Moshi Campus News – 18 Apr 2026

This has been a week of laughs and tears. The Student Government’s Spirit Week was lots of fun and provided more than a few laughs. The color day and Holi celebration provided entertainment for all ages. Which, after a very thorough rinse under the gaze of our lifeguards, turned into an impromptu pool party. Pictures from Holi are at the bottom of the newsletter. Later days also provided laughs, and we even had a day with possibly more teachers than students. There are a few pictures scattered below including me with one of my lookalikes.

I would like to thank the D2 students and all that supported them for the Teacher Appreciation Dinner on Wednesday, there were some funny games and some touching speeches.

Friday brought our traditional D2 end of year assembly and Clapout. There are a few pictures of the Clapout below, I tried to avoid any that involved tears. Goodbyes are very hard so we would much rather say see you at another time and possibly in another place.

Over the coming weeks on campus we will be working through the challenges of accommodating the requirements of both the IB Diploma exams and the MYP M5 eAssessments while also preparing for D2 Graduation and the M5 Ceremony. Please be aware that this will have some impact on the use of space. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Farmers’ Market – This Friday the 24th we will be having the second to last market for the school year. Please join us starting at 12:30pm on the Green.

Please click on view entire message at the bottom of the page in order to read the newsletter in full.

Bob Cofer – Head of Campus

This was the final week for our D2 students and what a week it was with the Teacher Appreciation dinner, pool party, final assembly, clap out and prom! The Teachers’ dinner on Wednesday night was a beautiful recognition of all the hard work our teachers give, day in and day out. There were some very moving speeches for our leaving teachers and we even got to see the faces of students from last year and the year before! Thanks to Remmy’s Corner Cafe for sponsoring the desserts.

On Friday, the D2s attended a UWC4Life session about what is means to be a contributing member of our alumni. They’ve been given so many great opportunities through UWC and we hope they find ways to give back.

Many of the D1 students are in Pangani this weekend on a Geography and ESS field trip, gathering data for their assessments. It’s a long drive but experiential learning is an integral part of our school culture and what better way to learn than to combine academics with the outdoors. Thanks to Ms Hilda, Ms Hazel and Mr Will for taking them out.

When they return, they will shift their focus to their English A orals where students have to explore how two authors explore a similar global issue. These will be recorded and sent to the IB early next year so it’s an important assessment.

Next week is study week for the D2s. They are not expected to be in class and day students may stay home. Teachers will be available to answer questions or provide additional help. All students are encouraged to stay in Tanzania though to make sure they are here when exams start on April 27th.

Catherine Dowie – Head of Diploma

Dear UWCEA Community,

They say a week can contain multitudes. This one certainly did.

We began in a burst of colour, quite literally. Holi arrived, and with it the kind of unbridled joy that only comes when you hand teenagers permission to throw powder paint and water at each other. The pitch became a living canvas. There was laughter, chaos, and the faint but persistent smell of pink dye that followed certain students into the dining hall for days. Glorious. (Laundry was not.)

And then, almost imperceptibly, the week shifted.

The students organised a staff appreciation dinner, and it was beautiful. To the students: you didn’t have to, and you did it with such genuine warmth. To the parents: your children looked staff in the eye and reminded every adult in the room why this work is worth it. Our departing staff were celebrated as they deserved, and even our D3s showed up on videos from afar, which tells you everything about what this community means to its people. They didn’t have to. They chose to.

Then came the final D2 assembly. Azka and Catalina led us for the last time with grace, wit, and considerably more composure than several staff members managed – myself included. The clap-out that followed was exactly what this community does best: noise, love, and the odd dignified sniffle from people who definitely had something in their eye.

To the D2s: you spent two years being almost there. Almost is officially over. We couldn’t be prouder. To everyone else:  yes, they grew up this fast. No, we don’t know how either.

Now we turn toward the finish line. Exams begin, and the M5 Ceremony and D 2 Graduation are just around the corner. Students: you are more ready than you think. Teachers: your work has been seen. Parents: thank you for trusting us with them.

It has been quite a week. The best kind.

Best,
Adnan Mackovic – Head of Student Life

Today marks the end of our 12-week Service Project, 30+ UWCEA students from the Tools & Workshop Service and Restoration Service dedicated their time and energy to a complete 4-piece playground refurbishment project by sanding, repainting, digging, concrete mixing and installing the 4 large playground apparatus to our community school on campus. It is UWCEA service projects, like this that really bring people together through design, service and play.

