Spring Community Week Roundup

Community Week is an ongoing commitment where students and staff from across the College take part in social action projects.

It is a wonderful opportunity to use the skills you have learnt and are currently learning by putting them into practice to help the local community.

Crisp Packet Project

Level 3 Art Students have been working with Crisp Packet Project for three years. The Crisp Packet Project set out to give one use plastic a new purpose as well as creating items to send to people that have nothing.

Art Students collected crisp packets, washed them, and ironed them together to form blankets. It takes forty-four crisp packets to make one blanket and the metallic inside retains heat.

“The project was an interesting way to learn how to be more sustainable as well as giving us the opportunity to help people in need” – Chloe Wilkinson, Level 3 Art Year 1

Art Students make ceramic tiles for Wildwood

Art Students are currently working on a project with Wildwood Trust by designing and making tiles depicting the animals in A-Z that will be used in a specific area of the park.

“I enjoyed seeing my artwork in ceramic and I think it will be great addition to Wildwood and I look forward to seeing it all come together” – Freya Brooks, Level 3 Art Year 1

Bake Sale for Baby Basics

Early Years Students have put on a bake sale for ‘Baby Basics’ which is a volunteer-led project aiming to support new mothers and families who are struggling to meet the financial and practical burden of looking after a new baby. Baby Basics provides much needed essentials and equipment to those unable to provide these items for themselves.

Hair and Beauty Treatments for Rising Sun Domestic Charity

Hair and Beauty students have partnered the Rising Sun Domestic Abuse Charity to give back to both staff and women that use the charity. Level 3 Beauty students gave electrical treatments and facials. Level 2 beauty students offered luxury manicures, luxury pedicures and facials. Hairdressing students offered basic cuts, washes, blow-dries and conditioning treatments throughout the week.

The staff and clients were then invited down to Streetside for a complimentary lunch. Catering students joined in to support by preparing and serving lunch for Rising Sun Domestic Abuse Charity.

Art and Design – RNLI Product Designs

Art and Design students worked with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution by designing products which could be sold in their shops to raise money. Students created designs for postcards, coasters, vases, teapots, a paint by number picture for children and badges. This project has given the students experiences of working towards a brief for an external organisation.

Art students design for Wildwood

Art students also mocked up designs for bug hotels, birdhouses, bat boxes and bird tables for Wildwood. Wildwood have selected the designs to be made and installed in the park. The bug hotels will be made from materials such as wood, bamboo, and ceramic.

Fashion and Textiles students work with ST/Art

Fashion and Textiles students have been working with ST/Art to support in ending period poverty. ST/Art is a community art collective planning textile exhibition in Kent 2024, to support ending period poverty.

They have been running workshops which have been focused on creating textile-based pieces for the charity’s upcoming art exhibition this year. The exhibition will feature work from artists, individuals and local groups across Kent. The exhibition aims to raise awareness of period poverty and encourage the production, affordability and use of ecologically safe period products.

Countryside Management Students plant wildflowers

Countryside Management students have been planting a wildflower meadow in our Spring Lane campus to support biodiversity and attract insects, birds and other wildlife. Wildflower meadows can act as natural filters, trapping pollutants from runoff water before it reaches streams, rivers and groundwater.

It has been great to see so many projects happening this Community Week, with some to develop further over the coming weeks and months.