What to expect with Swim & Language Evaluations
On your first or second day at camp, you’ll take part in a swim evaluation and a language evaluation.
They’re nothing to worry about!
The swim evaluation’s goal is to determine which water activities you can do safely, based on your swimming ability, while the language evaluation is to determine if you can navigate camp life in your second language and, if you’ll be taking language classes, in which level you’ll be.
Learn more about both evaluations below!
Pink Bracelet - Canoeing & Sailing
Getting a pink bracelet means that you can swim in the first three sections of the swimming area. With a pink bracelet, you can do canoeing and sailing.
To get a pink bracelet, you need to swim 4 x 25 m (or 4 laps!) of front crawl, 2 x 25m (or 2 laps!) of any stroke and complete 3 minutes of treading water.
Blue Bracelet - Canoeing, Sailing, Kayak & Windsurfing
Getting a pink bracelet means that you can swim in all sections of the swimming area. With a blue bracelet, you can do all water activities: canoeing, sailing, kayaking and windsurfing.
To get a blue bracelet, you need to swim 6 x 25 m (or 6 laps!) of front crawl, 4 x 25m (or 4 laps!) of any stroke and complete 5 minutes of treading water.
The Swim Evaluation
There are four levels of swimming; each associated with a number of laps to do and a set time of treading water. Based on the level you get you’ll receive a blue, pink, green or yellow bracelet.
The colour of the bracelet determines which water activities you can do and up to which zone of the swimming area you can swim in.
You can re-take the swim test as many times as you’d like during Buddy Swim to get a higher bracelet.
Yellow Bracelet - No water activities
Getting a yellow bracelet means that you can swim in the first - and shallowest- section of the swimming area. With a yellow bracelet, you can only do land activities.
Campers who get the yellow bracelet typically fall into two categories; they choose not to take the swim test or don’t have the swim level required to pass the green level test.
Green Bracelet - Canoeing
Getting a green bracelet means that you can swim in the first two sections of the swimming area. With a green bracelet, you can do canoeing.
To get a green bracelet, you need to swim 4 x 25 m (or 4 laps!) of any stroke.
The Language Evaluation
All our language classes are designed to encourage and empower campers to function and bond in a bilingual environment, with an emphasis on practical, immediately applicable material. The ultimate goal of our language classes is to enable our campers to participate in daily camp activities, and thus interact with their peers as quickly as possible.
Consequently, the language evaluation aims at determining if a camper is comfortable and able to navigate camp life in their second language.
There are four language classes levels.
UNDERSTAND class - Understanding instructions and daily conversations at camp are the goals of our UNDERSTAND classes.
SPEAK class - Answering general questions, expressing needs and communicating with peers are the goals of our SPEAK classes.
CONVERSATION class - Practicing speaking and holding conversations with peers are the goals of our CONVERSATION classes.
ENRICHED Class (Optional) - If they're considered capable of communicating with ease with their peers, campers can choose to take our optional enriched classes, which offer a project-based approach.