"DO ALL THE GOOD YOU CAN"
Since the school was established in 1885, we have followed the Wesleyan ethos of ‘Do all the good you can.’ Together with our school values of respect, acting justly, humility and kindness, our students are inspired to reach beyond their academic abilities to better the world around them by being active participants within the community. This ethos is extended to our wider school community including our Chaplain, charities committee and Enterprise team who continuously seek opportunities, across the breadth of our school, to support our local community. While our students are involved in numerous projects throughout the year, the last week of the School year culminates in Service Week where all students get involved with local community work and try to make a difference.
CHARITIES COMMITTEE
In the Senior School the Charities Committee is a group of Sixth Formers who meet weekly. It is an Interactive group and therefore part of Rotary International. There is lots of interest because it is a good way of students fulfilling requirements of the IB and the Duke of Edinburgh award. The group selects charities and then plans and delivers charity fundraising events around the school ranging from non-uniform days to Variety Shows, from international cook books to Murder Mystery nights, from Santa runs to sponsored walks. The EcoWarriors choose a ‘green’ cause to support each year and the Charities Committee also select a few charities that reflect their passions and interests. For example this year the Cathedral Carol Service collection will support Rising Sun Kent. Emergency aid requests are channelled via All We Can (the Methodist aid and development charity). Other students and staff may make suggestions and this can lead to enthusiastic support - no-one will forget the push-up challenge on the Great Hall stage as Mr Bourdillon fundraised for the brains trust, with willing support from Miss Myers and Mr Turnbull. In the Junior School, charities is an after school club which has a lively membership. Again charities are selected and events planned and delivered.
Across both schools we often raise up to £20,000 each year for the work of the charities that we select. Some of which are long term relationships which we have built with charities over a number of years and others are shorter term one year projects.
CHARITIES WE SUPPORT
We look for local charities were we can offer service as well as fundraising support.There are some charities that we support on a regular basis (Porchlight, Teenage Cancer Trust, Farms for City Children, Pilgrims Hospice, Love in a Box, Canterbury Food Bank). Some of these are local and very much value continued and dependable support from local people. Other's are national charities but have a link to the community at Kent College in some way - this would be true of Teenage Cancer Trust and Farms for City Children. Others are international aid organisations like All We Can (the Methodist Overseas Development charity).
A major fundraising and solidarity commitment is with a small community school in Imacita Peru. Organised through EduKid we work across both schools to support the education and social needs of a group of school students. Each year a group of students aims to visit Imacita, so that as we build the relationship we can respond to their requests.
We aim to have 3 or 4 collections of items throughout the year - food at Harvest, a Christmas gift collection -this year we contributed 130 shoeboxes to the work of Link to Hope. Last year the first KC Period Drive was very well supported with donations of sanitary products to the FoodBank. This collection was a direct result of some year 10 students learning about Period Poverty and putting energy into helping.
Every year we add another group of charities that we want to support for a limited period of time. These charities almost always come as a suggestion from someone within the KC community - staff or students. We would normally then educate ourselves about what that charity does and come up with means of supporting it. We would often invite them to share something of their work in a chapel presentation to raise awareness throughout the school. This year, those charities include Breast Cancer Awareness, RNLI Whitstable, Young Minds and Wear Red.
There is a third type of charity that we support - (Care4Calais is a good example of this) a need comes to our attention during the year and someone makes a plea for help (like Dulcie's chapel) and the school rise up to support by collecting - in this case - goods to send abroad.
CO-CURRICULAR VOLUNTEERING
As part of our co-curricular programme we provide opportunities for our students to volunteer; giving back to our local community. Through respecting oneself, others and the world around us, we are keen for all students to embrace the opportunities provided to support and help others. This year our Junior Choir sang at Age UK, Canterbury, as well as hosting them for Christmas lunch. Our boarding community have taken part in a litter pick along the Stour and we currently have students supporting and leading sessions at a number of local primary schools. Our partnerships continue to grow and we are looking forward to some group projects with KRAN.
