School life
A day here, from the gate to the bus.
The school day
Gates open
07:15Registration
07:45First lesson
08:00Break
10:00Lunch, primary then secondary
12:00Primary ends
14:30Secondary ends
15:45After school clubs, Monday to Thursday
until 17:00What is taught.
Primary follows the Cambridge Primary programme: English, mathematics, science, computing, humanities, art, music and physical education, with French from Year 3.
Lower secondary, Years 7 to 9, adds separate sciences, design technology and a second language option of Arabic or Spanish alongside compulsory French.
IGCSE, Years 10 and 11, has five compulsory subjects: English language, English literature, mathematics, one science and French. Pupils choose three or four more from biology, chemistry, physics, geography, history, business studies, computer science, art, economics and Arabic.
A Level, Years 12 and 13, offers fourteen subjects. Most pupils take three. We will run a set of six, which is why our A Level classes are small and why we are careful about promising a subject before the option block is settled in June.
Clubs, sport and the things that are not lessons.
After school clubs run Monday to Thursday until 17:00 and are included in the fees. Football, basketball, athletics, swimming at the pool on Kairaba Avenue, coding, debating, choir, drama, chess and a Duke of Edinburgh style award we run ourselves.
There are four houses, named after Gambian rivers, and inter house competitions in sport, debating and music through the year. Sports day is the last Friday of the summer term and parents come.
The library is open from 07:15 to 17:00 and is supervised after school, which for a family where both parents work until five is often the practical answer.
Uniform and the bus.
Uniform is compulsory from Reception to Year 11 and is bought from the school shop on site, which is open 08:00 to 15:00 in term and all day in the last week of August. A full set is D3,800. Sixth form wear their own clothes within a written dress code.
Shoes are black and plain, and we are not fussy about where they come from. Hair is a matter for families and not for us, which we say in writing because we are asked constantly.
The bus covers Kanifing, Serrekunda, Bakau, Fajara and Bijilo at D7,500 a term. Routes are set in August and published before the term starts. If your address is not on a route, ask; if three families ask from the same direction we will usually add a stop.