On Friday we hosted an opening ceremony, with parents, students and staff to celebrate the newly installed playground equipment. We enjoyed the afternoon with cake, tea, playground games and of course testing the new playground equipment. The swings were very popular and possibly the most enjoyed addition to the playground. We wish the Daycare Center many hours of happy and safe playground play. Also, Thanks to Mr Cofer, Ms Anna, Mrs Dowie, Mr Matt, Mr Mateusz, Mr Wambua, Ms Keziah, Ms Debbie, Ms Grace, Mr Elias and all the parents of the daycare students for attending the opening ceremony on Friday afternoon. We had a lot of fun, Pamoja sana.

Mr Baden Dowie- Service Coordinator

To mark the celebration of World Parkinson’s Day on April 11th, members of KCMC Service Group lit up the Good Samaritan Tower in KCMC with blue lights as part of the global ‘Spark the Night’ initiative. This aims to raise awareness of the struggles of people who suffer with the disease.

Our service group represented one of the two hospitals in Africa that participated in this initiative. The photos of the event and of hospitals all over the world can be viewed on the global ‘Spark the Night’ website.

Thank you to all the people who made this event possible and the service will continue to spread the word and help educate people about the struggles of Parkinson’s sufferers worldwide.

Cara
KCMC Service

Week one back somehow doesn’t feel like week one at all. With our D2s having their final day on Friday, there’s already a strong sense of transition in the air…and just like that, the countdown for M5 has officially begun. With only two weeks to go before exams start, the finish line is suddenly very close.

But while things may feel like they’re wrapping up, the school is still very much alive and moving. Across M1–M4, learning is in full swing, classrooms are buzzing, and there is still so much happening, creating, and unfolding. No slowing down just yet!

MYP5 – Language Acquisition – French (Capable)
Last quarter MYP5 students explored the question “What defines our relationships?” and considered how the connections we form with family and friends help shape who we are. The central idea of the unit is that the relationships we build with others contribute to our personality and help give meaning to our identity. To explore this idea, students interviewed a classmate using a series of engaging and sometimes surprising questions about their family members and their character traits. They then wrote a short portrait describing their partner’s family and reflecting on how these relationships can influence a person’s personality. Through this activity, students practiced asking questions, listening carefully, and writing in French, while exploring the importance of relationships in their lives.

M1 – The Creative Process
Our M1 designers have officially moved from ideas to action! This week, students began measuring and preparing their tote bags as they bring their personal brands to life through design. Guided by the inquiry “How can I build a brand that acts as a visual mirror of who I am?”, they’ve already developed their logos and laid out thoughtful initial plans, and now, production is well underway.
What’s exciting is how naturally students are beginning to think like real designers and entrepreneurs. From considering aesthetics and identity to making practical decisions about layout and materials, they are engaging in authentic creative processes that bridge Design and Visual Arts seamlessly.

Don’t underestimate them…very soon, you might find yourself in a full pitch conversation about the 4 Ps of marketing! Product, purpose, and personality are already taking shape, and we’re looking forward to seeing these tote bags evolve into bold, personal statements.

M5 Exams and IB Submissions
And just like that… a major chapter is complete. Personal Projects, French orals, Arts ePortfolios (with selected samples carefully prepared and submitted) are all done and dusted. A huge well done to our M5 students and teachers for navigating this intense period with commitment and resilience. Box officially ticked!

Now, the focus shifts. With submissions behind us, we move into the next phase: final exams and eAssessments. This is where students consolidate, apply, and demonstrate all that they’ve built over their MYP journey.

Let’s keep the momentum going steady, focused, and one step at a time toward the finish line.

April 21st: A Big Day for Our M5 Community
We have an important and exciting day ahead for our M5 students, parents, and guardians!

At 4:30 PM, we will be hosting the M5 Parents Online Meeting. This session will provide key information as students prepare for the transition into the Diploma Programme. The meeting link will be shared via email…please keep an eye out.

Earlier in the day, our M5 students will take part in a rich and engaging Subject Fair afternoon, thoughtfully prepared by our DP team (thank you!). This is a valuable opportunity for students to explore subject choices, ask questions, and gain clarity as they begin shaping their DP pathways.

A meaningful step forward for everyone involved…we look forward to your participation!

