Can you help us build the future of learning?
After supporting girls from marginalized backgrounds to thrive through globally-recognized girls’ leadership academies in Kibera and Mathare, SHOFCO is starting a new school! Named after Africa’s earliest and most prestigious institution of learning, Sankoré International School will prepare learners and leaders to shape the future of our communities, continent, and world! Sankoré offers an adapted international education while fostering Kenyan identity and pride. Our school is a microcosm of what we wish the world to become—a community of people from vastly different walks of life powerfully bound together in a shared journey to raise our children to discover themselves, lead purposeful and joyful lives, and make a difference for those around them. We offer sliding scale fees, with 20-40% tuition-free families. We will serve baby class (age 2)-Grade 5 students from 2026, with a campus set on 9 acres of land in Rosslyn.
About Sankoré
Sankoré embodies a new vision for community and learning, where our deliberately diverse student community is supported to develop the skills and strengths of character to design a better world for themselves and all of us. Sankoré will serve Baby class through Grade 5 students starting in 2026, with a campus located on 9 acres in Rosslyn.
Our Mission
Building learners and leaders for a world where all thrive.
Sankoré nurtures learners with the conceptual understandings, competencies and character traits needed to create a better world for themselves and all of us. We offer a relevant, challenging and engaging curriculum, a diverse learning community, and integrated sporting, STEAM, music, and nature play-based activities in service of holistic development. Rooted in our values, we co-create the world we want to live in with our learners, families, and professional educators.
Sankoré Learning Guides
We’re building a founding team of Learning Guides to support the learning and growth of students and families. Why ‘Learning Guides’ instead of ‘Teachers’ ? At Sankoré, as well as focusing on directly imparting information, Learning Guides facilitate exploration and discovery, fostering a lifelong love of learning. Learning Guides not only support students’ mastery of rigorous academic skills, but also guide their exploration of themselves and the world.
Does this work and vision excite you? Do you think you’re the right person to achieve our big vision and grow beyond it? If so, please read on…
At Sankoré, we have built a powerful, connected Learning Ecosystem. At the heart of our system is our shared learning definition, committing us to developing conceptual understanding, competency and character: learners who are good with ideas, good with skills and good people.
Around this central thread of our common learning language we have built a shared culture, shared curriculum and shared community, all thriving in the context of a planned learning environment…and in the context of our country, Kenya. The ‘North Star’ of the Ecosystem is The Portrait of a Siafu: a clear set of 6 Human Capacities that provide us with the concepts, competencies and character traits that our learners will ‘take away’ from their Sankoré learning experiences and apply for the rest of their learning lives.
We have provided below the key aspects of our Ecosystem that frame the work of our Learning Guides. We look forward to working with you to bring our system to life and provide our learners with an education that matches our purpose.
OUR PURPOSE
Our Mission is aspirational, as it should be, and simply expressed. Our fundamental purpose is:
Building learners and leaders for a world where all thrive.
OUR PORTRAIT
The Portrait of a Siafu describes the ‘Changemakers’ from our Mission: 6 Human Capacities that provide the end-in-mind for our culture and our community in our very special context. Critically, they drive our whole curriculum design.
As Learning Guides we use the Portrait as a regular reference point and we do our utmost to model the behaviours described in the Portrait.
OUR PRINCIPLES
A culture is built on shared language and on shared beliefs and values. Ours are expressed as a set of Sankoré Learning Principles that we then express as Learning and Teaching Practices that define ‘the way we do things at Sankoré’. Here are our Learning Principles:
- Collaboration: Collaborative Learning is rooted in the understanding that learning is a social process.
- Inclusion: Inclusive Learning ensures that every learner is known, valued, and supported.
- Agency: Learning Agencyempowers learners to take ownership of their learning.
- Community: Learning Community fosters a sense of belonging, responsibility, and shared purpose.
- Wonder: Inquiry-based learning fosters curiosity in guided ways that build deep understanding.
These Principles frame the cultural conditions we intentionally create so that every learner can thrive.
They capture the essence of what it means to be a learning professional at our school. We hope these Principles inspire you to want to be part of our unique learning culture.
OUR PRACTICES
we bring Sankoré International School to life, the Founding Learning Guides will play an essential role in ensuring we create a joyful, rigorous, and relevant learning environment for students. Together with an Associate Learning Guide, you will lead learning for your classroom of 20-22 learners. You will collaborate with other Learning Guides, have weekly time for professional development during school hours, and receive regular support and feedback from your coach, the Head of Learning and Innovation.
At Sankoré, we always focus first on learning impact, so we define our practices by defining optimal learning experiences, and then we align our teaching to make those things happen. Here’s an idea of the kind of teaching practice we expect and encourage. Our Learning Guides:
- Love & Connect to build culture and community
- Designinclusive, engaging, relevant learning experiences
- Facilitateto guide and inspire learning
- Reflect & Provide Feedbackto build capacity
- Lead to catalyze change
We aren’t walking into a school – we’re building one together. The work will be hard, and it will be worth it!
OUR PEOPLE
You are a curious, compassionate, and committed educator who believes in the brilliance of every learner. You guide with both heart and intention—creating joyful, rigorous learning experiences that nurture curiosity, critical thinking, and community. In your classroom, learners feel seen, heard, and challenged to grow. You are reflective in your practice, responsive to learners’ needs, and rooted in the belief that education is a pathway to liberation.
You demonstrate the following strengths:
- Responsive and reflective practice. You regularly reflect on your teaching, listen to student feedback, and adapt your approach to meet the evolving needs of learners.
- Learning facilitation & instructional skill. You create dynamic, inclusive learning experiences that spark curiosity, deepen understanding, and challenge students to grow academically, socially, and emotionally.
- You are TSC certified,
- Holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Education.
- At least 5 years teaching experience.
- Teaching in an International school is an added advantage.
- Culturally responsive teaching. You honor the identities, experiences, and voices of your students. You actively work to unlearn biases, decolonize your teaching, and foster belonging for every learner.
- Strong family and community partnerships. You build meaningful, trust-based relationships with families and communities, recognizing them as essential partners in learning.
- Clear, empathetic communication. You communicate thoughtfully and professionally with learners, families, and colleagues—in writing, in meetings, and in daily interactions.
- High expectations with deep care. You believe every child is brilliant. You challenge students academically while supporting their individual journeys with compassion and structure.
- Commitment to continuous growth. You seek out feedback, try new strategies, and model a growth mindset for your students. You see mistakes as opportunities for learning—for yourself and others.
- Values-driven practice. You live the values of Consciousness, Curiosity, Courage, Continuous Growth, Creativity, and Community Citizenship—in and out of the classroom.
OUR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
We know from research that the strategy that has the greatest learning impact is to build collective teacher efficacy, through which we all work together to become experts at the practices in which we all believe. We have designed our professional growth systems to reflect this research. It’s called The Collective Growth System and was developed with our global thought-partners, The Common Ground Collaborative. Each year we focus on one Collective Impact Goal and we work on it together. We’re shifting the focus from supervision to shared vision.
In this way we all get better together, supporting each other, enjoying our successes and replacing ‘the fear of evaluation with the feel-good of shared growth’.
How to apply
To apply, please email your CV and cover letter including responses to the questions below to [email protected]. The subject of your email should be: Your name, Learning Guide Application. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis but are due no later than January 31st 2026.
- Which skills and past experiences make you suitable for this role?
- If I walked into your classroom, what 3 things would I observe?
- How do you hope to grow professionally in this role over the next few years?
- What is your biggest motivation for applying to this role?
- What is your expected salary?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING PROJECT!
