PMGY SOUTH AFRICA SCHOOL TRIP

Organise your 2 week school trip to South Africa today! Teachers travel free and your 14 days in South Africa will be fully structured, inclusive and led by our experienced team. Your first week will have you based in the suburbs of Cape Town in Kayamandi for the volunteering part of the trip as you give back to the local community. You will receive an orientation into life in South Africa and an introduction to Cape Town before your volunteering begins. You will volunteer in the townships of Kayamandi as you support crèche and kindergarten facilities with childcare, teaching English and renovation work. Each afternoon/evening we will run cultural and adventure activities such as a bicycle tour round Stellenbosch and a drumming and dance lesson. After the first week of giving back to the Kayamandi community, it will be time to explore South Africa further as the adventure travel begins.

 

Your adventure travel will begin with two days exploring Cape Town further as you visit Robben Island and take a tour of the Cape Peninsula. A journey on the Garden Route across the Western and Eastern Capes will then follow. This will include spotting penguins at Betty's Bay, whale-watching opportunities in Hermanus, visiting an ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn and canoeing in the Wilderness Lagoon on the way to Sedgefield. After some adventure quad biking, we will make our way to Tsitsikamma National Park stopping at the popular holiday town of Knysna and Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary on the way. Finally, we will finish with zip-lining through a deep gorge and heading to Jeffery's Bay for some surfing and shopping before flying out of Port Elizabeth located in Algoa Bay. Everything is included in your 2 week South Africa expedition from the airport transfers and meals to accommodation, entrance fees and cultural activities.

 

SOUTH AFRICA SCHOOL TRIP HIGHLIGHTS WITH PMGY

• A FULLY STRUCTURED, SAFE AND ALL INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE
• A PERFECT BLEND OF VOLUNTEER, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE & CULTURAL IMMERSION
• TRIP ITINERARY, ACTIVITIES & DURATION EASILY TAILORED TO YOUR NEEDS & WANTS
• THE BEST VALUE & MOST AFFORDABLE TRIP PROVIDER WITH NO SACRIFICIES IN QUALITY
• PMGY WILL ENSURE A TRUE AUTHENTIC SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR GROUP

HOW IT WORKS FOR SCHOOLS

Plan My Gap Year has the expertise, experience and networks to make your South Africa expedition accessible, safe and stress-free. We pride ourselves on safety management and we have risk assessment documentation for all our overseas trips including to South Africa that outline how we ensure participants are kept safe while overseas.

 

Organising an overseas trip for your school involves lots of preparation. From flights and insurance to pre-trip training and that’s even before you’ve looked at organising the itinerary! So that’s where PMGY come in. We really do specialise in the school's overseas expedition area providing exclusive group trips whilst accommodating large groups of students, on full board options, with great community project work and travel opportunities. We can organise:

• FLIGHTS (PMGY ARE ATOL PROTECTED), TRAVEL INSURANCE & FULL VISA GUIDANCE
• ALL-INCLUSIVE TAILORED VOLUNTEER AND/OR TRAVEL-BASED ITINERARIES
• FULL PRE-DEPARTURE PREPARATION AND 24/7 INTERNATIONAL & IN-COUNTRY SUPPORT

As a social initiative, we are able to guarantee affordable prices without sacrificing the quality of our programs. We frequently have groups joining our programs as they are looking for a more affordable alternative to their existing provider. We can tailor a trip around your requirements and work with you to create your personalised school trip itinerary. So why not follow the PMGY ten-step journey below to making your bespoke school trip to South Africa a reality!

TEN STEP JOURNEY & OUR SUPPORT ROLE

Step 1: Arrange a Call - Should this trip be the one for you, get in touch by email or call and one of our school expedition specialists can discuss and tailor your South Africa school trip. Alternatively, let us know the best way to reach out to you and we will do so at a time convenient to you.

 

Step 2: Meet & Greet - After initial contact has been made and ideas progressed, our school expedition specialist will travel to meet you and any of your colleagues in person. As a result, a face can then be put to the name, the South Africa trip planning can be evolved and any initial questions can be answered.

 

Step 3: Information Session - Once the itinerary, duration and dates are in place for your trip to South Africa, our school trip specialist will come and host an information session with all interested students and parents. We will convey all necessary content and information about the trip and hold a Q&A session after the presentation to ensure all attendees are as informed as possible before signing up.

 

Step 4: Confirm Trip Numbers - Once the internal school deadline for registrations has passed and the trip numbers are known, PMGY will arrange the invoice procedures for the overall group deposit payment to confirm the trip go ahead. For every 10 students, 1 teacher spot will be provided for free! We can also arrange and provide flights and insurance options for all travellers should this be applicable.

