Spring Community Week Roundup

This week (Monday 18 – Friday 22 March) has been our Spring Community Week, where we focus on making a real difference in our community and give students the tools to help impact the lives of many.  

Community Weeks are held across the East Kent Colleges Group twice a year, with staff and students from around the College getting involved wherever they can.  

Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve been up to this week: 

Plumbing – Dover SmART Project Move 

Plumbing students have been helping Dover SmArt Project move premises, working over a few days to help get the hard graft done. 

They also helped renovate the new space with general construction work such as painting, decorating and carpentry work, ensuring that the premises was fully usable as soon as possible. 

It has been a great week for our students, with many having achieved new goals and using the skills grown throughout College to help them. We can’t wait to continue with community projects such as these throughout the year.  

Dover’s History at Night – Early Years Workshop

Early Years students ran a workshop for children as part of ‘Dover at Night’, a family-friendly arts and heritage trail ran by the Maison Dieu. 

Students practiced all week, making their stained-glass window templates out of paper, tissue and fabric in a range of bright and contrasting colours. When finished, these were then taken to St Mary’s Church on Cannon Street in preparation for the workshop on the Friday night. 

During the workshop, students encouraged local children to make various stained-glass window designs. This was a popular activity and was a great way for our students to get involved in celebrating Dover’s heritage and creative scene.  

Computing offer Cleaning Services

Our Computing students put their skills to good use and volunteered to clean equipment used by staff across the College. This included laptops, monitors and a wide range of computer accessories.  

They also had to apply their organisational skills, with a booking process set up which they then had to plan their day around, ensuring that appointments were confirmed. 

Principal Paul Owen said of their work: “They did a great job organising themselves today. My desk and equipment have never looked better.” 

Each successful clean gave them a donation of food for the Dover Food Bank.   

ESOL’s River Bank Clean: 

ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students have been tidying the riverbanks right outside College, helping to remove rubbish with litter picks and tidying up the grounds. This has brightened up the space for our students, visitors and members of the community. 

They have also taken part in a litter pick at the nearby Pencester Park, helping to further create positive change around the campus and in the town.  

Easter Egg Appeal 

We held an Easter Egg appeal throughout the week, to help make Easter egg-stra special for those who are less fortunate this half-term.  

Thanks to many generous donations, we now have a grand total of 42 eggs including Cadbury’s, Mars and Nestle products. We also have an additional nine bags of treats such as chocolate coins and little eggs, perfect for any Easter Egg hunts. 

We took these along on the Friday to Dover Food Bank in addition to Computing’s collection. Our Health and Social Care students are also starting to collect food next week to be taken to the same food bank.  

Well done to all of our students who have taken part this Community Week. They have made such a difference and we can’t wait to see what’s in store.