There are a number of internal organisations which support and drive the school’s partnership initiatives. One of these is the President’s Award and in the Prep, the Learning for Life Leadership Award, both with a strong emphasis on service.
Bridge House is a member of Bhabhathane, a community of nine local schools in the Franschhoek Valley. The Heads and student leaders of these schools meet regularly to share experiences and ideas.
We have an established Interact Club linked to the service organisation, Rotary. Interact runs active programmes, driving service awareness and resulting in successful community projects.
Being a Round Square school, Bridge House delivers a programme which reflects that organisation’s IDEALS, which are Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service, so through that underpinning philosophy, the sense of having a responsibility to a greater whole is constantly in the school’s thinking and action.
Apart from the numerous individual service projects undertaken by students completing the President’s Award and the Learning for Life Leadership Award, at places like the SPCA, the Hospice or other organisations where they volunteer, the following community projects are undertaken. (Covid protocols have paused these projects but they will be resumed once restrictions have been lifted):
Every Tuesday, each homeroom in the College makes nutritious sandwiches from bread and fillings brought to school by the students. These sandwiches are delivered to the neighbouring, Wemmershoek Primary School. Bridge House students take turns to deliver the sandwiches and interact with the children at Wemmershoek during their break time.
One afternoon per week, College students visit Wemmershoek Primary School to read together with the children in the school.
Bridge House supports a number of the soup kitchens in Franschhoek with vegetables from the Garden Farm. On most Saturdays, students from Bridge House and sometimes their parents too, can be found preparing and serving food at the Langrug Soup Kitchen in Franschhoek.
Bridge House partners with the Bread Tags for Wheelchairs organisation and by collecting huge quantities of bread tags and plastic bottle caps for recycling, wheelchairs are bought for needy people in the community.