Creative School Trips and Excursions to Giverny are an Annual highlight for many School Children

A sample of the schools that have come on school trips annually are Cowan House Prep, The Wykeham Collegiate, Gert Maritz, Weston Agricultural School, Michaelhouse, Pietermaritzburg Girls High, Epworth Junior, St Nicholas Prep. Underberg Primary, Estcourt Christian Academy, Penzance Primary (Durban), Warner Beach Primary, Umbogintwini Primary, St Benedicts (Pine Town).

Creativity, originality, inventiveness, resourcefulness are inherent characteristics in all of us. We all possess originality of thought. The nurturing of the creative mind in a child can instil an inventive style of thinking that will remain with him or her for life. Skilful teachers are fully aware of this and strive to inculcate innovative thinking in their pupils.

At Giverny Creative Country Holidays, our school trips complement the teacher's role by providing a stimulating country environment where, under the guidance of experienced facilitators, children can involve themselves in the planned creative activities - usually arts and craft -and add fun and excitement to the learning experience.

Our objective at the school camps to reach out to children to encourage them to have faith in themselves and enhance their sense of self –confidence through the creative experience while at the same time having a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Every overnight school trip visitor to leaves us with a T-shirt on which they have painted, printed with a stamp or silk-screened an image of their own design. They are given the opportunity to use tools such as hammers and knives (under supervision), to create their own leather products, wood work, paperwork, food displays and so on.

The opportunity to get to grips with these activities has proved to be very exciting for some children. A treasure hunt produces all kinds of interesting ferns, grasses, insects et cetera that they are encouraged to carefully observe and from which to make drawings. These drawings are then translated into designs, which are further processed in some creative product.

We do a similar exercise involving farm animals. These are just some examples of the creative activities that we offer. In a fun playful way, the children move from one exciting project to the other with ample time for physical activities in between. The campfire in the evenings is a school trip highlight.

Meals are included and are often made by the children themselves as a creative activity. Thick mattresses are provided and the children sleep in the huge studio in their own sleeping bags.

The ablution facility comprises two toilets and two hot water showers with several washbasins. We have a separate cottage for teachers. The extra rooms in the cottage are sometimes also used to house some of the children. Bus drivers can be accommodated. We will be delighted to discus possible projects for your class, be it for a morning, day or overnight outing. Please feel free to visit us.

A real favourite of many schools that visit us on our school trips is the creative buffet lunch.

The children are formed into teams and each child given a task to perform as if they were a team in a hotel kitchen – head chef, in charge of sauces, in charge of salads, in charge of preparing the dips and so on.

Then they choose from a selection of ingredients and carry on to prepare a buffet lunch. There is no cooking involved and some of the end products are actually very edible.

The creative lunch is an intriguing exhibition of group dynamics

One of the really fascinating aspects of the school trips noted by more than one teacher is that the activities give a teacher a chance to observe their classes from another angle almost from the outside They observe their learners totally absorbed by the creative tasks, also the fact that the learners are pulled out of their normal clichés and learn to cooperate with children who are not part of their normal circle.

Click here to read what our very important visitors had to say about their school trips to Giverny