Teaching English in South Africa

country:	South Africa
location:	KwaZulu Natal
departures:	Teaching placements are available throughout the year during term time. 2008 terms run 16 Jan - 20 Mar, 14 Apr - 27 Jun, 14 Jul - 26 Sep, 6 Oct - 05 Dec
price:	From £745 (2 weeks) - £1995 (12 weeks) excluding flights
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

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Teaching projects

Swaziland holidays

introduction to Teaching English in South Africa

Live and teach in a traditional Zulu village.

This is an exciting and truly unique teaching location with an interesting content to your work. Here there is opportunity to teach a range of subjects, including music & drama, computers & IT, or sports. If you have always been intrigued by African culture, the rural life and the seemingly endless wild landscapes, this is the perfect placement for you. The project is based at the very heart of the historical Zulu Kingdom and you will be teaching children of the eMakhosini village – literally the King’s village.

Not only are the children from a very impoverished background, they are also the custodians of their Zulu heritage and the small village lies adjacent to one of the most ambitious tourism projects in the country. In order to truly realise their potential and the potential of the area, they need to learn the most basic of life skills, such as being able to converse in English, skills that most of their parents and grandparents do not have. Your contribution here will not only be a life changing experience for you and the children that you teach, it will also make a very real contribution to the preservation of the history of the Zulu Nation.

the project

Both Cultural Studies and Environmental Education are part of the South African curriculum. You will be involved with local schools and children and part of your work will be to encourage them to think about and discuss all aspects of cultural and natural heritage and the importance of preserving it. You can encourage the kids to talk and think about these issues. You will get guidance from your supervisor and access to materials he uses. This would hopefully get the children to start thinking about their family history and where they come from and get them to ask questions about legends in their family.

Teaching computers and IT: The schools you will be working with are also currently in the process of acquiring computers and a computer teacher. Even the most basic computer literacy skills are lacking here - anything from using Windows to the technical aspects of keeping equipment dust free. They are hungry for computer knowledge!

Teaching sports: If you'd like to teach sports, you'll be able to do so, combined with teaching the children other subjects. At this time sports is not a stand-alone project, but the schools need help with sports and physical education activities. The soccer and netball are currently already being played. The schools are very interested in starting the cricket and hockey for boys and girls alike, but don't currently have any equipment. Also, they have a field that has been donated to the school for use as a sports field, which is currently a dirt/clay track.

Teaching music & drama: If you have talents in music or drama, you can help to pass these on to the children. The classes are quite large, with an average of around 50 pupils per class, with a maximum of 63. They run with youngsters from around 5½ years (Grade R) to about 15 years old (Grade 7) and teach the usual curriculum subjects as well as human and social sciences, technology and three languages: Zulu, Afrikaans and English. In the junior schools, English is taught in Zulu and is done by translating words and phrases. This means that many of the children don't reach the standard required for the subject. Thus, when they get to high school where everything is taught in English, they find it very difficult to learn their other subjects. This is where you, the volunteer, will be able to play a big part. By exposing the children to conversational English and helping them to build up the confidence to use the language in the classroom, on the playing fields or in extracurricular activities, you'll be helping them to cope better with learning all their subjects in high school.

On your first day of teaching you will be taken to the school and introduced to the Principal, the teaching staff and pupils. You will be made very welcome by all! You'll have weekends free and this will also allow some time for travelling and sight seeing. If you would like more time to travel during, or after your teaching, this can be arranged.

volunteer travel - what's it all about?

Are you looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world.
Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.

how this holiday makes a difference

The project:

The school we work with is situated in an extremely rural, Zulu village. The school here is very poor and lacking in many facilities, so by teaching here you will really be able to make a valuable and worthwhile contribution not only to the school and children but also to the local community. You will stay in nearby accommodation and local staff are on the ground to provide support to you. By living and working locally, this enables you to really immerse yourself in the country and the culture.

The school is also within walking distance to the accommodation. You will be provided with a monthly food budget to source your own produce locally which has a positive impact on the local economy. You will be given a full induction on arrival which runs through the customs of the area including appropriate dress codes and the school rules, this ensures that you are giving out a positive influence to the students you teach. Past volunteers have been so moved by this experience that they have returned a second time and even though it was a year or so later the children didn't forget them and welcomed them with open arms!

Our company:

You taking part in this project enables us to continue to donate financial assistance as well as necessary goods, where it is needed around the world. Examples of donations include building new classrooms, providing school uniforms for poorer students, buying computers, sports equipment, playgrounds, toys, mattresses, classroom equipment and funding school trips and the building of libraries, and more. We also donate significantly to conservation research efforts and the purchasing of necessary conservation equipment. In the past, these donations have been made in all continents and in projects where we work, and some where we do not work.

Recent donations made in Summer 2008 include:

Approximately £1,500 towards the building of a desperately needed classroom in a Zulu school in eMakhosini, South Africa.
£1,500 to build a roof at the Grace Kennet Foundation Orphanage in Madurai, India. This was a donation made to match the fundraising efforts of an ex volunteer. A tree had fallen through the roof of the orphanage during a storm, and so a large part of the building was un-usable and dangerous. Work is currently beginning and should be finished by early 2009.
Approximately £880 to Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia to help publicise the centre and draw funds to care for injured and abandoned Orang Utans.

We employ an all local staff force in most of our destination countries, which benefits the local economy. These range from skilled country managers, who are often pillars of their community, to local labourers and craftspeople. We believe in paying our overseas staff fairly, and many are rewarded with higher than average wages for local standards. When required, we send local staff on training courses to widen their skills. For example, a member of staff in South Africa recently attended an ‘eco-school’. Here, she was trained in eco teaching methods, which she will take to the schools around her region of South Africa to encourage eco-friendly farming methods.

We are committed to upholding strict ethical standards that ensure a positive and lasting impact upon the environments, communities, institutions, volunteers, animals, children and people that we work with. For example:

We encourage our volunteers to make the most of local opportunities available to them, such as shopping at local markets, eating in local restaurants and using local services and transport.
We encourage volunteers to pay fairly for goods and services. We believe that over payment for goods and services or payment to beggars can have negative consequences and result in the over-reliance of tourism within the local community.
We strongly advise against purchasing wildlife souvenirs or anything which may perpetuate the death or cruel treatment of animals for the purpose of profit.
We advise on dress codes and codes of behaviour in all of our destination countries to ensure volunteers don’t cause offence to local communities.

Our aim is to create always a win-win-win situation in terms of the benefits for the local communities and institutions that we work in, for us and for the volunteer. We do not embark on any project that is not beneficial to the communities, institutes or volunteers. We conduct regular volunteer satisfaction surveys to monitor our performance.

Our projects enable vital conservation, research, care and education work to take place directly where it is most needed. For example, the schools where we teach English very often have no other English teachers, and so they rely on us for continued lessons. We kept a Species Survival Conservation project in South Africa afloat until completion after it was threatened by lack of funds. Our volunteers contribute, all over the world, to projects that would not exist without them.

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Teaching projects| Swaziland holidays