Ascend International School, or Ascend, is being set up to provide an environment for children to develop positive traits and lifelong habits. By offering a consistent approach, we hope that our students will become individuals who continuously look for opportunities to improve.

Private schools in Kenya are bustling with regular new entrants. Naturally, some of these enterprises are purely profit-driven, marketing themselves to parents as an option for a “fun-filled” education. This promises very little. At Ascend, we are working on a model based on building good habits in our learners, holding ourselves to high standards on every level – from teacher recruitment and training to data-based systems to monitor and drive performance – therefore showing our learners a level of excellence that they can replicate.

Taking it for granted, we have a fully functioning IT room, science labs, art room and so on. Our classroom teaching displays are digitally enhanced with a tablet connected to a large digital screen, allowing teachers to display materials, use dynamic input as well as capture and display ongoing student work to enhance teaching. This goes beyond a smart-board.

As one of the indicators of future success is reading, we incorporate classroom readers and reading as a lesson for all years from Year 1. Students are exposed to motivational books, biographies and fiction – both from Africa and beyond.

We are working on building an enrichment program incorporating life skills into our curriculum, that so far includes – stitching, digital photography, current affairs analysis, debate, coding in python, personal finance and so on. We see these skills as essential to students in their day to day life, as they grow towards adulthood. For now, enrichment activities are provided at no extra cost.

As far as sports facilities are concerned, Ascend International School has a decent sized swimming pool, an astro turf pitch for small teams, as well as a basketball court sharing our parking area.

We also have a commercial-capable kitchen and a large covered outdoor area for students to spend their break times.

We currently offer the Cambridge curriculum, what is also referred to as IGCSE.

At Ascend, we appreciate that the challenges for humanity are increasing. However, we realise that effort and action pays over procrastination. We hope to teach children that the basics of success hinge on effective habits – goal-setting, prioritising, understanding, working with individual and team-strengths, refreshing skills and so on – are bound to keep one ahead in life and positivity.

Being faith-based, students at Ascend would learn to lean on God for support when things work as well as when things don’t go to plan. Faith is a tremendous support and allows us to bounce back. We thus hope to grow students who work to improve continuously, while being resilient in the face of challenges.

Our School premises already hosts learners from KG1 to Year 10, and we will grow the classes all the way to Year 13 – we already have built-up space for this.

Families in Kenya normally have more than one child, and the age gaps between children in a family can, at times, be of several years. Having one location to drop and pick children affords convenience. It is also easier to transition from year to year, and the consistency helps students with stability.

Most local universities and institutions of further education do admit students who have studied an international curriculum. Kenya is a rapidly developing nation, where a variety of ideas and exposure are required to ensure our continued growth. The skills and thought process afforded by an international education are complimentary to the local curriculum and both sets of thinking are important to our future growth and survival as a country.

Our founders are Kenyan Muslims of Indian origin and practice traditional Sunni Islam, which is the most tolerant form of any faith historically. When you see the historic protection Muslims offered to people of other faiths – including Christians, Jews and Hindus – then this was from the interpretations of traditional Islam.

Having said this, we also believe that all mainstream faiths have a common core of monotheism, morality, and rules for positive interaction between people. While we do have the conviction of our faith, we affirm the right for people to choose their faith and are tolerant of differences between people. Indeed, the creation of different peoples’ is a sign from God, for people to learn about each other, and, in Islam, it is important to point out that there is no compulsion in faith.

We offer a basic Islamic Curriculum based on traditional Sunni Islam, which would be taught in a balanced way. During these lessons, students from other faiths study a subject called Global Perspectives.

Muslims are active in the practice of their rituals, and we allow children to pray in designated areas of the school. We would also break at half-day on Fridays, with a return for afternoon classes for children who need extra help.

Additionally, it is important to point out that the difference between people of faith and those who aren’t active in faith or reject faith, is that people of faith believe that God creates everything for a reason – therefore, everything has meaning. This explains why people of faith encourage modesty in dress – our bodies are the “carriages” of our souls – and they have direct meaning in and of themselves. Muslims in particular believe that the body – not just of women – is sacred, and is to be utilised in the way God permitted. For this reason, we would also encourage all our students to be modest in dress. To take this further, Muslim students would be permitted to wear their prayer caps and hijab where applicable, but in keeping with the code of the school at all times.