M3 – Language and Literature – English
In M3 Language & Literature, students have stepped into the world of magical realism where the everyday and the extraordinary exist side by side (and no one even flinches). Using Dixit cards as visual prompts, students took on “The Blink-and-You’ll-Miss-It Story” challenge: crafting powerful three-sentence narratives that begin in a familiar Tanzanian setting, slip seamlessly into the magical, and return, almost casually, to normal life. The twist? No dramatic reactions allowed. In true magical realism style, the impossible is treated like it’s just another Tuesday.

The results? Clever, surreal, and quietly brilliant. From shadows going on errands to unexpected moments woven into daily routines, students are learning how writers use subtlety, structure, and imagination to make us question what “normal” really means. Short stories, big thinking!

MYP Dates to Remember

• April 21st – D1 Subject Fair for rising M5
• April 21st – M5 Parents Online Meeting about D1
• Thursday April 30th – Last day of M5 classes
• Friday May 1st – Holiday
• Monday May 4th to Friday May 15th – M5 eAssessment and M5 final exams
• May 18th to May 22nd – M5 Work Experience
• Monday May 25th – M4 exams start
• Tuesday May 26th – M5 Ceremony
• Wednesday May 27th – M5 Students Leave
• Wednesday May 27th – Possible holiday
• Monday June 8th to Wednesday June 10th – MYP Week of giving back – No class
• Thursday June 11th – MYP Fun sports day
• Friday June 12th – Last day of school for students (M1-M4)

Have a wonderful week,
Farah Fawaz – Head of MYP

The volleyball coach for Kilimanjaro region teams, Alfred Selengia, and his team have organized the first edition of the Kilimanjaro Volleyball League, KVL26! Our region is only the second in Tanzania to have such a league (after Dar) and even more exciting for us is that our campus U19 teams (girls and boys) have been invited to join. As the raining season is not over, we have even hosted the games on some weekends in K-hall.

Since the opening game of KVL26 featuring our UWCEA Queens and the MOCU Princesses, on March 14th, we have played 10 games and finally secured our first win last Sunday. Our boys team had an epic game against Kilimanjaro Talent Academy, concluding the game on 4th set with a stressful 26-24 score!

Every game is tough, most teams being adult teams with more experience. But it is definitely worth the challenge and playing such competitive games is the best way to improve quickly.

Go Leopards, go!

Please note the change in time to allow schools from Arusha to make it back before dark.

Welcome back to Quarter 4. It was lovely to see the children return to school full of news about their activities over the break.

Clubs will start on Monday. You can see your child’s clubs on Life. If you missed the sign up, please email me on deborahmills@uwcea.org. Clubs will finish on Thursday, 4th June.

On Wednesday, the yearbook committee will take photographs of those children who were absent last time round when photos were taken in February.

On 30th April, we are planning to take the P1 – P6 children on a service trip to Kahe Forest for a tree planting activity led by the Kilimanjaro Project. The organisers have been very clear that the children must wear raincoats and rain-boots. Further to my email of 16th March, the OP store will be able to lend the children raincoats if they need them but they do not have rain-boots. They are often available at Memorial. If you do not have rain-boots, please withdraw your child from the trip and we will arrange for them to stay on campus to be supervised by an Education Assistant on that day.  The details of this trip will be shared on Life.

Please note that this coming Monday, 20th April,  is a dress up day (spirit day) in recognition of Earth Day. The children are invited to wear blue, green or brown T-shirts. These do not have to be school T-shirts.

Next Friday afternoon (24th April) is our girls’ football training session on Moshi campus with girls from PPA. Invitations have been sent through Life. The Rugby Festival on our campus has been rescheduled for Friday 22nd May 13:00 – 16:30 and is open to children ages 8 – 14 years.

This quarter is a busy one, with lots of events to fit in. There have already been some changes and additions to the list of dates that I shared last week so I am sharing them again.