 

Step 5: PMGY Pre-departure Support - Throughout the build-up to your South Africa school trip, we will be on hand to support you whatever way possible. Whether it be through creating your bespoke trip handbook, completing risk assessments, communicating safety management procedures or providing project preparation webinars, we will have all bases covered.

 

Step 6: Pre-departure Session - Around 2 months before your school trip begins in South Africa, we will come to your school and do a final pre-departure session with staff, students and parents. This will ensure that everything is in place before your school head overseas and the content covered will align with this accordingly. We will also distribute PMGY T-shirts to all travellers at the session!

 

Step 7: Before You Go - In the days before your arrival into South Africa, we will be in close and regular contact with you to make sure everything is in place for your trip. This will include a range of emails and phone calls ensuring your arrival procedures are all in place, dietary requirements & medical conditions are catered for and that our ground team in South Africa are well prepared for your school's arrival.

 

Step 8: Enjoy the Trip! - When on the trip, our ground team will become your day to day port of call. We will touch base with them daily to make sure your trip is running smoothly. If required, we will be available 24/7 from afar. We will check in with you across the trip to see how everything is going. We know you will be in safe hands with our trusted, experienced and vetted ground teams!

 

Step 9: Return Home - By the time our team have dropped you safely back at Port Elizabeth Airport, the travel blues may already be starting to kick in! We hope all the students and staff have had an unforgettable trip! Each trip participant will receive a certificate of completion. Furthermore, we will check in one final time with you in the days after your trip for feedback on your South Africa experience.

 

Step 10: Future Planning - After a few weeks away from South Africa and once the travel blues have well and truly settled in, it's now time to be planning your next school trip with PMGY to create more magical memories! Whether it be back to South Africa or to a new destination, PMGY will be on hand every step of the way again to facilitate your new adventure. Back to Step one we go!

SCHOOL CASE STUDY - SINT PAULUS SCHOOL, BELGIUM

Who - Sint Paulus School from Belgium. 21 students and 2 staff members from Sint Paulus School travelled to South Africa on a group trip expedition with PMGY.

 

What - A 14 day expedition to South Africa in total. The first half of the trip focussed on community volunteering in Cape Town and enjoying an immersive homestay experience. The volunteering was focussed in the childcare centres in the townships of Kayamandi as we taught English, supported local staff with games and activities and painted one of the classrooms. Cultural and adventure activities such as nature reserve hikes and drumming classes kept the students entertained outside of the project. Before beginning the volunteering, we spent three days receiving an orientation to life in South Africa and also excursions to explore Cape Town further with city centre walking tours, a visit to Robbin Island and exploring the Cape Peninsula. The second half of the trip is where the adventure travel really kicked in as we travelled the Garden Route. The adventure travel that followed was a great way to see the highlights of the Western and Eastern Capes in such a short space of time. It was action-packed and included penguins, monkeys, seals, zip-lining, quad biking, canoeing, surfing, beaches, ostrich farms, historical caves, vibrant towns and spectacular views throughout.

 

Where - Sint Paulus experienced so much and a range of locations in their 14 days in South Africa. Arriving into Cape Town, the main segment of the trip was the community volunteer placement in the suburbs of Cape Town in Kayamandi. This was the groups base for the first 8 days. Afterwards, the group moved onto to explore the majority of South Africa's Western and Eastern Capes. Whether it was the laid-back seaside town of Hermanus, the ostrich capital of the world in Oudtshoorn, the rural Sedgefield or the quaint Stormsriver Village, Sint Paulus experienced a range of locations in their journey through South Africa.

 

When - Sint Paulus joined PMGY on an overseas group expedition for 2 weeks in March 2019. The school always had aspirations of travelling to South Africa and completing volunteer work and PMGY made the experience happen for them.

 

Why - Sint Paulus had strong connections and relationships with schools in South Africa. Therefore, the location of South Africa has a strong affinity and meaning to Sint Paulus. The school had previously travelled to South Africa but were now looking for a more structured experience that also allowed for some adventure travel and this is where PMGY came in. The trip itinerary PMGY provided matched the needs and wants of the Sint Paulus group at very affordable, accessible and inclusive pricing.

 

How - Following email contact initiated by the trip lead of Sint Paulus, positive communications flowed with PMGY in putting together a bespoke overseas trip for Sint Paulus to South Africa. A range of productive Zoom calls between the PMGY team and Sint Paulus academic team resulted in a finalised 2 week trip itinerary for Sint Paulus that combined volunteering, travelling, adventure and immersive experience for students. Philip from the PMGY travelled to Belgium to deliver an information and pre-departure session with interested students, parents and teachers. This included more formal meetings and Q&A with the relevant staff from Sint Paulus. The result was 21 students embarking on the trip of a lifetime to South Africa along with 2 teachers. From Sint Paulus reaching out to PMGY with an overseas expedition enquiry in late 2018, PMGY collaborated with the school and managed the process smoothy to ensure Sint Paulus students could enjoy and give back on a South Africa experience just 4 months later.

