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UK Teachers’ Visit to Kenyan Schools – Global Schools Project

April 28, 2025By 0 comment

The school visits started on May 28, 2024. With help from KLK staff Julie and Lewa, the teachers went to Khadija Primary School, Maweni Primary School, and Pentrose Community School. They enjoyed lively music and dance shows and helped plant trees to show the friendship between the schools.
On May 29, the visits continued at Kongowea Primary School and Kengeleni Primary School. At Kengeleni, the teachers watched colourful cultural performances that showed Mombasa’s traditions.

Kids League Kenya had the honour of hosting a group of passionate UK teachers as part of the Global Schools project. This unique initiative connects students from schools in Kongowea, Kenya, with their peers in the United Kingdom, fostering cross-cultural friendships, mutual learning, and global citizenship. From May 25 to June 1, 2024, the visiting teachers embarked on a vibrant journey of collaboration, discovery, and community building — a true celebration of education without borders.

The teachers arrived in Mombasa on May 25, 2024, and were warmly welcomed by the Kids League Kenya team, Ann and Lewa at Severin Sea Lodge, where they had time to rest and get ready for the exciting week ahead. The friendly welcome and beautiful coastal views made a great start to their visit.

Safari Adventure in the Kenyan Savannah

The adventure began on May 26 with a safari at Voi Safari Lodge. The teachers marvelled at Kenya’s stunning wildlife, including elephants, giraffes, and lions. The overnight stay at the lodge offered an immersive experience into the country’s natural beauty and diverse ecosystem, setting a thrilling tone for the rest of the visit.

The school visits

The school visits started on May 28, 2024. With help from KLK staff members Julie and Lewa, the teachers went to Khadija Primary School, Maweni Primary School, and Pentrose Community School. They enjoyed lively music and dance shows and helped plant trees to show the friendship between the schools.
On May 29, the visits continued at Kongowea Primary School and Kengeleni Primary School. At Kengeleni, the teachers watched colourful cultural performances that showed Mombasa’s traditions.

Exploring Mombasa’s Heritage

On May 30, 2024, the teachers explored Mombasa’s historic Old Town. They visited places like Fort Jesus and saw the famous elephant tusks on Moi Avenue. These sites helped them learn more about the area’s history, strength, and culture.

Final Adventure at Vipingo Ridge
The final day, May 31, was dedicated to Kenya’s marine beauty. At Vipingo Ridge, the teachers enjoyed snorkelling and encountered the vibrant coastal marine life. It was a perfect way to unwind and celebrate the end of a memorable journey.

Back to UK

On June 1, the UK teachers bid farewell to Mombasa, concluding a week of impactful experiences and new friendships.

The visit was much more than a tour; it was a week of authentic connections, shared dreams, and the building of bridges across continents. Through the Global Schools project, Kids League Kenya continues to foster global understanding, empower students, and celebrate the beauty of diversity. The experiences and relationships formed during this visit will ripple through classrooms in both Kenya and the UK, inspiring a new generation of globally minded leaders.

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Celebrating International Day of the African Child

June 26, 2023By

The International Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991. This year Kids League Kenya and our UK partners have worked to raise the profile of the day

The idea

We have a ‘Twinning program‘ in place. This has provided a global platform for connecting children from Kenya and the United Kingdom. It is an idea that allows children to access others on the other side of the world, expanding their experiences and creating global ambassadors. This is also a platform where they can share.

Our current Twinning Schools

We are currently a group of six schools, including Repton Primary School, St. Edward’s School, Fleckney Primary School from the United Kingdom. These schools meet regularly with our partners Kengeleni Primary School, Kongowea Primary School, and Pentrose Community School from Kenya.

Twinning on International Day of the African Child

Our latest twinning meeting took place on International Day of the African Child.

This year’s theme was ‘Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment’. This theme focusses on safe guarding children accessing the digital environment, it highlights the limitations to access to the internet for children in Africa. This lack of exposure to technology and innovation can be a limiting factor for students.

We focus on the access to technology and a ‘global view’ with our students. Our Internet Corner gives students access to the internet to pursue their interests and learn in a safe environment. Our twinning scheme is enabled by technology and it always great fun for all the participants and it was an excellent day to meet online to enjoy a live interaction! The students had the opportunity to ask general questions from both sides during this session.

A new experience

Kids League Kenya have recently been donated a new location for twinning with enough space to increase the number of students from Kenyan schools. A total of fifteen students joining representing a total of 4,000 students from the three Kenyan schools and 400 students from the UK participated. Four hundred!

