When Dennis Levet was six in 1930, his father decided it was time the boy started schooling and so the idea of a school on the farm was born.

The Levets lived on the land that is now St Andrew’s Turi and had children of school age but no school to send them to.  Will Levet travelled all the way down to Limuru Girl’s School to ask Jean Lavers if she and Peter, her husband were interested in helping him to develop his farm into a school.  He promised lots of help in making the necessary changes and improvements to his farm and as soon as the Lavers agreed to the idea, Mr. Levet started building.

So on 19^th January 1931 St Andrew’s School opened its doors for the first time to its first intake of just fifteen children. In the second term St Andrew’s School started with 17 pupils and grew to 22 by the end of the term.

The building of the school continued as the number of children enroled increased.  In 1934 in March, Mr. Levet sold the school to Pa Lavers and his family moved on to the Thompson Falls area where they established Thompson falls School, which is now Laikipia University. This school year 2024- 2025 has 600 students enroled, a number of them being children of staff members, making Turi both school and home.

It is said that parents are the first teachers and teachers are second parents. The Turi story can be told from different angles, including the parenting one and indeed the fine line between teaching and parenting. A parent provides the foundation, imparting the basic life skills onto which at a teacher will come in and build upon, guided by a curriculum.

At the height of the Covid pandemic, most parents around the world found themselves in a most precarious situation where they needed to play the role of parent and provider as well as Teacher and educator. All while navigating the uncertainty of life as it was. As the world began to open up again, a new found respect was gained for teachers and homeschool parents maybe even more.

These parents can related with William Levet taking the A104 (Nairobi-Nakuru Highway) to Limuru which inn those days was probably not a smooth ride in search for a solution for their children. Without the various tools and platforms available today, the Levets figured that being full time farmers and part-time teachers was a tall order. Ma (Jean) and Pa (Peter) Lavers.

During the first school term the only members of staff were Peter and Jean Lavers or Ma and Pa Lavers as they came to be known and one old lady who helped as a Nurse.  Ma and Pa had to do all the teaching themselves.  In addition, Pa turned his hand to making rather rickety chairs for he wasn’t a very good carpenter.  Jean would cook the lunch and put it in a hay box.

 

While the Levets left Turi a few years later, the need to educate their children remained and their solution, once again was to start a school. Nearly a century the two institutions they pioneered St Andrew’s School, Turi has and Laikipia University (Then Thompson Falls School) remain standing.

94 years later, we salute William Levet a parent and a pioneer. May his spirit of rolling up the sleeves and doing what needs to be done live on in Turi.

We also celebrate all former and current Turi parents whose support has been and continues to be a vital component of the School’s success.