 

Feedback - "From having experience of travelling to South Africa previously and collaborating with local schools, I had a good idea of what I wanted the students to achieve in a structured overseas expedition to South Africa. Not having the time, resources or contact points to put together the trip myself, I found PMGY online (in addition to many other organisations) and reached out to them speculatively. Moreover, I wanted to see what they could provide in a 2 week itinerary that would allow students to give back to a local community, but also enjoy all the opportunities, travel and adventure that Cape Town and South Africa brings. From having prompt and effective communications with Philip from the PMGY team and viewing the affordable and inclusive itinerary he put together that matched our trip criteria, it became clear that PMGY would be the organisation that we would arrange our school trip through. We were very glad that we did this as a professional pre-departure service continued with Philip even travelling from the UK to our school in Belgium to meet with students and parents and provide detailed and informative information sessions around what the trip would look like. This excellent service continued from the moment we arrived in South Africa with a prompt and friendly airport pickup and being welcomed in our homestay accommodation by the warmest of families. We thoroughly enjoyed our volunteering placement and giving back to the Kayamandi township and seeing the impact our students had made here. Cape Town was a spectacular location to be based in and we certainly enjoyed exploring the area further with a tour of Robben Island being a personal highlight. The tour through the Western and Eastern Cape and onto the Garden Route that PMGY arranged was spectacular, smooth throughout, full of adventure and memories created that will last a lifetime for myself and the students. We can't thank PMGY for organising such a great school trip for our students in a relatively short space of time."

SCHOOL VOLUNTEER PROJECT SUMMARIES

The core of the sample overseas school trip with PMGY to South Africa will be centred around the volunteering schedule and making a positive impact in the local community. The core projects within the sample itinerary that students will be completing volunteer work in is childcare. It is important to note that we also have English Teaching and Big 5 Wildlife Reserve volunteer opportunities in South Africa. As a result, your volunteer schedule can be tailored to include these aspects. Consequently, the sample itinerary and volunteer options included within can be amended to a bespoke South Africa expedition for your school.

 

Childcare & Renovation - It is estimated that 80% of young children in South Africa’s townships do not have access to early childhood development education. As a result, many lack the support required to develop to their full potential. Since the end of Apartheid in 1994, poor government funding and flawed policies have hit the most vulnerable South Africans hardest. For instance, many of the problems for South Africa’s poorest have been exacerbated.

 

Today about 57% of South Africa’s population lives in poverty. In low-income township areas, living conditions are challenging, with high crime and unemployment rates, health problems and high population densities. A lack of childcare facilities leaves many children unattended and unprotected.

 

Affordable and accessible childcare services can be very difficult to source across Cape Town and surrounding communities. Above all, it is families from low-income backgrounds and from the township communities that struggle the most. Whilst this has not gone unrecognised, many centres established to accommodate for such families are inadequate. To clarify, such centres are understaffed and operate with a limited stock of resources. This makes the roles of students invaluable to the quality of care that can be offered to these children.

 

Your school group will support crèche and/or kindergarten facilities that cater to the young children (ages 0- 6yrs) of Kayamandi Township. As is the case in many poorer areas of Cape Town, the local population consists of a large number of really young children – due to massive unemployment rates. Parents (even those who are working) can often not afford to send these children to childcare centres and many of them end up playing out in the streets, with little or no supervision.

 

In order to help minimise this issue, a few locals have managed to open and operate small childcare facilities. They are simple and basic facilities with very limited supplies but provide a vital service. The monthly fees are minimal and always include at least one cooked meal per day. Parents can now afford to safely leave their children here, while they go out in search of jobs. The biggest challenge facing these facilities is the lack of staff. As a result, they are heavily dependent on volunteers, both local and international.

 

Consequently, students will play a big role in brightening up the daily lives of these deprived children as well as supporting the local staff with daily duties. Volunteer tasks will involve assisting local staff with lessons, educational games, songs and creative art as well as supervising the children during playtime. Duties will extend to helping with cleaning duties and helping with cooking and feeding the children.

 

Most importantly, you will become a positive role model for the children. Sadly, this is something that many of the children are lacking. Ultimately, as you complete volunteer work in South Africa, you will be providing invaluable assistance to the overstretched local staff.

 

Students will go a step further to leaving a legacy in the Kayamandi Township community as they work together to complete a 'make-over' at one of the kindergarten facilities. We will enjoy a full day getting hands-on in painting and renovating the project setting to ensure we have a brighter learning space for the children. Students will be able to get as creative as they wish to renovate the playground and paint up the classroom!