We started with a bold idea: a school where every child learns to make sense of the world and in turn helps the world make more sense.
Everything we do flows from this single belief.
In partnership with the internationally renowned Common Ground Collaborative (CGC), we offer an American-aligned curriculum that is designed backwards from the Portrait of a Sankoré Siafu—the six human capacities we want for every child. Learners build strong foundations in literacy and numeracy, think across disciplines, and apply their learning to real-world questions in Nairobi and beyond.
Our curriculum is coherent, concept-based, and deeply human. It prepares Sankoré learners not only to excel academically, but to thrive as ethical, entrepreneurial changemakers in a rapidly changing world.
Because we design our curriculum backwards from the Portrait of a Siafu, learning is both transparent and coherent.
We build:
Learning happens through inquiry-driven Learning Modules—immersive experiences that help learners explore ideas, apply skills, and make meaning in authentic contexts. Families see this journey clearly through open Learning Maps and reflective reporting, walking beside their children as true partners.
Learning is applied to real problems. Every year, Sankoré learners apply their learning to a real challenge facing our community.
Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and principles of human-centered design, Siafus empathize, define problems, ideate, prototype, test, and improve until they create solutions that make a difference.
These Changemaker Challenges give learners purpose, agency, and the lived experience of contributing to the world around them. Learning becomes real. Learning becomes impactful. Learning becomes transformative.
Foundations + application = deep learning
Every Siafu needs strong foundations—literacy, mathematical reasoning, scientific thinking. But foundations alone are not enough. True mastery comes from the balance between foundational learning (reading, writing, reasoning, computing) and applied learning (interdisciplinary modules, Changemaker Challenges, and exhibitions)
This balance ensures Sankoré learners are grounded, confident, adaptable thinkers ready for high levels of academic achievement and real-world problem-solving.
Sankoré is one of Nairobi’s only intentionally inclusive international schools.
Our Center for Whole Child Learning provides:
These services support Sankoré learners during the school day and are also open to non-Sankoré learners after school hours, broadening our impact to the wider community.
We work closely with families to create individualized support plans, ensuring that diverse learners can grow and thrive together.
To express our values, we chose as our mascot and emblem the Siafu — the African ant known for strength, teamwork, and humble purpose. A Siafu grows by lifting others. A Siafu moves with determination and discipline. A Siafu never travels alone.
Our learners embody this spirit: purposeful, collaborative, resilient, and grounded in service to the community.
Great schools are not collections of programs, they are ecosystems where culture, curriculum, community, and context work together to shape human potential.
Every element of our school is designed for coherence. This connected design creates a learning experience that is:
Sankoré is a school where ideas matter, relationships matter, and belonging matters.
Learning Defined
At Sankoré, we define learning with powerful simplicity as the 3Cs: concepts, competency, and character.
Good with Ideas. Good with Skills. Good People.
These 3Cs are the heartbeat of Sankoré. They appear in every subject, every module, every Changemaker Challenge, every reflection.
This is how we grow Siafus who learn deeply, act wisely, and lead with humility.
How we use what we know. Learners understand ideas that matter and can transfer them to new situations. Learning is interdisciplinary, locally and globally relevant.
Learners build the skills to communicate, collaborate, inquire, solve problems, and create. We focus on unleashing the powers of the mind, body, and heart in balance.
Who we are becoming. Learners grow into ethical, responsible, compassionate human beings. We intentionally nurture integrity, courage, resilience, empathy, leadership, and joy.
