For our 2025 family trip (Cynthia Hargrove -mother; Elliott Hargrove - father ; Mary Bell -Grandma; Elle Hargrove -daughter) we decided to visit Johannesburg, South Africa during our summer vacation.
Johannesburg has always been a location of interest due to the history, but it also serves as a major gateway city from the Eastern US with direct flights that made travel easier for us. During our trip planning, we asked everyone what was one thing they would love to do during our trip.
My 11 year old daughter Elle (who just finished her 5th grade year) stated she would love to see what school was like in SA. This started my search for a school that I felt would fit our needs if we resided in JoBurg. It was important that the school was local, open to the community (not for international kids only) and had a strong academic focus. After many, many internet searches, I came across CityKidz! I poured through many articles and reviews about CityKidz and reached out through the email address on the website to inquire about a visit. To state that the visit to the school was one of the highlights of our trip would be an understatement! From the warm welcome we received from students and staff, to Elle having an opportunity to engage in the classroom with the students was absolutely amazing.
Elle has so many wonderful stories about her experience and could not stop talking about how nice the teachers and students were to her. She really felt like a mini celebrity. For me anytime we travel it’s important to step away from just the tourist attractions and the history, to engage and understand the real people, culture and current day energy. Our visit to CityKidz helped to bring that realness of JoBurg to life for us. We are so grateful that our request to visit was accommodated!
On Friday the 20th of June, we were graced by the Hargrove family all the way from Detroit, Michigan. They are currently on a family vacation in Johannesburg and their daughter (Elle) wanted to get a feel of how schooling life is in South Africa. We feel honoured that they chose CityKidz as one of their stop overs, even if it was just for the morning. The Hargroves had a morning tea in the Staffroom with the SMT. While Elle spent time in class with 5Ds, her mom, dad and grandmother went on a tour of the school led by the Head Girl and Head Boy. After the tour, the adults got to see a lovely performance from CityTotz and spent time with Uncle Andy who told them about Soweto and its history.
This is what our Grade 5Ds had to share: Elle seemed a bit nervous at first, but she was willing to answer questions the class had about America. We asked her if she has any pets, her favourite food and favourite places she’s travelled to. We enjoyed having Elle in our class and getting to know about her culture. For some of us, it was our first time seeing an American person and hearing an American accent. We also got to share some cultural music and tell Elle about our cultural food.
We wish we had more time to spend with Elle because we taught her a little bit of isiZulu.
