SHAMWARI EDUCATION BLOG

FEBRUARY 2018

By Born Free South Africa Education Officer Sidney Clay

In February, Born Free’s education centre at Shamwari Private Game Reserve had visits from two schools – one with one group and the other with six groups. We also had Laura Gosset (Born Free’s Head of Education) and Matt Smithers (Born Free’s Head of Marketing & Fundraising) visit us from the UK office. 

We visited Hendrik Kanise Combined School with Laura, Matt, Born Free Manager Catherine Gillson and Education Assistant Thembela Schoeman, and we met with the school management.

The following day, Laura, Thembela and I visited Moreson Primary school where we met with the school headmistress. We also visited Sandisulwazi High School where we met the headmaster, geography teacher and the school governing body. 

A Grade 4 Natural Science and Technology class from Ilinge primary school Uitenhage also visited us. We spoke about living and non-living things, and the seven characteristics of living things. We then went on a game drive where we saw a lot of animals. It was the first time for all of them to be out in the wild.

We also had a visit from Amasango school in Grahamstown. Amasango is a special school that accommodates orphans and street kids. The school visits us every year and the Principal says that the visits to us have a positive impact on the behaviour of the learners at school. We had six groups of learners from the school this month. They had fun seeing lots of animals. The animal that they admired most was a giraffe.