. They have already met the staff, visited classrooms. Today, Saturday 23rd June, they had a guided tour of Kiminini. They were accompanied by four pupils (Adelaide, Millicent, Davis and Morgan) who are part of the children's International Link Team (ILT), Rose, the teacher in charge of the ILT, Mr Wasike, the Headteacher, and Dr. Masibo, the UJS Director. During the remaining days, they will demonstrate a project that touches on time, visit Kiminini open-air market to observe local trade and local means of transport. On Monday, they will be leading the school assembly (Terry has already composed a song for the children and staff and Jane is arranging a number of activities to demonstrate, visit some local schools to help set up a link with another primary school in London, and attend a health talk to be provided by a nurse who regularly visits the school. Wednesday will be the climax of the visit when children will take part in various sporting activities in a mini-olympics and winners will be rewarded handsomely with presents. The whole school is very pleased to have them and Dr. Masibo and Rose and glad that they are able to be hosting them in their humble home. And how days are running!

Infinite Family and a bit more...

"A school is a building that has four walls with tomorrow inside."
Lon Watters

We have received 27 new children this term but this was only because we had no desks to take in any more children. We have not yet closed the admission process and hope that once we have a few more desks and have fixed missing doors on three classrooms, we can be able to admit a few more deserving children to join school.

UJS has formally completed the Infinite Family(http://www.infinitefamily.org/) Partnership Preliminary survey form and are looking forward to a favorale response from the founding director after they would have assessed our application. INFINITE FAMILY inspires and motivates teens and pre-teens with very limited resources or support networks in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling them to build the confidence, skills and global perspective that promote success. are dedicated to providing long-term impact, using weekly video conver-sations to establish enduring relationships between adult mentors and vulnerable teens. We will need a computer lab at Upendo if the project has to take off! Other local schools and have shown lots of interest in the hoped for mentoring program should we be successful.

It is now official: the trip to UK is on. Both the Director and the Ag.Headteacher, Mr. Emmanuel Wasike, will be visiting the UK this April thanks to funding funding by the DFiD through the British Council under the Curriculum Development Grant. According to the invitations from Mrs Sally Bates, the headteacher at Wadsworth Fields Primary School, the work undertaken while the UJS pair will be in UK will hep develop a greater understanding of each other's way of life and needs. This will include discovering differences and similarties of climate and how that affects us. It is hoped that the ongoing development of communication links through ICT will allow us to get to know so much more about one another. Lesson plans can be shared, languages learned and the Kenyan aspect of Wadsworth Fields website further developed. Emmanuel will have a hands-on experience of how to use computers in teaching during the visit. Our joint curriculum project was agreed upon during the reciprocal visits last year and is twin-pronged. We wish to enhance the teaching of Science through ICT and shared practical activities. From a global citizenship perspective, we hope to improve communication between learners and members of staff in both schools and hence enhance our cross-cultural awareness.

Dr. Masibo will be meeting Councillor Stan Heptinstall of Broxtowe Borough, the local MP and will also visit the School of English Studies, the University of Nottingham. This will be part of the partnership's endeavour to bring on board members of the local community so that they can support the partnership once the DFiD funding of reciprocal visits comes to an end in a year's time.

Mr Terry Maxwell is organizing a paid for Jazz event at Bonnington which hopefully will be graced by none other than the Jazz Maestro Gilad! The two visitors hope to visit the proposed venue of the event and to talk with Gilad on why this event will be important in helping us achieve our desire to expand the school and offer education to more children in Kiminini.

There is certainly light at the end of the tunnel!

A Few Hours Left to 2012... Thank you for 2011

There is something about the promise of a new horizon, a new beginning, a new year that makes us resolve to do more to better one another. At Upendo Junior School we have been busy preparing for 2012 in all ways possible. It is our desire to give the children and teachers a good learning and teaching environment within our limited resources.We would not have been able to do this without the unwaring support of many of you who have selflessly support our cause in 2011. The individual and collective support throughout is highly appreciated.

We held a harambee this year which received overwhelming support from all our friends both in Kenya and abroad. Though we did not hit our target, this has given us an impetus to keep working hard so we can acquire extra land for school expansion and a playing ground.

We have been able to give the roof a new paint coat, changed the school face, planted grass, and painted all the classrooms. And with some very generous donations from some of you, we have already bought food for th new term.

Yet a lot remains to be done. We need a kitchen, a library and most importantly, land for expansion in the new year. We are set to recruit to more teachers as we shall be taking in at least 30 more children this January 2012. We are therefore counting on the continued support of all Friends of Upendo in 2012. I know a friend, Mr Terry Maxwell, has already arranged a sponsorship Jazz in Nottingham UK for Upendo. We hope Kenyans in Nottingham could join in this event.

We take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year 2012!

Cake Sale in Nottingham...Message from Mari Hughes

Over the past two weeks, the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham has been throwing a special feast on our account! Staff and students have been baking away for a cake sale for Upendo! The School annually raises funds towards one teacher here. Below is a message received from Ms. Mari Hughes, the Shool Manager, through our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ujs.kiminini/):

This is the second week of the cake sale and staff and students have been baking away. We have had some incredible contributions this year - must be the arrival of edible glitter! Two more days to go! We have posters up in the corridor prepared by Denine to let everyone in the Trent Building know what we have for sale and there has been at least 5-6 different choices every day. Becs will total up early next week and let you know how we have got on. Best wishes to you all for Christmas. Mari x

We are very grateful to Mari, Becs, Denine, Stephen McKibbin, staff and students have all contributed towards this worthwhile cause. This Friday, 16th December, is the last day for the sale. We have no doubt that everyone involved would be satisfied with the outcome.

On behalf of the UJS community, we can only say Ahsante sana! God bless you all.

Upendo on Twitter!

Given the importance of communication and the need to reach our friends in real time, Upendo Junior School is now on Twitter under the name @UJS_Kiminini. In Kiminini with modern communication trends, the school is also on Facebook under the name UJS Kiminini. It's the school management's wish to ensure that all our friends and supporters are kept up to date with the goings here, especially when schools open in January.

Let's get tweeting!