ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAMP 2008

All together: The students getting together to take a group photograph.

ENGLISH Language camps are not always held outside the school. But one school from Kedah was ambitious enough to take its students outside the state. SMK Sultan Badlishah (SMKSB) from Kulim, Kedah, recently organised its first English Language Camp, treating 41 students to a fun-filled and educational seaside weekend at Tanjung Bungah in Penang.

The students took part in quizzes, sketches, sandcastle building, chain story telling, mini debates and other group activities at the two-day camp held at Tanjung Bungah Beach Resort. Camp coordinator Zuriati Osman and English Department head Foo Kim Hwa explained that the school wanted to take the students to a different environment to encourage them to mingle and communicate in English.

"We chose Penang because it is nearer to home and we want to let the students experience a night stay at a hotel, explore the natural environment like the beach and take part in seaside activities,"she said.

In line with the Education Ministry and the National Unity and National Integration Department’s Student Integration Plan for Unity (RIMUP), the participants were selected to make up a diversified group of students from different classes, forms and ethnic groups. Foo said the mixture of students from Form One to Form Six would encourage the younger ones to make friends with students from upper forms and observe their seniors’ communication skills.