School Leadership Journeys are grade camps and leadership expeditions that build school leadership outside the classroom. Learners take on real challenges in the outdoors, and every journey is shaped around the outcomes your school is working towards.
Outward Bound South Africa has run school programmes for over 30 years. We are part of Outward Bound International, the world’s largest non-profit experiential education network.
Our courses take learners out of their comfort zone and into real challenges in the outdoors: a steep climb, a river to cross, a group decision that matters. With the support of qualified instructors and each other, they build confidence, resilience, independence and a stronger connection to their grade.
Every School Leadership Journey is designed around your school’s goals, so what learners discover on the course carries back into the classroom, onto the sports field and into the life of the school.
Learners take the lead, make real decisions and learn from the result.
Groups learn to plan, communicate and succeed together.
Learners grow in self-awareness and in care for the people around them.
Learners push through challenge and discover they can cope.
Senior learners mentor and support learners in younger grades.
Programmes run from 2 to 7 days, for groups of 15 to 75+ learners.
Tell us about your grade, your group and what you want learners to take home.
We shape the programme around your grade, group size and outcomes.
Choose one of our venues, or a site near your school, on dates that suit your calendar.
Qualified Outward Bound instructors run every activity, with safety managed at every step.
Learners reflect on what they learned, and your school receives a feedback report.
We run school leadership journeys from eight established venues across five provinces. OBSA is also fully mobile: our instructors and equipment can travel to you, so we can run a programme anywhere in the country, close to your school.
Five Venues
Fully Mobile
Nationwide
Each programme combines outdoor activities chosen for your learners’ age, fitness and goals, with time after every challenge to reflect on what it means.
2 to 7 Days
15 to 75+ Learners
Grades 6-12
Every outdoor education venue below is one we already run from, each chosen for the terrain around it rather than the buildings on it. Accommodation ranges from tented camps to bunk houses and dormitories, and most sites have separate accommodation for accompanying teachers. And if none of them suits you, our mobile unit brings the whole programme to you.
Activities: High ropes including Jacob’s ladder and trapeze, initiatives such as the Berlin wall and Limpopo swing, canoeing, sea kayaking, beach hikes, mountain expeditions, raft building, abseiling and rock climbing.
Accommodation: Tented camping, bunk houses sleeping 24 (12 a side), and a self-catering holiday home sleeping 5 with Wi-Fi at additional cost.
Rocky mountains, bright wildflowers and still natural pools, ranging from 500m to 1 590m in altitude. Summers are hot and dry; winters are cold, with rainfall as high as 3 300mm on the Dwarsberg plateau.
Activities: Canoeing, raft building, expedition hiking, rock climbing, abseiling and stargazing.
Accommodation: Tented camping with portable toilets.
Activities: Hiking, abseiling, rock climbing and swimming in the dam.
Accommodation: A hall for mattresses or bunk beds sleeping 10, a self-catering house for teachers sleeping 6, and communal bathrooms.
A registered biosphere reserve and a working example of sustainable development. Weather dependent, and very hot in the summer months.
Activities: Raft building, rock climbing, a 75m abseil down a waterfall, and hiking.
Accommodation: A rustic camping lodge beside a dam for teachers sleeping 6 to 7, the Rail 62 train lodge sleeping up to 50 at additional cost, and hiking tents.
Activities: Rock climbing, 25m and 50m abseils, canoeing on Sterkfontein Dam, raft building, rafting and hiking expeditions.
Accommodation: Tented camping, with four-star accommodation for teachers at the Quantami resort at additional cost.
Activities: Rafting on the Vaal River, rock climbing, abseiling, hiking and a swimming pool on site.
Accommodation: Dormitories sleeping eight each, for 80 or more participants, plus two self-catering chalets sleeping 4 and 3. The largest group capacity of any of our venues.
Activities: Abseiling beside the Orange River, rafting the rapids, low ropes and hiking.
Accommodation: Four log cabins of two rooms each, sleeping 8, with tented camping for participants.
A wilderness school inside a private reserve, and the strongest fit of our venues for environmental and conservation programmes.
Activities: Rock climbing, abseiling, hiking, rapid riding, game drives, and nature awareness and environmental education.
Accommodation: Wilderness School dormitories, with separate teacher accommodation.
How it works: Outward Bound South Africa is fully mobile. Instructors, tents, ropes, boats and safety equipment all travel with the team, so a course can run on your land, on community land or at a site we source nearby, anywhere in the country.
Transport: Where the terrain near a community will not carry the programme, we bus participants to ground that will, and build the transport into the quote.
Best for: schools, companies, municipalities and CSI partners who want the programme to run where their young people are.
Independent and private schools across South Africa bring their grades to Outward Bound for school leadership journeys, including:
Somerset College
Bridge House
Oakhill
Veritas College
St Cyprian’s
ISSA
St Andrew’s
Greenwood Bay College
Seabridge
Safety sits at the heart of every Outward Bound course. OBSA follows Outward Bound International’s safety standards, with trained and assessed instructors and documented risk management and emergency procedures for every programme.
In 2025, North-West University’s COMPRES Service Delivery Division independently evaluated an OBSA programme. Participants showed meaningful growth in courage and confidence, persistence, teamwork, responsibility and practical independence, with concrete plans to apply it at home, at school and in their communities.
Every course runs to Outward Bound International's safety standards.
Trained and assessed instructors lead every activity.
Documented risk management and emergency procedures for each programme.
Programme outcomes evaluated by North-West University in 2025.
Founder & Creator (1886-1974)
Tell us about your grade, your group size and the school leadership outcomes you have in mind. We will design a programme around them and come back to you with venue options, dates and a proposal.
