This year’s IAPS Cross Country at Turi, was upon us on Saturday 11th May. As usual, this is that time of the year where we call upon the children to dig deep in themselves to find their endurance, resilience and sheer determination to conquer the tough terrain at Turi, which is not only as rugged as they come, but also at a higher altitude than our children are used to running in Nairobi.
The run up to the actual event, started off with the Iten High Altitude training two weeks ago, which was attended by many of our runners for their warm up. Our journey on Friday 10th, had the children excited, and the thought of camping out on the field made it even better. On the Saturday morning, the children woke up in high spirits, and before breakfast, walked the course and had a feel of what the 3km runners would be encountering.
At the starting point at 09:30hrs, the U9 girls who were to run 3kms eagerly awaited the start. We had 6 representatives from Braeburn, as had every other school. Our girls did an amazing job, with all of them completing their race. In as much as they were not among the top girls to finish, they did justice to the race. The U9 Boys and the U11 girls, were up next, and in the latter race we had two out of the 6 runners in our school finishing in top 10 positions. These were Lara and Carla, dramatically finishing at position 7 & 8 respectively for the U11 girls, and there was notable effort from Trey, Nhial, and Lorenzo for the U9 boys.
In the U11 boys and the U13 girls’ races, we had some outstanding performances from Kit and Caterina, who were both second in their races with a convincing distance between them and the third placed runners. The U13 boys’ race was the longest of the day. They were to run a distance of 5.2 km, which required them to display an attitude that was above and beyond the rest. Our boys all crossed the finish line, and although they did not finish in the top 10 positions their effort was remarkable.
In terms of participation, this was the best team that has taken part at the event in a while, and they should all be commended for their performance on the day.
On Thursday 9th May, 23 very excited Year 7 and 8 pupils went to Brookhouse, to participate in their music festival. Eleven schools took part and there were some sterling performances from them. All the hard work the Braeburn School choir had put into their performance paid off, with the audience showing great appreciation for the item prepared by them. The soloists showed off great vocal ability and the blend of the voices in the choir did a great job of showcasing their rendition of ‘You are the Reason’.
The students are highly commended for being committed and putting many hours into preparing for their performance.
For the third year in a row Braeburn Primary School pupils have been crowned the IAPS chess champions.
This year's event saw an expanded format with not only the main champions shield to compete for, but a plate as well. This was introduced to provide an opportunity particularly for up and coming chess players to compete for a school award.
Pupils from The Banda, Hillcrest, Kenton and Peponi joined those from Braeburn in a celebration of chess. Some players had been playing for only a few months whilst others were veterans of a number of events. Whatever their experience, they all showed a superb attitude, chatting easily among each other between games, and participating in a lovely spirit. The games themselves were often intense and closely competed.
Individually our players achieved well, with Nhial taking bronze in the U9s, Bahir earning silver in the same age group, and Queen winning bronze in the U11s. However, it was as a team that our pupils excelled, gaining the plate as best of the second tier scorers and the overall championship shield as the team with highest total points of the first tier scores.
Well done team Braeburn!
The last two days of last term saw 24 students from Braeburn join more than 500 students from other schools to compete for honours and a coveted chance to qualify for the Global Round. More than half of the team was composed of Year 6 students who were some of the youngest scholars at the competition. Most of our scholars had a hectic time preparing for the competition as they had to cope with their school work, end of term tests and a host of other school activities including the production.
It was a nervous first day as they got registered at Brookhouse. The nerves were slightly eased as they sat through the opening ceremony, each received an alpaca and were asigned rooms for their first competition event, the Team Debate. Despite facing off with older scholars, some from Year 9, our students held their nerve and debated courageously, winning a number of debates in the 3 round event. They proceeded to complete the Scholars Challenge and Collaborative Writing with varying levels of success and were only too happy to see the day end although anxious for what awaited them next day.
The second day got off to a slow start as they all congregated in the Catholic University auditorium for the Scholars Bowl. Just as in the Scholars Challenge, they had to summon every bit of memory to answer the questions at the touch of a clicker. After a deserved lunch break the re-energised scholars were back in the auditorium for the Debate showcase. Njeri, calmly took her seat on the judges’ panel as the best speakers from the two day tourney traded points, barbs, and motions to decide which side would carry the day. This was followed by the Scholars Show in which Lileko brought the house down with her rendition of ‘Halleluiah’ while Prisha mesmerised everyone with her ability to speak extremely fast.
Our scholars, despite their limited experience of the program, performed very well when the final results were announced. There were exceptional performances both individually, with Njeri emerging as the best scholar from Braeburn while her team, along with Vedika and Sanjeevani also topped the school roll and secured an impressive overall position in the Junior Division. The icing on the cake was when all the 24 scholars earned their berths to the Global Round!
A big well done and congratulations to all our scholars Vedika, Sanjeevani, Njeri, Madhavi, Nizar, Sanghamitra, Prisha, Lileko, Niharika, Luke, Hansil, Izyan, Aneeka, Marlon, Najwa, John, Yanete, Erica, Pratham, Jiwon, Amelie, Anay, Mohammed and Izaack! See you all at The Hague.
FOUR TIMES CHAMPIONS IN FIVE YEARS
The Headline is staggering but true. This year Braeburn had a full strength side and were clear favourites to win, but an injury to our star shooter Kamba Mukanda led to some team difficulties. The group matches proved no problem, dismissing opposition with ease, but with several fingers injured and a shooting problem for Kamba, the team faced a few challenges against an energetic Hillcrest team. There was outstanding adaptation and Lurtanya Dias stepped into the starting line up and eased the pressure. The team adapted brilliantly as a whole and they eventually beat a well drilled Braeburn Garden Estate in the final. A special well done to the girls, who have proved themselves as the finest players and team on the KAIS circuit for a number of years.
Braeburn School
