Raise a Generation of Wildlife Conservationists

BIG 5:

Key Achievements 

Learners continue to show strong enthusiasm and engagement during the Big 5 Collective lessons, particularly during their visits to Mongena Game Reserve where they are able to experience and apply the conservation knowledge learned in the classroom in a real-world environment. These excursions remain a highlight of the programme and continue to strengthen learners’ connection to wildlife conservation and environmental education.

The demand for the programme lessons has grown within participating schools. In response to requests from school principals for additional educational support, Mapula has been independently provided extra lessons beyond the scheduled programme sessions. This demonstrates both the value schools place on the programme and the dedication of the facilitators to ensuring learners continue receiving meaningful conservation education.

Challenges:

To reduce programme costs and allow for increased funding allocation towards the Cubs to Conservation programme, the number of lessons delivered per school was reduced to one lesson per school. While this adjustment helped manage resources, several school principals expressed disappointment at the reduced lesson frequency.

Between 18 August and 8 September, Mongena Game Reserve’s busy schedule, together with weather-related disruptions, meant that several planned school excursions could not take place. Mongena kindly agreed to accommodate all outstanding excursions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, allowing the programme to catch up and conclude on 18 November.

Despite efforts to secure independent funding for the annual year-end performance competition and reward event, sufficient sponsorship could not be raised. As the event was not included in the programme budget, it unfortunately could not be hosted. Principals and learners were disappointed but understood the financial constraints. Should additional funds be raised, the Foundation hopes to bring back this popular celebration of the learners’ achievements every fifth year as previously discussed subject to funding. 

Creative Content and Reporting:

Content has been delivered throughout the year without prompting to send and the quality has improved.

Programme Amendments

Due to weather and Mongena’s availability excursions were amended to twice a week on a Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure all ECDs went on the excursion.

Overall Programme Reflection

Having run for several years, the Big 5 Collective has an established structure and strong working relationships with participating schools and Mongena Game Reserve. This experience has helped the programme run smoothly, with relatively few complications or challenges throughout the year. Although some scheduling difficulty arose, these were rescheduled and all outstanding excursions were completed. The programme concluded on a positive note, reflecting the value of its consistent delivery and the continued enthusiasm of learners and schools.

C2C:

Impact and Outcomes

•  Number of learners engaged – 120+ (80 primary school learners and 40+ high school learners)

Note: The high schools did not consistently send the same 20 learners from each school. While some learners attended more than once, others attended for the first time at later sessions. Obtaining complete attendance lists proved difficult, and it was eventually decided not to devote further time and resources to pursuing this information. As a result, more than the originally planned 40 high school learners participated in the programme, although the exact number could not be confirmed.

•  Number of schools reached - 6

•  Primary school learners are all Grade 6 and high school learners Grade 11

Key Achievements:

All four participating primary schools completed the two-day Cubs to Conservation workshop. A total of 80 learners took part across the four weekend workshops, with each school represented by 10 boys and 10 girls.

Primary school workshops:

•  7th and 8th March '26 - Rethabile Primary

•  14th and 15th March '26 - Marokolong Primary

•  11th and 12th April '26 - Ramotswe Primary

•  18th and 19th April '26 - St Camellius Primary

The workshops went well, with learners showing enthusiasm and actively participating throughout. The full curriculum was covered at each school, and the learners enjoyed a game drive that gave them an opportunity to experience wildlife beyond the classroom.

Letters of thanks were sent to all participating schools, along with an invitation to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement.

High School Club Programme:

The high school club programme, involving 40+ learners, began on Saturday 25th April '26 with Steve Biko High School. The first session went well. The Lessons in Conservation student teachers indicated that they would benefit from additional training on facilitating the new club structure, where learners take part in more participatory lessons and work on possible solutions to real-world problems in their communities rather than following the traditional workshop format.

On 2nd May '26 the session with Hosea Kekana High School ran smoothly. Bongani, the Foundation bursary recipient and a former learner at the school, returned to address the students and share his own journey.

Following the school break, the high school club sessions resumed with Steve Biko High School on 25th July '26, followed by Hosea Kekana High School on 1st August '26.

On 15th August '26 Hosea Kekana completed its third and final club session before the programme moved into the next phase, in which selected high school learners would teach participating primary school learners.

Selection for the Primary School Teaching Phase:

The next phase of the programme required the Lessons in Conservation student teachers to identify 10 learners from each high school to participate in the club sessions where the high school learners would teach the primary school learners. During the selection process, it became apparent that the schools had been sending different learners to each high school club session rather than the intended same group of 20 learners. This made selection more difficult because the student teachers had not had the opportunity to get to know and observe each learner over all of the sessions as originally planned.

It was agreed that learners who had demonstrated enthusiasm and genuine investment in the programme should be given the opportunity to continue. As a result, five learners from Steve Biko High School and four learners from Hosea Kekana High School were selected for the primary school teaching phase. A young lady that was not attending either school but had been to assist on the high school clubs was selected as the tenth participant in the Immersive Experience weekend after motivation to include her by Lessons in Conservation which was approved by the foundation manager.

Reward was given an outline of the material the learners would be teaching to share with the school principals and selected learners in advance. This allowed the learners time to prepare and to bring any questions they had to the Lessons in Conservation student teachers before the sessions began. During the teaching sessions, the Lessons in Conservation student teachers assisted as facilitators and provided support, while allowing the high school learners to lead the lessons themselves.

High School Learners Teaching Primary School Learners:

The first of the four planned teaching sessions took place on 22nd August '26, with the Steve Biko High School learners teaching the Rethabile Primary learners. The session went smoothly, with strong participation from both schools, and the high school learners enjoyed the opportunity to share the knowledge they had gained through the programme.

