Rosslyn Academy

Rosslyn Academy
Location
Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya
Information
Type Private day
Established 1946 (in Tanzania), 1967 (In Kenya)
Grades Preschool - 12
Number of students 650+
Education system American
Curriculum American-based
Accreditation ACSI, MSA
Website http://rosslynacademy.org

Rosslyn Academy is a private Christian school in Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya.[1] It was founded in 1947.[2] It is an international, coed, day school with a North American curriculum and classes from preschool to twelfth grade. Enrollment is approximately 650, with a senior graduating class ranging from 35-50 each year. Approximately 40% of the students are American, and more than 50 nationalities are represented in the school. Most of its teachers are North American certified. It is located in the northwestern outskirts of Nairobi, in Gigiri, a safe location of Nairobi near the United States Embassy and the United Nations Headquarters for Africa. The site was formerly part of a coffee plantation.

The school's administration building

The school was originally founded as Mara Hills academy in northern Tanzania in the 1940s, as a one room school for the children of Mennonite missionaries. The school moved to its current location in 1967, and opened a boarding facility offering K-8 education. The school remained a boarding school into the 1980s when the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (now the International Mission Board) invested in the school to provide an American education for the children of its missionaries residing in the Nairobi area. This was also a critical financial move in the history of the school as it saved it from financial insolvency. In the late 1980s the Assemblies of God missionary sending agency also purchased a stake in the school. The school is currently jointly owned by the International Mission Board (by proxy through the Baptist Mission of Kenya), the Eastern Mennonite Mission and the Assemblies of God.

The school remained strictly a K-8 school until the late 1980s. Most of the students transferred to Rift Valley Academy upon entering ninth grade. However, the school gradually added a high school program and graduated its first senior class in 1991. Today the school offers many high school courses in the social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, and literature and language. Rosslyn Academy also teaches a number of Advanced Placement AP courses ranging from physics and biology to foreign language.

The school is also now known for its strong fine arts and sports programs. The Rosslyn Eagles consistently place among the top of their leagues in both men's and women's varsity and junior varsity sports. The inter-schools athletic program includes men's and women's football (soccer), basketball, volleyball, field hockey, rugby, tennis, and swimming. The Eagles' traditional rivals are the other large international schools in Kenya, namely the Rift Valley Academy Buffalos and the International School of Kenya Lions.

References

  1. "Contact Info." Rosslyn Academy. Retrieved on February 10, 2015. "Physical Address Off Limuru Road Off Unep Avenue Past Unep. Off Magnolia Close Gigiri Nairobi, Kenya"
  2. "School Profile." Rosslyn Academy. Retrieved on February 10, 2015.

External links

Coordinates: 1°13′29″S 36°48′31″E / 1.224804°S 36.808543°E