Engagement and Enrichment opportunities for students at Doveton College
Doveton College’s Engagement and Enrichment Program (DEEP) provides students with opportunities to develop skills and knowledge by delivering various extra-curricular programs and activities.
What is DEEP?
DEEP is an extra-curricular program run at Doveton College and is staffed by Doveton College educators and community volunteers. DEEP sessions are free and occur after school throughout the school year, and are open to all students enrolled at Doveton College. Each term, a wide variety of activities and programs are offered, providing many opportunities for students to participate in sports, multi-media, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) activities.
What are the benefits of DEEP?
Extra-curricular activities help to enrich children’s learning further and are an important extension of the students’ school experience. Extra-curricular activities can be costly for families, and where these costs cannot be covered, children will often miss out on opportunities to participate in and gain skills from outside of school programs. At Doveton College, the DEEP activities are also designed to build opportunities within the school and the community, so students can develop the skills required to succeed beyond the school environment.
DEEP has contributed to an increase in school attendance. It also provides an opportunity for parents and carers to become involved in their children’s learning by being encouraged and invited to come along to watch or by helping as a volunteer. For parents wishing to volunteer, Doveton College helps with the organisation of Working with Children checks to facilitate this.
To demonstrate the diversity and popularity of the DEEP program, in Term 2 2022, 108 students have participated in activities such as African drumming, mega music club, remote control car racing, craft, rugby, tennis, basketball, running and multisports.
Our Place Community Facilitator Nuru has been assisting with the African drumming group. The program helps children discover and explore instruments and music from other cultures. However, it has evolved to become much more than just about drumming. As children began to participate, they started asking questions about African cultures and have developed a thirst for knowledge about African cultures and many others.
Nuru, whose cultural background is Tanzanian from East Africa, has shared that many of the students communicated their assumptions about Africa, including assumptions about people in Africa not having access to electricity, phones, WiFi or housing. This has meant that an opportunity to participate in the drumming program has coincidently allowed students to engage in a regular and safe dialogue with Nuru and her co-facilitator Aban, which enables them to ask questions about African cultures, expel any wrongly made assumptions and expand their knowledge of the world.
Aligning with the Our Place Approach
The DEEP program is one example of the Our Place evidence-based element Engagement and Enrichment activities for children. To learn more about this and our other evidence-based elements CLICK HERE
