Mr Masika

DEPUTY PRINCIPALS MESSAGE

‘One thing at a time and that thing well done is the true rule of life and the pathway to success’

As most people would expect my key assignment to be i.e. discipline at Victorian girls apart from teaching Maths and Physics I also wear another hat of Head of Talent Development Programme.. I would wish to speak about two areas that are key and central to what I do daily and of which am very passionate about.

1. DISCIPLINE

Discipline is mandatory in any institution including our homes. In Victorian girls, discipline is one of our core values, and we have emerged as the best disciplined school not only within Kiambu County, but all over the country. One of the things that has helped us to achieve this is guiding students in Gods’ perspective, tapping into their talents together with guiding and counselling [individual and peer counselling.] Where students are involved and given guided freedom, one doesn’t have to keep shepherding them. A visitor will observe that the students don’t have to be pushed to observe the timetable or to complete their duties because they are self-driven. This of course has taken awhile to build but I thank God that the results are visible to all.

2. TALENT

I was appointed head of Talent Development programme in 2017.

Talent being appraised everywhere even in major organizations such as Safaricom choir, Sauti Soul, Yamoto band, The hart band,  Citam men’s coral, Kenya Prisons Band, the Safari Cats Acrobatic troupe, Miss Kenya, Miss Environment, Miss Tourism, Groove awards, Kalasha Awards, Extreme awards etc, the management realized the need to harness talent in the students to meet the growing demanding the market for various talents.  With the proposed curriculum which is competence based, my roles include identifying and bringing out talents in the students and creating a platform for self-branding in the area of talent through our, ‘Talent development programme’.

Every year in second term the School organises a special day which is a culmination of the Talent development programme. On this special day students get a chance to showcase their talent in front of invited guests, their parents, invited institutions, their teachers and their fellow students. During this forum many have been able to win scholarships from various colleges to pursue their area of talents.

Other gains from the programme include;

• It helps students to boost their leadership, confidence, concentration, focus and improves self-esteem.
• It increases the career choices for the students once they complete their high school
• Improves relationship between the parents and their daughters

Consider the following:

1. When Talent drives strategy in student life.

The aim of every student is to excel. Excelling comes with discipline, talent describes discipline. So excelling and talent are same since all depend on discipline. So, a disciplined student generally is a good performer the reverse holds true.

1. When Talent pays

Apart from winning awards and getting certificates, even before they complete schooling students have been engaged by artistist to perform with them during the holidays hence providing a chance to earn some revenue. After completing formal schooling students can be fully enaged in performing artist as a full time job. Designers, Artists, Beauty companies all form a critical market to sell talent.

• When Talent and Student life meeet

Talent provides a platform for feedback to and from the students. In this manner desired habits and performance is easy to achieve. In this manner therefore at Victorian we have made it a rule to enhance this form of feedback as it makes keeping a motivated student fraternity.

1. When you individualize the gift of the student.

It creates ownership and confidence in oneself. The reality is that we live in a world where individuals are increasingly diverse and have different expectations, different desires and different perceptions of what is fair and reasonable. The only way to cope with this is to individualize the way people are treated. In Victorian girls we let students to:

1. Choose areas they are gifted
2. Decide how they need to be helped
3. When the talent is exposed

This is very crucial. Young people have the desire to excel in life. Through this, we nurture their talents by exposing them to the real world. Our students have acted a movie and produced a dance move, ‘BATA DANCE featuring MC Masika’ now on YouTube. The expectation is that this is just a first of the many such steps which the students are going to endeavour. This really keeps them motivated and creates a positive view of making a step in the right direction. The students have excelled not only in dance, drama, handball, basketball, Tae kwon Do and has featured in Sunday Nation, ‘YOUNG NATION’. One of our students has represented our beloved country Kenya in international competitions in Tae Kwon Do.