BRUNSWICK

Brunswick High School will be taking a different approach to incoming freshmen this year — opting for a day of teambuilding exercises at Camp Ketcha in Scarborough to get acquainted with each other.

Rick Wilson, Community Service and Outreach director for the high school, said the new program was made available through a grant from the Brunswick Community Education Foundation.

“This is not money coming out of the budget — this is a grant above and beyond and a great example of the good things BCEF is doing for the Brunswick school system,” Wilson said.

The class of 2020 will spend about an hour at the high school next Tuesday, getting familiar with their homeroom, its location and teacher, as well as their schedule.

Wilson said overall the transition has improved with a team going into the junior high and then bringing the eighth graders in to the high school, but he said it would have been redundant to repeat that process on the first day of school.

“We came up with this because it’s a fact that all students, especially freshman transition, could work on communication, problem solving, team building — those are kind of like three nuggets that Camp Ketcha will work on,” Wilson said.

As students arrive, they will work on skills together as a whole class group and then break off into 11 homeroom groups to work with the peers they will see on a daily basis.

“One component is to essentially create some familiarity with one another,” Wilson said.

Wilson characterized the work the students will be doing as low risk, with low-rope and close to the ground activities. He said some parents who have visited the Ketcha website have had concerns about pictures of high-rope activities.

“They employ a challenge by choice approach to facilitate team building. So, if the student doesn’t feel comfortable with a particular activity, they can opt out,” Wilson said.

According to the Camp Ketcha website, the educational programs they run with schools mesh with the Maine Learning Results, providing “educational building blocks for a successful and fulfilled adulthood.”

“All our challenges require students to communicate with each other in a clear and effective manner in order to be successful. Challenges test the mind and make the students think ‘outside the box’ in an integrative way,” the site notes.

“We’re really well organized and excited about going — it should be a lot of positive energy,” Wilson said.

Tom Doherty, executive director at Camp Ketcha, said this is a really great way for schools to start the year.

“What we found is it really helps school climate — breaking down cliques and things like that that develop over the years,” Doherty said.

Doherty said the activities help kids see each other in a new light as opposed to just the kid on the playground or from class they never got to know.

“They’re forced to interact in a new and different way,” Doherty said.

Doherty also pointed out that some kids who struggle in school find they do well with the practical, hands-on work.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com

Covering cost

• RICK WILSON, Community Service and Outreach director for Brunswick High School, said the new program was made available through a grant from the Brunswick Community Education Foundation.