Third school term 1976.

Letter from Judy to Jo 5 Sept 1976 –

Graham started teaching last week and Juliet, Helen and Fiona went back to school this week. Our proposed move to Upperhill School turned out to be a fairly unscrupulous bit of manipulating by the authorities – schools short of A level staff are always angling for more and the Ministry have no qualms about telling them they can have staff that they have no intention of moving at all – Alliance with its 4 A level expatriate mathematicians (2 more than it is officially allowed) obviously has more influence when it comes to the crunch than places like Upperhill !

Letter from Graham to David 9 Sept 1976 –

Now I have about eleven weeks of work before the next holiday. I had a surprise just before term started when I had news of my being transferred to another school. It was a false alarm !

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 16 Sept 1976 –

As you no doubt heard from Jo, the girls settled down very well after their holiday and are now back at school. Fiona has just started going to afternoon school three times a week and is very excited about it, especially about taking a packed lunch ! It is a very long day for her 7:30am to 4:30pm counting travelling time but we’ll see how she copes with it. Our school year starts in January here so there are no changes this term though of course the main exams come after half term so they are all working hard. This is always a short term as it ends the third week in November and Graham loses about 2/3 of his teaching after the middle of October when his O level and A level classes start doing their exams. It was the Alliance High School 50 year Jubilee Speech Day this weekend so there has been great excitement and much cutting of sandwiches etc – they were expecting 1000 people for tea and 400 for the barbecue and the school killed three cows for the occasion. I think the school boys had to make do with bread and marg for their evening meal as the plates etc were needed for the celebration so they were appeased by having a cow for Friday supper ! I suppose one cow can be divided into 600 portions ? President Kenyatta finally didn’t come (we all knew he wouldn’t) but sent his Vice-President instead. They had fitted up loudspeakers inside the hall so we were able to hear all that went on from the comfort of our garden! Unfortunately the loudspeakers were left connected up so that we were able to hear all of the adventure film the boys had on later that evening all over the compound as well! The transfer to the Nairobi school came to nothing. The headmaster here told Graham he had no intention of letting him be moved as he was needed here and in any case he had had no instructions from the Ministry about it. The Deputy Head of the Nairobi school said he had seen all the transfer documents at the Ministry but either they were never sent or they were quietly disposed of by someone somewhere. There are so many wheels within wheels out here that it is impossible to find out what was really intended ! Not that it really worries us one way or the other.

Letter from Judy to Caroline & Martin 20 Sept 1976 –

Now we are in our last 12 months here we all feel slightly panic-stricken at the way time and opportunities are rushing by, but are nevertheless determined to stick by our plan to only do one contract. With the prospect of losing 7 expatriates in Feb 77 and little hope of replacements Wangai is getting a bit worried. The Elsons have been told they can’t renew (a bitter blow to them) – the Kinshotts, Meyers and Philip Chesterton have decided not to, and the Stevensons and Michael Mowat don’t know yet. No sooner had the Kinshotts decided to go than Pam discovered she’s pregnant and the baby due in late February so it looks as if we may keep them until the end of that term which would be nice for the maths dept. Pam and Colin seem quite pleased now they’ve taken the plunge. On Saturday we had another Jubilee speech day. As it was Saturday Wangai declined to take part for religious reasons (he was Seventh Day Adventist) so his speech was read by Obonyo who shows every sign of becoming an above-average headmaster in the near future. The Sunday Nation had a picture of the dignitaries unveiling the plaque erected in memory of Mr Smith. Fred Welch, driving down to school (as is his wont) was gathered in by the team of zealous policemen in charge of parking and forced to leave his car on a patch of rubble behind the Industrial Arts centre in spite of his protests and his dog collar – and then had to leave it there all evening and walk home as some thoughtless visitors stayed to watch the exhibition football match (Njonjo playing in his socks) and blocked his exit.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 27 Sept 1976 –

At school now I am learning hockey so I have got a nice new hockey stick although it already looks rather bashed. On Saturday at the Alliance Jubilee there was a tea party where my friends and I served and got the left overs (tons of fancy cakes). Then there was a barbecue and a film. We had a gorgeous time.

Letter from Graham to John Temple 4 Oct 1976 –

Form 4 and 6 are really getting down to work, pestering us with anxious eyes for help or past papers. It’s horrible really that the exams are so important for Kenyans.

Letter from Judy to Grandma & Grandad 11 Oct 1976 –

Graham is looking forward to a much easier time after half term – his O level and A level exam classes finish then so he only has half as many classes to teach each week. Also of course as these forms are doing public exams he doesn’t have to set and mark examinations for them.

Letter from Judy to Lisbeth and Peter 12 Oct 1976 –

One disadvantage of living at the school is that boys can always come up and ask for help at this or that question any time of the day or night almost. On the bright side however we get nice long holidays to look forward to. The children are all busy at school too; we have been lucky that Fiona’s school decided to expand it’s upper age group classes just when Fiona needed it, so that she will be able to stay there until July when we leave.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 25 Oct 1976 –

The children have just realised that the end of year exams are almost upon them but don’t seem too worried. Graham’s O level and A level students have all finished lessons so he is enjoying a slightly less busy week – in fact he only had one lesson to teach today but of course plenty of other jobs to do down at school. One of them was to get a photo done of one of his classes – 4B – some of whom will be leaving at Christmas after doing O level – the entrance to Alliance 6th form is strictly on O level results and not all the boys get back.

*Graham with a Form 4 class – who were nearly all successful in gaining a place in the following year to take Advanced Level at the school.*

Letter from Judy to Grandma & Grandad 24 Nov 1976 –

Juliet had a Speech Day at her school the other day and to her surprise heard her name called among the list of prizewinners. As she was wedged in the ranks of non-prize winning girls it was impossible for her to get out and collect her prize in time. She said she had never felt so embarassed in her life and went redder and redder until she was sure everyone was staring at her ! Poor Juliet ! As she said however it wasn’t her fault that her name had been accidentally omitted from the list of prizewinners. Helen, as usual, did well in her exams and was rewarded with a weekend away with her friend as she has written about to you. It was a real treat as staying at that kind of place is rather beyond our pocket. I think the only thing we heard from her for at least a day when she returned was all the super things she had to eat ! The food obviously made a great impression on her ! Fiona is full of beans as usual. She started a letter to you (headed Dear Grammar and Graded !) but didn’t finish it however we are all planning to write lots of letters during the holiday so you can confidently expect to hear all our news then !

Menu saved in Helen’s archive.

Letter from Helen to Grandma & Grandad Nov 1976 –

Last weekend I went to my friend Pamela’s house. On Friday her Dad went to play squash and he saw a very cheap offer for the Ark (a lodge). On Saturday morning at 11 o’clock we set off on our, I think, 120 mile journey. We went to the Aberdare Country Club first and had our lunch there. Afterwards we all piled in two buses and were driven to the Ark (I have sent you a postcard of it). Me and Pamela shared one room which overlooked the water. In the picture at the left-hand-side was a stone place which we called ‘the dungeon’ and on top of it the balconies over-looking the salt-lick. We had supper, dinner and breakfast there.