The Kids

Having spent the last couple of weeks at a prep school, I've spoken remarkably little about the kids themselves, and what they're like as a whole. Being a gappy, we spend the majority of our time with the younger kids, as we are class assistants for years 1 to 4, however, you do see the older kids in house during duty, on the sports pitches, and during lunch.
What I've been astonished by, is the contrast between the average british prep school child, and an average Pembroke child. I mean no harm to british prep schools when I say this, (as I my self was lucky enough to go to one, and had the most amazing time) but from day one of my time at Pembroke, everyone has been so welcoming, friendly and well mannored.
For starters, every morning they have an inspection of dorms (something, I'm sure, my father would highly recommend to british prep schools. Each dorm consists of 6-8 members, and is marked out of 5 every morning. It's a hugely competitive inter-dorm competition, with hockey sticks used to straighten every inch of crease on one's duvet. Every dorm is immaculate, and when one is awarded even a 4.5 (which I foolishly gave out on day one) tears are involved. I, personally, could never see this happening in the UK.
There are also a few quirkey, traditions that they stand by as kids. There is a bridge just before you come up to the school gate, which has "pembroke house" written on it, and every time the kids come back from a school outing/match, they do a three cheers to all the staff on the bus. They then get to the school gates, and because security is so huge at pembroke, (understandably) all the kids shouts "take your last breath of freedom!" with a LOT of huffing and puffing involved.
Because a large majority of the children are brought up around Kenya, they are all very out doorsy, which suddenly came to my attention this morning, when doing spelling with two of the kids outside. So we were sitting on a bench on Pres Lawn (very rebellious) doing our spelling, when suddening Kyle perked up and shouted "LOOK". I looked, puzzled at him, for him to then pluck an ant off the lawn with amazing ease, rip its head off, and eat it. Inevitably, i asked him "Why on earth did you do that?", for him to answer, particularly bluntly, "I was hungry", as if this was something he regularly does. This particular child lives in the Masai Mara, which perhaps explains this. He later told me that his favourite are flys.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that gave you a slight insight to the differences in children of that in the UK

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