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LIFE-CHANGING SOUTH AFRICA TOUR
FOR BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL STUDENTS
This summer, thirty students and five members of staff from
Birkenhead School embarked upon a life-changing trip to
South Africa as part of a Netball and Hockey Sports Tour.
The group, comprising girls and boys from Year Nine
upwards, travelled across South Africa for nearly three weeks,
participating in sporting fixtures, engaging in cultural and
geographical experiences, as well as delivering aid and financial
support to two Johannesburg based charities, Guild Cottage
and Door of Hope.
Alongside the sporting fixtures which took place in
Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, students visited
famous sights and areas of outstanding natural beauty such as:
the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, the Union Buildings
of the South African Parliament in Pretoria; Shakaland, a Zulu
homestead and Cape Point and Robben Island. A tour of Langa
also brought a sense of perspective to proceedings, the group
visiting the area on foot to get an idea of just how tough life can
be for the inhabitants of South Africa’s most long-established
township.
As well as cultural excursions, the group was able to get up close
and personal with the local wildlife, which included hippos and
crocodiles in the St Lucia estuary, as well as elephants, rhinos,
giraffes and buffalo (to name but a few) on a game drive at the
Umfolozi Game Reserve. Visits to the Cheetah Outreach Centre
in Somerset West and to see rescued lions at Drakenstein in
Stellenbosch also formed part of the itinerary.
One of the most significant aspects of the tour, however, was
the opportunity for students and staff to visit the two charities
in Johannesburg, for whom they had been raising funds
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during the year. This included a fundraising dinner hosted at
the School in March with former world snooker champion,
John Parrott. The School community also donated a range of
items which the students took out with them to pass on to the
charities first hand. The only residential home for girls who
have suffered sexual abuse, Guild Cottage cares for eighteen
residents at any one time, providing educational as well as
psychological support. Door of Hope is an orphanage offering
care for abandoned babies up to two years of age.
Deputy Head and group organiser, Kirsten Pankhurst, said,
“Trips like these offer our students life-changing experiences
and memories that we hope will stay with them forever. As an
independent school, we are able to offer opportunities such as
this to truly inspire, educate and broaden the experiences of
our students. They have arrived home with a renewed sense of
how fortunate they are and a commitment to helping those less
privileged.”
Birkenhead School offers a wide-range of visits and trips
throughout the year as part of its extensive co-curricular
offering. Recent visits have seen students travel to Nepal,
NASA in Houston, New York and Washington, and a variety of
European destinations.
To find out more about Birkenhead School and the
opportunities available, the School is hosting a Seniors Open
Event on Thursday 4th October from 5.00-8.00pm and a Pre p
Open Morning on Friday 9th November from 9.00-11.00am.
Further information can be found online at
www.birkenheadschool.co.uk.