1 December 2023
Maritzburg College‘s inaugural College Enrichment Outreach (CEO) Programme, which ran this week from 27-30 November, proved to be an unqualified success, with the boys, staff and the surrounding community all benefitting from it.
With exams written and curricula completed, the end of the year tends to be a tricky time for schools, with teachers attending to marking while trying to keep students occupied, and students not having a good reason to spend their time at school. But the CEO programme has delivered a fantastic response to those issues.
College’s Senior Deputy Head Matthew Marwick spoke enthusiastically about the previous four days on Thursday afternoon. He was splattered in green powder, he said, after participating in a colour run. That was one of over 40 options presented to the boys.
“We shouldn’t be so prescriptive”
After a less than successful strategy at the end of 2022, a change was needed and Marwick credited English teacher, Mrs Toni Harding for her vision: “She said we shouldn’t be so prescriptive. Try to have the boys come at the end of the year because they want to and come up with something creative.”
A list of useful, fun and entertaining choices was produced, and along with that a community outreach component was included. Staff and Old Boys offered their services to oversee the different activities.
Marwick said he had gone online to find ideas. “There would be a list of 20 things that the modern teen should know, 15 things that a new varsity student should know, and I probably came up with a list of 50. I put them to the staff, and I asked them to come up with their own ideas. Then, the staff had free rein.”
Marwick gave an example: “[Director of Sport] Ryan Kyle, my good friend, he’s a huge braaier. He knows how to work on a car. He feels strongly about changing a tyre. He said he wanted to put those things together’.
“We had these wonderful ladies on our staff who said every boy should know how to make a pancake. Everyone should know how to make a pizza, if they’re going to university, so we included that.”
Many options
When the activities were agreed upon and complete, the options were exciting. Here’s the (almost complete) list: Cooking 101; Martial Arts 101; Intro to Law; Financial literacy; Bonginkosi Outreach; How to start a Business; Sewing 101; Colour Run; First Aid 101; Conflict, Communication and Compromise; Basic adult etiquette and good manners; Sokkie Shuffle; Christian Preaching; Big Bash Challenge; Don’t become a doctor, lawyer or accountant – hire them; Change a tyre, jump-start a car and braai; Making pancakes; Christmas Carols; Play social poker; Intro to real estate; Writing monologues and plays for SA stage; Intro to hockey umpiring; Dating tips for teens; Dealing with childhood trauma; Laptop 101; Tales of the “Old College”; Basic welding; Outdoor skills; Livin’ like a Toff; Mental Health: a Journey; Power of Investing; Stress Management; Practical Photography; Paint a Mural; Fly-fishing; Bass boating; Carp fishing.
The penultimate day, Wednesday, was about outreach. “We went to old age homes, to the Bisley Nature Reserve, held a rugby clinic, that sort of stuff,” Marwick said.
The visit to Bisley by a group of 130 boys turned out to be more action-packed than they were expecting. They had a three-hour window in which they divided into groups of 10 to find and remove snares, and they managed to cover two-thirds of the reserve. “They sweated, got scratched, and found snares, and rescued two wildebeest. It was a very stirring day,” Marwick said.
You heard that right! The College boys found two wildebeest stuck in snares, only 20 minutes apart. Thankfully, a vet, Dr Ryan van Deventer, was summoned. He administered drugs, freed the animals, gave them antidotes, and they became successful rescues.
Dr Van Deventer does not charge for his services, but The Friends of Bisley Nature Reserve has asked for assistance in covering the costs of the drugs used to dart the two wildebeest and for the vet’s mileage. Should you be willing to help, donations may be made to Nedbank Cheque Account: Upper Mpushini Conservancy, Account No. 1207670405 with Branch Code 13402500 and reference Your Name – Wildebeest
“Very meaningful”
In Pietermaritzburg, the boys visited Allison Homes, a retirement community, where they sang to the residents and handed out Christmas cards. “It was very meaningful to those boys and the staff who went along with them,” Marwick said. It was, no doubt, very meaningful to the residents, too.
Some of the other outreach activities including hosting a rugby clinic for a group of boys from the Esigodini and Imbali townships, with College’s senior coaches and top players assisting with the coaching.
Other boys visited the SPCA and helped by walking animals. Some assisted in the gardens.
“About 100 boys walked around the entire area of the school and they picked up 40 black bags of rubbish. It was very meaningful, I think, and maybe underpins the message that we want of contributing to the community and serving it. These are good lessons for boys and for staff,” Marwick said.
Given the success and the very useful options provided to the boys, he said he would be happy to see other schools adopting a similar strategy next year.
“This is not hidden magic. It takes a bit of common sense to realise. All boys and girls have a gap in their formal education, where [for example] there isn’t a parent to show them how to change a tyre or make a pizza. We’re only too happy to fill that gap.”
Feedback
Feedback from the boys and their parents has also been very positive, Marwick added: “It has been a lot less rules-based, prescriptive and aggressive, instead of sending emails to parents asking where are your sons? That’s not a nice way to end the year.
“We want boys to come to school because they want to be here. The parents feel that it is worthwhile, and it’s four days well spent, rather than being compelled to start next year’s curriculum or something like that.”
“Parts of the last four days have been a wonderful surprise. I felt the boys might be a little bit lacklustre, and they have really enjoyed it.
“They’ve had a wonderful time and learnt different things, and had a different experience of their school, which is a good thing.”
Concluding, he mentioned some of the most successful workshops, and the most popular choice, it appeared, was was…dating for teens. There are some subjects that boys are keener to lap up than others, it seems.
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