Sam Hopkins, a volunteer ESOL Home Tutor at the ELP Palmerston North centre, celebrated International Mother Language Day by taking Rahar Singh, Har Nit and Swar Lay from Palmerston North ESOL Intensive class to a volunteer sycamore weeding workday.

The conservation project is run by the Department of Conservation in the Pohangina Valley. The location was about an hour’s drive from ELP passing through many sheep and cattle farms. They did three solid hours’ work, much of it on hills. Sam said that the learners were very hardworking, and really good at noticing each and every sycamore seedling, even those that other volunteers had missed.

When asked how they felt at the end of the session, they all said that they felt very happy and that they would like to do it again.  Sam reported that it wasn’t getting them started on the work that was a problem, it was getting them to stop at the end.

It was a very typical New Zealand conservation working bee, and our learners made a great contribution while having some fun and using their English language. After hearing about it all in class the next day, everyone in the ESOL Intensive class is keen to go on the next workday.

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If you would like to volunteer as an ESOL Home Tutor, you can find more info here.