Camps and Outings

When we all think back on school it is generally the outings, tours and camps that we remember. Bridge House College has a programme of academic and non-academic outings to compliment classroom instruction.

Camps: Following on from the Prep School the Grade 8 to 11 classes all participate in an annual camp. The Grade 8s visit Parmalat Environmental Centre near Kommetje and the aim is to build up friendships and integrate new students into the Grade. The Grade 9s spend 7 days hiking through the surrounding mountains under the guidance of Outward Bound Instructors. The aim of this camp is personal development and the Grade 9s are presented with several challenges. The benefit of using Outward Bound is that it is part of an international organisation that has high standards of safety and a philosophy based on the teachings of Kurt Hahn, founder of the Round Square Schools Association.

The Grade 10 camp is a complete shift and provides a cross-curricular experience for the learners. The students stay in Betty's Bay and are immersed in the issues facing that community e.g. abalone poaching, economic development, poverty, baboons, town planning, architecture, etc. The students are then divided into cross-curricular groups and must develop a business plan that meets the requirements of the triple bottom line i.e. profitable, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.

The Grade 11 camp focuses on leadership and the philosophy at Bridge House is that all seniors are leaders and must learn the principles of 'servant leadership'. The camp prepares the Grade 11s for their responsibilities as seniors of the College.

The Grade 12s do not go on camp but they do participate in three days of compulsory lessons during the September vacation. But all learning and no play does make a Jack and Jill into dull children so many of them will have partaken in the annual school trip down the Orange River also held during the September vacation.

In addition to the camps each learning area organizes outings, speakers or special events to compliment the classroom activities. Examples are outings to the Holocaust museum, Robben Island, Parliament, Sutherland Observatory, MTN Science Centre, the Aquarium, Artscape, Theatre productions, Cape Point Nature Reserve and local places of interest such as the Car Museum, the Botsoc Medicinal Herb garden and the first carbon neutral wine estate in South Africa, Backsberg. We have been fortunate to host speakers such as Judge Edwin Cameron, Tim Noakes and Rene Raff. (Many of the guest speakers are organised by the very active Parents Forum).

The wider classroom also includes sports and cultural tours as the students often visit local places of interest as part of their itinerary. Much of education is about exposure to new ideas and concepts and the wider classroom programme seeks to enrich and extend the students so that they can contextualize what they learn from the theory.