• Mon 20 Apr – Clubs start
• Mon 20 Apr – Earth Day – wear blue, green or brown T-shirts
• Fri 24 Apr – Primary Gathering – Sustainability Committee presentation followed by EC/P1 presenting their work to parents and later to PYP classes throughout the day.
• Fri 24 Apr – Girls’ football training with PPA and Kibo Shanty 1:30 – 3:00pm
• Sun 26 Apr – Union Day holiday
• Thu 30 Apr – Tree planting day P1 – P6 Kahe Forest May 2026 (rain-boots are a necessity)
• Fri 1 May – Public Holiday
• Tue 5 May – P4-6 to Arusha to see their PYPX
• Weds 6 May – P2/3 Expo
• Fri 8 May – Primary Gathering EC/P1 has been cancelled as this presentation will now take place on the morning of 24th April
• Sat 9 May – Sports event at Hope. Invitations have been sent to P4 – 6 footballers through Life
• Wed 13 May – P6 overnight camp (back Thursday)
• Fri 15 May – Gathering of Gratitude 
• Fri 22nd May – Contact rugby training day 13:00 – 16:30 – invitations will be sent later through Life
• Wed 27 May – Eid el Adha (provisional)
• Mon 1 Jun – P6 Student Led Conferences – normal day for EC – P5.
• Thu 4 Jun – P6 Ceremony (students will stay at school until 3:05 pm for a full MYP day)
• Thu 4 Jun – PYP Move up day (one lesson spent with next year’s teacher)
• Thu 4 Jun – PYP Clubs finish
• Fri 5 June – EC/P trip to Weru Weru
• Fri 5 June -P4 and above frisbee event on Moshi campus (details to be shared later)
• Sat 6 Jun – Last Saturday football
• Sat 6 Jun – Dress rehearsal for Kick it for all children EC – P6 11:00am – 12:30pm
• Mon 8 Jun – Primary Musical performance
• Tue 9 Jun – Primary Musical performance
• Wed 10 Jun – Short gathering for saying goodbye to departing PYP students
• Wed 10 Jun – PYP Fun sports day
• Thu 11 Jun – MYP Fun Sports Day
• Fri 12 June – Last day

Deborah Mills – Head of PYP

We had an exciting and busy back to school week. The children were excited to catch up and share holiday news and we heard all about their adventures.

This quarter, we will be working through our ‘How we express ourselves unit’.

The central idea we will explore is: How we can communicate our emotions through the arts.

We have two lines of inquiry:

• Different art forms
• Sharing our emotions through the arts.

This coming week, we would like to wrap up our minibeast unit with a mini exhibition. We are planning on sharing our work on Friday after the primary gathering which will be led by the Sustainability Committee. You are welcome to come and view the children’s work and ask them questions. Other classes will be popping in and out of the classroom throughout the day.

Mboka Mwasongwe

Q4 is off to a great start! We enjoyed dressing up in bright yellow on Monday and a handful of children came dressed as teachers on Wednesday. The fun continues next Monday and we are invited to come to school in green blue or brown in order to support Earth Day. That focus works so well with our unit. We are deep in the study of endangered animals. Students are very interested and eager to learn. We began practicing report writing by looking at information and putting it into sentence form. The children have laughed about the difference between making a story about talking animals and a report with animal facts. With animal reports in mind, please put Wednesday, May 6th in your calendar. We will host our Endangered Animal Expo in order to display our reports and dioramas. More info will come later.

We are looking at telling time in Math. We started with to the hour and to the half hour. We will focus on telling time to the 5-minute interval next week. Be encouraging if asking your child to tell the time at home!

Kacey Buckley

We had two fun spirit days in P4/5 this week. On  Monday most of the children were dressed in yellow and on Wednesday many of them were dressed as teachers (see photos). We covered a lot of the basics of fractions this week which was revision for the P5s and new material for some of the P4s. We will continue with fractions next week. Our UOI on building design has got off to a good start. We have learned about the advantages and disadvantages of different building materials. On Friday, the children explored strong shapes by designing a paper tower that could support a can of food. One tower reached 81cm to much excitement. Next week we will look at how some modern buildings have been built with sustainability in mind.

Deborah Mills

Welcome back to Quarter 4 — I hope everyone had a restful break, because this one always disappears very quickly. We’ve jumped straight back in, with students exploring decimals (tenths, hundredths, thousandths) and bringing them to life through some very colourful Piet Mondrian-inspired artwork. Alongside this, they’ve been working on graffiti pieces around Children’s Rights, and it’s been great seeing the level of thought (and strong opinions) going into their work.

We’ve also started our new Energy unit, using See, Think, Wonder to get students questioning what energy actually is and how things around them work — lots of curiosity, lots of “wait… what?” moments.

A quick note that our tentative camp dates are May 13 & 14th — more details will be shared soon, so keep an eye out.