As part of our activities week this year, students in Year 7 to 9 will all be carrying out an element of local service - from a beach clean to planting bulbs, we each have out part to play in giving back and looking after our community.
EAST KENT SCHOOLS TOGETHER
Kent College, Canterbury plays an active roll within the East Kent Schools Together group represents and brongs together a diversity of economic, social and educational backgrounds for students. When students and staff collaborate across school and university partner organisations, by sharing resources and exchanging experiences, there can be huge mutual benefits, especially for disadvantaged students. East Kent Schools Together (EKST) is an innovative independent-state school and university partnership, in which each member contributes and draws from the partnership on an equal footing for the benefit of all. There are 11 partner schools with CCCU. The EKST runs a rich and vibrant programme of collaboration and events for students, parents and teachers.
We support many events:
- The Art Department is taking part in the ‘Print Pilgrimage Project’, which will culminate in an exhibition of students’ work in the summer term
- The Global Curriculum Programme – decolonising the curriculum, staff reading groups and joint project by students across schools
- Young Scientist Journal Conference
- MFL cluster
- Safeguarding cluster
- SEND cluster
- Gifted and Talented cluster
- The Big Explore at Pines Calyx (for students with low self-confidence)
We have invited EKST and hosted:
- The Porchlight talk
- Breis - author and rapper session with students
- Cracking the code, the genetics of superheroes
- Future Events to be hosted at KC:
- ‘Girls On Board’ Staff CPD Training (funded by EKST)
- Parent Conference – Bringing Up a Child in the Modern Age (Possible funding for this from EKST)
- Careers Fair
- CPD with Natasha Devon on EDI and Mental Health
ENTERPRISE
In line with our school values, one of the key pillars of our Enterprise Department is Community – to seek opportunities where Kent College can be inclusive, kind and open. Recent examples include initiating a minibus service to replace a discontinued route used by our local elderly community, inviting local charities to host fundraising talks in our Great Hall or opening our Farm to local home education groups.
Following positive feedback, the Farm team are building a programme of sessions for our home education community, so that they too can benefit from the farm as place to enhance learning and experience the lasting positive effects to wellbeing that animal care can bring.
Interested in working with us? Call us 01227 813902. Email us enterprise@kentcollege.co.uk.
LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS
Canterbury Festival
For the past 8 years Kent College has been the Headline Sponsor of the Canterbury Festival. With a shared passion for musical and academic excellence, Kent College has enabled the Festival to develop emerging artists, showcase the very best in performance, deliver community participatory projects and provide opportunities for young people to explore and develop their creative talent. The Festival uses our award winning Great Hall to host numerous international performers during the two week event free of charge and has also hosted the Young Musicians' Bursary Competition for many years.
The Kent College Lecture has proven to be a highlight of the Festival’s Talks programme. Expert speakers have included award-winning architect Ptolemy Dean, the BBC ‘s Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott, author and physicist Jim Al-Khalili and Springwatch presenter Megan McCubbin. These engaging events have provided a unique opportunity for both general audiences, students from local schools and Kent College students to hear directly from and engage with experts in their fields.
Kent County Cricket and Polo Farm
We are real sports enthusiasts at KC and have been supporting Kent County Cricket Club and East Kent Vikings for many years with sponsorship and use of the Kent College facilities. At Polo Farm we encourage hockey from an early age by sponsoring Little Sticks and through the President’s Cup competition for Junior school age children.
OUTREACH PROGRAMME
Our teaching staff are committed to sharing their expertise with schools throughout the local area. Science teachers are sharing the wonders of science by hosting classes in local local junior schools and also inviting schools to join our Stargazing Evenings and Science Week activities. Our students visit local schools to support reading and maths acquisition and our sports coaches help to bring cricket and hockey to schools who may not have their own coaches or equipment for these sports.
We host a Cricket Festival at the Spitfire Ground every year with local junior schools receiving coaching before competing in a competition and players from KCC are a regular feature at the school where they host masterclass sessions which are open to local children. These days also include professional coaching for hockey, tennis and netball. These fun sessions enable children to develop their skills, grow their confidence and engage with expert sports people.
