Short-term, dorm-based camps where international and New Zealand students explore a single big idea together — in real labs, on real coastlines, on real farms. English isn't a subject. It's how the day happens.
A Fernway Innovation Camp is a two-to-three-week residential programme built around a single theme. Students stay together in dormitory accommodation. English is embedded naturally through participation, lessons, conversations, and the slow daily work of living alongside new friends.
New Zealand students can join alongside international students — not as hosts, but as participants. That mix is the camp's quiet superpower. The friendships made over a dinner table at the dorm tend to outlast the certificate at the end.
Each camp is anchored in a real New Zealand strength — a place we genuinely lead the world in, with the people and the sites to back it up.
Theme
From Rocket Lab in Auckland to the dark skies of Lake Tekapo — one of the few places on Earth designated as a Dark Sky Reserve. Students explore astronomy, satellites, and what it takes for a small country to build a space industry.
Theme
Based on the Coromandel or in the Bay of Islands. Students work with marine biologists, snorkel in marine reserves, and learn about kaitiakitanga — the Māori concept of guardianship that shapes how New Zealand manages its oceans.
Theme
New Zealand exports more dairy than any country on Earth. This camp explores the technology behind that — from precision irrigation to genetic herd modelling — based in the Waikato heartland with visits to working farms and ag-research institutes.
Theme
Film, design, music, and code. Based in Wellington — the home of Weta Workshop and a film industry punching far above its weight. Students storyboard, shoot, score, and screen their own short pieces by the end of week two.
If your school has a programme strength — robotics, climate research, performing arts, indigenous studies — we can build a custom camp around it, anchored in the right part of New Zealand with the right partners. We've co-designed camps for cohorts as small as 8 and as large as 60.
There are no English classes at a Fernway camp — just camps that happen to run entirely in English. Students leave with measurably more vocabulary, more confidence, and more comfort initiating conversation.
Two to three weeks at a dorm is enough time to know someone properly. Many camp friendships last well beyond the programme — helped along by the Fernway Connect app, which stays free for alumni.
For families nervous about a longer immersion, a camp is a manageable first step. For students, it's often the experience that decides whether they come back for a full school term.
Marine students visit actual marine reserves. AgriTech students walk actual farms. Space students stand under actual Dark Sky reserves. Authenticity is the point.
We open camps in response to interest from schools and agencies. If you have a cohort in mind — even a small one — we'd love to help shape what it could look like.