Students from the UK dressed up and also had a series of activities to learn more about Kenya as part of their educational experience. Thank you to all the teachers for embracing the theme and making it such a success.

Exciting news

We are thrilled to announce that two schools from both sides will be joining us!

When Ann Dudley (our international Liaison volunteer) visited Kenya, she had the idea of spreading the good news to other neighbouring schools. Together with Julie (our administrator), they approached Khadija Primary School, which is in Kids League Kenya’s target area. Khadija school is eager to join us and we recently received word from one of our volunteers in the United Kingdom that a school in Nottingham is interested in joining too. Welcome!

If YOUR school is interested in joining the Kids League Kenya project then please get in touch with Lewa in Kenya or Ann in UK to hear more about it!

What’s next

The next activity for the schools to participate in is writing stories and filming videos of traditional stories.

This project will run from now until September during which time all of the videos will be collected when the students will be ready to meet online again.

It is hoped that some videos and written versions of these stories might serve as the beginning of a collection of traditional African stories for publication in Kenya.

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All about Seasons. Our latest Kenya and UK global classroom twinning event discussion

April 3, 2023By

Our sixth twinning meeting generated a lot of fun for the kids since they had a lot to share and to learn on the topic of ‘seasons’.

Often our twinning sessions show what things the cross continent children have in common, but Africa and UK have different experiences in seasons. For many countries in Africa, the seasons do not follow the same pattern they do in UK.

Instead of Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, most countries in East Africa and Southern Africa have a wet season(s) and a dry season.

Aim of the discussion
The objective of this discussion on Seasons was simply to give the kids a general knowledge about the differences in Seasons in the two different continents, and also to share the activities they like doing in each of the seasons.

Activities in each season

The children in Kenya were overjoyed to talk about the activities they engage in during the wet (rainy) seasons, which include farming, wearing heavy clothing, sharing stories around a fire, water harvesting and irrigation, and playing indoor games, while during the hot (sunny) seasons they engage in harvesting, swimming, playing football, and basketball.

There has been significant drought in Kenya, and the coming rainy season is a cause for excitement and celebration!

In the UK, where all four seasons are experienced and many activities are available, the list was extensive. Activities during winter include playing games, watching films, drinking hot chocolate, Christmas and shopping.

During summer, activities include cool drinks, going in the pool, going on holidays, eating ice-cream and chilling out.

Autumn activities include going for walks, leaf fights, going to the park, having fun in the leaves. During Spring activities include making daisy chains, play with leaves, visiting farms and celebrating Easter.

Question time

After the presentations of activities, there was an opportunity for questions to be asked.

Some of the questions posed by Kenya schools were if UK students engage in farming and in which season, what games they enjoy playing in the winter, and whether they consume different foods in hot and cold weather.

Some of the questions posed by the UK schools included: Does Kenya experience snow; how do Kenyan schools celebrate Christmas; do Kenyan schools celebrate Easter; if so, what activities do they engage in during Easter; and how many different religions are practiced in Kenya; as well as whether or not they observe Ramadan.

Remarks from the Kenyan teachers

All of our Twinning sessions are facilitated by teachers at our partner schools in the UK and Kenya, both the preparation of the students and in the live meetings. Their buy in and enthusiasm are critical to the success of these events.

Madam Rose of Pentrose Primary School, “This twinning online meeting has been an excellent project for children to share and gain knowledge from their counterparts in the UK, it is really informative and the kids love it!”

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Great success at our biggest Twinning Event so far

February 13, 2023By

We hosted our fifth online school Twinning event at the start of this month, with six schools participating in a session. Students were given the chance ask whatever questions they liked of eachother.

Of course all our sessions are facilitated by the class teachers and Kids League Kenya, so there is no such thing as a complete freestyle to proceedings. That said, there were some varied and interesting discussions from the students.

A 90 student strong Twinning Event

Our International Liaison Ann hosting our fifth Twinning Event

Our session included three schools and total of 73 students from the UK, including five staff members, even two headteachers. This is a fantastic commitment from our Twinning Schools.

On the Kenya side 17 students were able to travel to our Kids League Kenya office representing three partner schools, Pentrose, Kelengeni and Kongowea Primary.

Question time

There is a three hour time difference between Kenya and the UK, with Kenya three hours ahead.

Our session was an hour long and had a huge variety of questions asked.

