African Adventures is an organisation you can put your faith and trust in.
Our expertise and high standards are reflected in our accreditations by key industry bodies, demonstrating our belief in doing things the right way to protect our volunteers. In addition, our success in recent awards shows that others believe in us as we believe in ourselves and the work we are doing. As an organisation, we strive to be forever improving what we offer in order to provide the very best service to our partner projects and volunteers. We also believe in projects that indirectly connect to our work that have a positive impact on others and our industry. Our School Geography Challenge aims to increase understanding of challenges to development in Africa. Our hope is that we can encourage young people to start thinking about the small, but very important, impact they can have on the world, with an increased appreciation and awareness of life in other countries.
Accreditations
and Affiliates
We are a member of the UK’s largest travel association.
ABTA is the UK’s largest travel association representing travel agents and tour operators. They have been a trusted travel brand for more than 60 years, offering advice and guidance to the travelling public, as well as leading the travel industry in supporting high service standards, working with its members on health and safety, and promoting responsible tourism at home and abroad.
We provide 100% financial protection to each and every volunteer.
By law, every UK travel company which sells air holidays and flights is required to hold an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL). If a travel company with an ATOL ceases trading, the ATOL scheme protects customers who had booked holidays with the firm. It ensures they do not get stranded abroad or lose money.
Our trips provide high-quality, tangible educational outcomes.
The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom is the national voice for learning outside the classroom. They believe that every young person (0-19yrs) should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability or circumstances.
Our risk assessments are independently audited.
Since its inception the School Travel Forum has won widespread recognition and support for the way it simplifies and provides essential reassurance for leaders looking to organise educational trips. STF Assured Members understand and facilitate the needs of educational travel; manage safety effectively; offer fair terms and conditions, and the best financial security; and are fully inspected every year by independent experts.
Awards
and Recognition
African Adventures’ School Geography Challenge
Increasing understanding of challenges to development in Africa
We believe in projects that indirectly connect to our work that have a positive impact on others and our industry. Our School Geography Challenge aims to increase understanding of challenges to development in Africa. Our hope is that we can encourage young people to start thinking about the small, but very important, impact they can have on the world, with an increased appreciation and awareness of life in other countries.
We are delighted to announce that the winners of the School Geography Challenge are Stafford Grammar School!
The team of four girls showed incredible motivation and engagement with the challenge and the resources they submitted were extremely creative and very well thought out.
The final itself was a fantastic day with impressive commitment shown by all the schools that attended. There was a real buzz about the task they were set and all of the students threw themselves into it, with the exciting prospect of a trip to Kenya on the cards for the winners. The judges were blown away by the dedication and application of all the students and by the quality of the work submitted. Massive congratulations to all of the schools involved, as the standard was extremely high, and a special mention for Millais as runners-up.
The final countdown…
Our School Geography Challenge winners, Chloe, Mollie, Alishba and Becky, Year 10 students from Stafford Grammar School will be embarking on their Kenya adventure on Saturday 24th June. The girls will experience first-hand the challenges to development in Nakuru and will be volunteering at The Walk Centre and Chaddy Mission School projects. They will be joined by their two teachers, Miss Butler and Mrs Saxon, along with a member of African Adventures staff, Mike Stock.
We look forward to following their progress and will be keeping a daily blog on this page. The Stafford Grammar girls will also be keeping a blog of their journey, which can be found at: staffordgrammarschoolkenya2017.wordpress.com/.
The School Geography Challenge project aims to increase understanding amongst young people of challenges to development in Africa. The challenge is made up of two stages. The first; an independent student challenge done either in lessons or as an extracurricular activity, the second; a team challenge (made up of those students that submitted the strongest entries along with three of their peers) to take place during a live final, with all selected teams together in one location.
01.02.16 – The idea of the School Geography Challenge was born!
23.03.16 – Partners and support established for the competition.
06.06.16 – Soft launch for the competition (13 registrations in the first week).
05.09.16 – Official launch for the competition (67 registrations already received).
25.11.16 – Registration close date (final number of 205 registrations).
23.12.16 – Entry close date (final number of 65).
13.01.17 – Entries marked and decision made on finalists.
31.01.17 – Finalist schools contacted about their place in the final.
28.03.17 – Live School Geography Challenge final.
29.03.17 – Decision to be made on the winning school and the two runners-up.
30.03.17 – Winning school to be notified that they have won a trip to Kenya!
24.06.17 – Winning trip to Kenya to take place! Four students and two teachers will spend a week in Nakuru, volunteering at our partner projects and discovering the beauty of Kenya on their adventure activity day.
For the first stage of the School Geography Challenge, students were invited to take part in a decision-making exercise, which focused on the impacts of El Nino flooding in Kenya. Students were first required to identify the impacts of flooding that they believed to be most significant, before deciding how they would spend an allocated budget on emergency aid to the region. They were then tasked with completing an Aid Action Plan to justify their decisions and spending, making implicit links between the impacts and the aid they chose.
For the live final of the School Geography Challenge, students from the finalist schools worked in teams of four to take on a challenge relating to international development and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The task specifically focused on SDG 4; Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. The students were asked to create resources encouraging more children in Nakuru to attend school and to request support from their school in the UK for their chosen educational project in Kenya. It was a fantastic day with incredible commitment to the task at hand from all the students involved.
The schools that attended the final were (listed in alphabetical order):
Aylesbury High School, Buckinghamshire
Fort Hill Community School, Hampshire
Millais School, West Sussex
Montsaye Academy, Northamptonshire
Stafford Grammar School, Staffordshire
St George’s School, Hertfordshire
St James Senior Girls School, London
The Douay Martyrs Catholic School, London
The Green School, London
Every school involved committed brilliantly to the task at hand and there were some incredibly impressive resources submitted.
Judging took place the day after the final and the judges were blown away by the quality of the work created. It was a difficult job separating many of the schools involved but there was one school which stood above the rest in terms of their creativity, execution of the task and application of their passion and commitment.
We are delighted to announce that the winners of the School Geography Challenge are Stafford Grammar School! The team of four girls showed incredible motivation and engagement with the challenge and the resources they submitted were extremely creative and very well thought out.