The Grade 7s of 2022 recently completed their annual four-night Amakhala Outdoor Education Camp. A fantastic outdoor experience for our Grade 7 boys, the four days presented each boy with an opportunity to push out of their respective comfort zones, learn about the natural environment, nature conservation, social and leadership skills, and a few vital survival skills as well.
The boys were split into tutor groups and assigned different activities in various areas of the Reserve each day. They also spent some time making improvements to the small pre-school at Amakhala. They cleared bushes and planted plants in the garden and playground. They painted a beautiful mural on the wall of the school and helped children with their reading and schoolwork.
Some of the invaluable lessons learned and taught during this 4-day experience are:
• Tracking skills;
• Cross-bow target practice;
• Team-building and leadership exercises, which
included learning to trust your team leader to lead
you blind-folded along a specific route;
• Community engagement;
• Ecology lessons;
• Survival Skills, which involved learning where and how to find water, how to use a compass and navigate, starting a fire with flint and kindling, building a bush shelter, making their own survival bracelets, which would provide them with a length of rope when undone;

• Aquaponics and sustainable food production;
• Earth art;
• Teamwork skills (the boys had to make and keep a fire going throughout the night, taking two-hour shifts until the sun rose).

One of the highlights for the boys on the trip was the game drive around the Amakhala reserve. It was a privilege to have several wonderful sightings of the wildlife, both on foot and in the vehicle.