From questions about favourite foods, sports and games to the seasons (the theme for our next Twining Event later this month), languages, songs and different faiths.

As the hour came to a close the students were still bursting with questions in this highly interactive session.

Creating global ambassadors

When we launched our Twinning Programme in 2021 we set out to give experiences to UK students. These session form part of their international studies and to promote diversity. In giving them access to another part of the world, living a different life, they are able to develop empathy. They are also able to see the similarities between themselves and the Kenyan children.

We also set out to help our Kenyan students to have new experiences. In travelling to the Kids League Offices they are invited to see another world through our online forum, treated to clean water and biscuits, and able to meet with other children.

These sessions are fantastic fun for all of the students and having an understanding of other cultures and ways of life truly help the children to have a more global perspective.

To help us host these event we welcome donations to help with transport and refreshments costs for our students. As little as £10 can make all the difference.

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Heart warming session as students from Kenyan and UK schools meet

June 25, 2022By

On 23rd June 2022 we organised an online interactive session for students to discuss their favourite games.

The participating schools were Kongowea Primary School and Kengeleni Primary School from Kenya. They were joined by schools from the United Kingdom, Repton Primary School and St. Edwards of England Primary School.

This is the third time we have hosted a collaboration between Kenyan and UK schools in our Twinning Programme.

From our International Liaison, Ann Dudley:

“It is really a fantastic experience when students participate in our Twinning events.

Learning about their differences, but also sharing their similarities through common ground topics such as games really helps both the UK and Kenyan students understand the world is a much bigger and more diverse place beyond their classrooms.”

It was great to have kids from grade four to grade six interacting and sharing experiences on the games and sports activities they like.

The session was so engaging with students asking questions from both sides.

Ashley, a student from Kelengeni School said that her favourite game is hide and seek. She went further and explained that the game is played by a group of kids which consists of ten members. One member closes his/her eyes while the rest hide themselves in different places. After they have all taken their positions then he/she is supposed to look for them one by one until the last person who takes the second turn.

The session took forty minutes and all the students had a great deal of fun. A great time was topped off with biscuits and juice for all the participants.

Thank you to all the engaged schools and to Julie our Administrator for organising such an amazing experience.

Find out more about our Twinning programme and about our up and coming events.

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Exciting new school twinning initiative launch

July 10, 2021By

We’re delighted to launch a programme of twinning events connecting school students internationally.

Our International Liaison Ann has worked over the past couple of years with a network of contacts across the Midlands, UK. These connections have created opportunities within our children’s education lane for a number of initiatives to take place over Covid, ranging from essay competitions to literary events.

The one thing these activities have had in common? The international nature of them. The essay competition involved African students competing with UK schools, and an exchanging of books for the winners. The literary festival included an African experience, exposing local children to another culture and their understanding of diversity.

One of the schools that experienced the Africa day at the literary festival was Repton Primary, and they are part of our newest project.

Our International Liaison Ann and Administrator Julie visiting the Kenyan Schools to discuss Twinning

Global twinning ambition

Taking the success of these activities forward we are delighted to announce the start of a new series of events.

Our Twinning Programme aims to connect children in Kenya with children in the UK.

The idea is to facilitate sessions online, with children on both sides of the screen with their teachers. We will theme the events, encouraging active participation by the children, interacting with eachother, sharing their experiences and learning about others.

Twinning Schools

We aim to have schools at Primary education level who participate in the events.

The UK schools we are launching our twinning with are:
Fleckney Primary School – Leicestershire
St Edwards C of E Primary – School Castle Donington
Repton Primary School – Repton

The Kenyan schools are our partners in Kongowea, Mombasa:
Kongowea Primary School – Kongowea
Pentrose Primary School – Kongowea
Kengeleni Primary School – Kongowea

Our objectives – everyone wins

In facilitating the sessions for the children we aim to create a network of global ambassadors who are equipped with experiences beyond their usual school environment. These UK students learn how another culture lives, and can see the similarities in others.

From a Kenyan perspective, one of the elements of our final interview with students applying for scholarships is to discuss their aspirations and goals for the future. These twinning sessions are useful for them to broaden their experiences and learn about another culture. Part of our support work is to equip the students with tools to change their lives, developing their social skills and awareness of others.

These events of course will raise awareness of the work of Kids League Kenya in the local community of Kongowea, creating a further understanding of the opportunity of the scholarships. We also hope that the UK partners will be able to raise awareness and even fundraise for our charitable efforts.

We look forward to hosting the first twinning event soon.

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