The second teaching session took place on 29th August '26, with Hosea Kekana High School learners teaching the Marokolong Primary learners. The session also went well, although it was evident that the high school learners were less prepared for their teaching role.

Steve Biko High School taught St Camellius Primary on 19th September '26 and Hosea Kekana High School Ramotswe Primary on 20th September '26, which concluded the four teaching sessions. It was noted that Steve Biko High School learners were an hour late for their teaching session, proving again their unreliability.

Immersive Experience Weekend

The next planned step was an in-person interview for all of the high school learners who participated in teaching the primary school learners, in order to shortlist 10 candidates for the Immersive Experience Weekend. It was subsequently realised that the proposed interview dates fell during the school holidays and that no suitable alternative dates were available.

The selection process was therefore amended. Learners were required to submit a motivation letter explaining why they believe they should be selected, supported by feedback from the Lessons in Conservation student teachers on how each learner performed while teaching the primary school learners. The requirements for the motivational letters was explained to the learners via a letter that was given to them on the 21st September giving them until the 6th October to hand them in. It was agreed that if any of the learners did not make an effort or submit in time despite having placement for all learners we would not take them to participate in the Immersive Experience weekend. 

In the end all ten learners including the young lady that a special exception was made for, were selected to participated in the Immersive Experience Weekend, because they provided suitable motivational letters with Hosea Kekana High School making extra effort to type all learners letters and put them on a school letterhead. 

In the end at the last minute the special exception learner’s father declined her position for personal reasons and that left a total of 19 people including learners, Lessons in Conservation student teachers and Mongena staff participating in the weekend.

Mongena went above and beyond providing transport for the learners to the facility and exposure to a variety of conservation career opportunities through their staff or third parties they work with.

The next phase was an in person interview with all learners that participated in the weekend due to be held during the learners break times at the two high schools between the 12-16 October, in order to go through the assessment feedback a decision was made to push the interviews out by a week to the 21st October and a decision announcing the selected candidate would be made by the 26th October.

After reviewing the assessments it became evident that the quality of the assessment reports on each learner proved to be of a low standard and it was decided to not interview five candidates. The remaining four learners whose assessments were of a slightly higher standard but not ideal were interviewed in person by Tina Putter representing Lessons in Conservation and  Mandy Richardson representing Kevin Richardson Foundation. It was decided after discussion that a candidate for career guidance and a possible bursary would not be given this year as none of the learners met our selection criteria and demonstrated a passion for conservation and future career in it.

Letters of thanks for participation were given to all participating schools with a request to provide feedback on how we can improve if they felt it necessary. Steve Biko High schools letter also advised that we would no longer be partnering with them on the programme in 2027. Finally all four learners that participated in the in-person interviews were given notice that they had not been selected but thanked them for their participation and encouraged them to continue on with their conservation journey in their community and future careers.

High School Learner Game Drive Excursion:

All 40 participating high school learners were originally due to take part in a fun game drive excursion at Mongena Game Lodge. However, because the schools sent different learners to the club sessions, with only a small number participating more than once, this created a logistical challenge. Mongena Game Lodge had generously offered places for 20 learners from each high school, and the Foundation did not want to take advantage of their generosity given the significant support the lodge had already provided in facilitating the primary school workshops and Immersive Experience weekend.

Reward was tasked to compile a complete list of participating learners to establish how many had attended more than one club session with the option to invite those learners who had participated more consistently. After difficulty in obtaining this information from both high schools a decision was made not to have the learners go on the excursion.

Challenges:

During the primary school workshop on 18th April '26, Mongena Game Lodge was slightly late collecting the learners from St Camellius. Despite the delayed start, the full course curriculum was completed.

The second day of the Steve Biko High School sessions on 26th April '26 could not proceed because the Lessons in Conservation team did not have transport. Reward, our community liaison, attempted to assist, including offering to collect the team, but the session was eventually cancelled. The course content was nevertheless completed through the revised session arrangement. It was also noted that learners had previously tried to implement initiatives at their school to address challenges they were facing, but felt that the principal had not been very supportive of their efforts.

Combining the two high school half-day sessions into one longer day highlighted that catering had not been included in the original budget planning. A special budget was approved by the Board to provide meals for learners attending the longer session, as is done for the primary school workshops.

Teachers at Steve Biko High School also raised concerns that food had not been provided and expressed the view that they should be remunerated for their time.

On 9th May '26 the Steve Biko learners did not arrive for their planned session. The Lessons in Conservation team instead volunteered at an old-age facility in the community. It was later established that the school principal had been away and arrangements had not been made for another staff member to ensure learners were informed of the weekend plans.

The sessions planned for 16th May '26 were cancelled because the Lessons in Conservation student teachers were unavailable.

Sadly, on 8th August '26 the Steve Biko learners again did not arrive for their scheduled club session. Discussions were held regarding the need for Reward, our community liaison, to speak directly with the school principal to establish whether the school would be fully committed to the programme. This was important to ensure that learners who were genuinely participating and invested in the programme would have a fair opportunity to be considered for the Immersive Experience Weekend.

Steve Biko was unable to complete its third high school club session because of the Lessons in Conservation student teachers' examination schedules and availability.

During the Immersive Experience Weekend, learners took some time to become fully engaged. It was suggested that an icebreaker be introduced earlier to help participants settle in and interact from the outset.

Some learners also showed a lack of consideration at times, including eating all the available food before team members had eaten. There were also instances of disengagement, such as using phones to play music and make TikTok videos.

Overall Programme Reflection

Although some challenges were experienced over the pilot programme, together we were able to navigate through them and learnt valuable insight on what needs to be amended for the programme going forward.

Links:

• Our Projects