Elisha Jaffer

Student Government’s Holi Celebration as part of Spirt Week

The essay below is a sample of some of the work students are producing as they start a student run literary and news magazine. More details on this project will come out later.

by: Héloïse L

In 1848 London under the reign of Queen Victoria, a group of artists emerged under the name of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) as a radical opposition of the Royal Academy of Arts. Disenchanted with the academic traditions of their time, the seven founding members turned instead to the art of late medieval and early Renaissance Europe, before the influence of the Italian painter Raphael. From this preference came their name: the Pre-Raphaelites.

Their doctrine, described by one of its key members, William Michael Rossetti, was to explore beauty and aesthetics through art. They sought to unite painting and Romantic poetry, often drawing on history and mythology while emphasizing mimesis: the imitation of nature, following the principles described by Aristotle.

The polymath John Ruskin in a chapter titled ‘The Nature of Gothic’ of his book The Stones of Venice (1853) rejected what he saw as the moral fall of Victorian art and society, and called for a return to the values of the medieval age. It is what we call the Gothic Revival from where Aesthetic movement as well as Pre-Raphaelites movements were rooted in through the Victorian Era.

With subjects taken from poetry and medieval legend, such as King Arthur tales deeply embedded in Celtic folklore and The Divine Comedy of Dante, they presented an aesthetic of beauty for its own sake, and, with other artists and writers such as Oscar Wilde that popularized the Aesthetic movement in the 1860s.

Artists such as Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and Waterhouse frequently depicted a recognisable female figure: long red hair, flowing dresses, and languid postures. These women were rendered with a sensuality that subtly challenged Victorian ideals of modesty. Many of these female figures were inspired by Celtic mythology and medieval legend. Artists often treated them allegorically, transforming mythological women into symbols of beauty, purity, or melancholy. Rose symbolism and New Women ideal are recurring themes, representing the sacred feminine associated with the medieval Virgin Mary representations called Rosa Mystica but also symbolizing both sensuality and virtue.

A notable illustration would be the romantic and dreamy painting from 1908 The Soul of the Rose by Waterhouse, a later influenced painter. The painting’s inspiration is derived from the 13th century French romance Le Roman de la Rose providing the foundational concept of a woman embodying a rose as a symbol of idealized love, as well as evocation of 14th Century paintings by Fra Angelico in terms of enclosed Tuscan gardens setting. The protagonist may still represent the object of another’s desire, we are also invited to imagine her psychology, and to suppose a hidden narrative of thwarted or aspiring love. She is a participant rather than a passive symbol. Waterhouse’s main thesis links women and nature through the concept of regeneration, always with an underlying theme of melancholy introspection.

About the muses, Jane Morris, Elizabeth Siddal and Fanny Eaton were no less part of the PRB at their own level. The role of the female muse in PRB storyline was extremely undervalued, all were artists and had roles in the development and spreading of Aesthetic movement that attempted to elevate the women from a decorative object to a sentient person with her own agency and creativity.

The Pre-Raphaelites’ artistic principles were built on a reverence for nature and contemplations of moral purity. If the Pre-Raphaelites grounded their artistic principles in a reverence for nature and ideals of moral purity, is it not their distinctive portrayal of women within this world of nature and symbolism that most draws the attention of the amateur art lover? The Pre-Raphaelites were a brotherhood; yet it is a sisterhood of sitters who occupy their most famous works.

To come back to the popularization of Aesthetic movement, the Irish author Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray preface reflects on art, the artist and their utility. It concludes by ‘All art is quite useless’ summarizing the popular principles followed by aesthetes of Victorian England. Art should be beautiful and please its observer, but to imply further-reaching influence would be a mistake. Aestheticism advocated whatever behavior was likely to maximize the beauty and happiness in one’s life, in the tradition of hedonism. However, the story of the rise and fall of Dorian Gray might instead represent an allegory about morality meant to critique, rather than endorse, the obeying of one’s impulses as thoughtlessly and dutifully as aestheticism dictates.

Through the years, the Pre-Raphaelite work became more decorative, leaning towards the Arts and Crafts movement. PRB’s common and thorough interest for botanic and plein air painting predicting the shift towards decorative arts was influenced by the free-spirited botanist and painter Marianne North admired by the most notable scientists like Charles Darwin. She travelled to the most remote jungles from Borneo to South America to illustrate meticulously far-flung plants and flowers that are now exposed in a pavilion of Kew Gardens, London, the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world. Another of the influences was the late PRB member, William Morris. Morris is a revolutionary craftsman who introduced a visionary aesthetic of natural and plant forms designs for interiors laying the groundwork of Belge Art Nouveau.