 The foundations for Braeburn as we know it were laid in 1978 when an offer was made to buy a small school in Gitanga Road Lavington. The school had about 70 children and three and a half acres of land, a house and couple of classrooms. On April 1st 1979 we took over the ownership and management. The rest is history – as they say, but what a history and a history that needs to be written! A history that has seen twelve Braeburn schools emerge and nearly ten thousand children and five hundred teachers pass through our doors being forever part of us. As I write thirty years later the attitudes, ethos and dreams of the original six founders remain the same and have been adopted as the attitudes, ethos and dreams of the entity that is Braeburn. What Braeburn is, is difficult to put into words and perhaps is best not described but felt. Felt as you walk around a school or as you watch the productive happiness of the children, or the engaged busy-ness of the teachers, or the dedication of the support staff or the (normally) satisfied-ness of visiting parents. We have tried to create an involved, committed, vibrant and happy community. By most accounts we have succeeded. One thing that has concerned me up to recently was: how can we preserve and enhance it? How can we ensure that children forever can continue enjoying their precious school days at Braeburn and benefiting from what we have now? The answer I decided was not to ‘hang on’ but ‘to move on’. The group has moved on. Over the past few years we have put in place structures and safeguards which protect the schools for the future. During that process and on approaching 60 years of age, I gave up operational control of the Group and ceased being Managing Director. My role as CEO is to head a division of Braeburn which looks to the future seeking out and investigating new opportunities. This could lead to innovation in the schools or new Braeburn schools. Current initiatives include the new Garden Estate School and the new school in Nanyuki. Having obtained some more land adjacent to Braeside we are investigating the possibility of them having their own Sixth Form Centre. Long term we are moving towards a Braeburn University. It will continue. When asked to write this page for the new website, I wrote it and then looked at what Rob our MD had written. In essence and ignoring practical detail what we each wrote was the same, our commitment to schools and their communities shone through the words. The dream is there to be shared by all the Braeburn community – Enjoy and be part of it. Very sincerely, Terry Childs CEO & Vision Navigator Braeburn
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CEO's Message
