As many a New Brunswicker will attest, the Wolastokuk land on which Anglophone School District West sits offers opportunities aplenty for recreation and social connection, especially during the warmer summer months.
But for newcomer students in the district, those opportunities can be missed simply because they may not know about them.
For that reason, teachers from ASD-W’s English as an Additional Language (EAL) team joined forces with educators from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Centres of Excellence last month to offer a free summer language camp for newcomers in the Woodstock area.
“The idea came about because I was having lunch one day with a newcomer [Ukrainian] student at Meduxnekeag Consolidated School, and I said what will you do in the summer? And she said, ‘well, my mom works so I will just be, you know, kind of hanging out at home watching TV.’ And I thought that sounds awful,” said EAL Lead and Camp Coordinator Sarah Mahar.
Mahar saw an opportunity in the student’s story: a summer camp for newcomer students that encouraged them to connect with each other while honing their English-language skills.
So, from July 22-24, 14 newcomer Grade 6-9 students gathered at NBCC Woodstock to have summer fun, connect with their peers, and, in the course of having fun, improve their English.
“This camp really helped me because I have a little bit of [English] words but I don’t know how to say them,” said Hala Dowidar, a Grade 7 student at Meduxnekeag Consolidated School this past school year whose family moved to Canada from Egypt eight months ago. “At the same time, we’re learning English and doing fun things.”
Those fun learning activities included STEM lessons in astronomy, energy generation with windmills, and construction, as well as team-building activities involving sports and an escape room.
There was also a nature walk at the Meduxnekeag Valley Nature Preserve, and a much-talked-about trip to Tim Hortons where students relied on their English-language skills to order their favourite treats.
Said Dowidar, “That’s something I really loved because I love Tim Hortons so much. This is not just a place for learning. We’re doing a lot of fun things and that’s the best thing.”
“They’re learning from each other and coming out of their shells,” said EAL Lead Denise Bullock, a counsellor at camp. “What’s been nice is the transition you see from Monday morning, where they’re apprehensive and not talking, to Wednesday when they’re interacting with each other and speaking all kinds of English. It’s a less intimidating way of learning.”
Woodstock High School Grade 9 student Daniel Martinez exemplified the point.
“When I started 6th Grade, I didn’t have a lot of friends, but later I started making a lot of friends,” said Martinez, who moved to the province from Mexico with his family in 2021. “I like hanging out here with my friends, meeting new people, and doing activities like badminton.”
Said Mahar, “I don’t think we had any activity planned where they would be using devices for those three days. It was all hands-on outside activities. And we opened up their eyes to a few different things that they can do in Woodstock.”
The students “don’t want it to end, which has been great,” said Bullock. “I’m hoping we can expand it and maybe do it in different education centres next year.”
But the camp is returning to Woodstock. “We’ve already made notes about what we’re going to do next year,” she said.
