ESOL students put language skills to the test
Posted on August 12, 2024
Year 10 Macleans College ESOL students recently spent a day at the Chelsea Sugar Factory.
The factory is home to one of New Zealand’s favourite brands and still stands on its original site in Birkenhead, on the North Shore of Auckland. Chelsea has been in business for more than 135 years, producing over 15 types of sugars and servicing a large number of New Zealand-based food and beverage companies.
Students were engaged in a three hour educational experience, where they became acquainted with the smells, sights and sounds of a working factory and enjoyed practising their language skills in their interactions with the warm and helpful staff.
The timing of the tour proved to be particularly fortunate, with students witnessing the arrival of the latest cargo of raw sugar. Some 31,000 tonnes were being unloaded into Chelsea’s huge warehouse, creating the biggest sugar mountain the students had ever seen.
Students also had the opportunity to explore an interactive zone, where their newly acquired knowledge and language skills were put to the test. The trip concluded with a hands-on baking class where students made yoyo biscuits which they later took home, together with their very own Chelsea recipe book.
