In this ever-evolving world, where our children are exposed to global happenings as they occur, Durban Girls’ College (DGC) is providing the opportunity for girls to broaden their education and life experiences beyond the boundaries of the school and indeed the county, by taking them out into the world and allowing them to flourish.
Christine McGladdery is the exchanges co-ordinator at DGC, and is currently doing her PhD on the impact of educational travel on developing global awareness in high school children. Supported by headmaster Thomas Hagspihl – a keen champion of this endeavour – Mrs McGladdery has developed an International Education Programme that offers an array of travel experiences for girls from Grades 10 to 12.
The first element of this unique offering is the Reciprocal Exchange Programme, where Grade 10s spend four to six weeks in a foreign country, attending school and living in the culture of their host family.
“Girls are chosen in Grade 9, based on a motivation they have written, as well as their academic abilities, and importantly their emotional maturity, their ability to cope abroad and their curiosity about where they want to go,” said Mrs McGladdery.
DCG currently has exchange relationships with Argentina, Canada, the USA, Scotland, England, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany and Namibia as well as shorter local exchange offerings in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This year 24 Grade 10s are participating in exchanges, and the aim is to grow the programme so that everyone who wants to go can do so.
“By hosting girls from the exchange countries, we are able to broaden the experience and knowledge of our girls not currently in the programme, which is an added benefit of the programme,” said Mrs McGladdery.
DCG has linked with the Experiment In International Living Programme for the July holiday experience. Here the girls are able to take part in this global initiative that gives high school students the opportunity to connect with the richness and complexities of another country. It is a socially-orientated programme, with lots of outreach work and a focus on the way people really live.
The Language Immersion Programme presents another travel opportunity where girls visit a country with the sole purpose of learning about the art, culture, language and often cuisine of that country.
Providing a taste of university life, DCG facilitates trips to top universities in England and the USA, where the girls take a major and minor subject and for four weeks are taught by the professors, giving them a real taste of the institution and their chosen subjects. “A whirlwind 10-day tour of these universities is also offered at the end of each year,” continued Mrs McGladdery.
The Special Interest Tour for Grade 10 to12s looks at specific areas of education and tailors tours best suited to that area of learning. This year the girls are going to China where they will focus on business and economics. In 2016 there will be an arts and culture tour to Mexico, and in 2017 the focus shifts to an ecology-based tour to Ecuador.
Durban Girls College was founded in 1877 and while steeped in history and tradition, the school aims to make itself and its’ girls relevant and successful in the modern world. Their International Education Programme is testament to this.