Insites
16 June 2015,
One of the most important aims of Newington’s Service Learning program is to enhance our boys’ awareness of the inequalities that exist within our local, national and international communities, while also providing them with practical hands on opportunities to work alongside charity workers and community volunteers.
Head of Service Learning Mr Mick Madden has been involved in the program since its inception and has witnessed the positive impacts that the program has already had on the boys at Newington. Mr Madden stresses the importance and value the process of ‘giving a bit back’ can have on the boys’ development as future leaders and human beings.
According to Mr Madden the Service Learning program is a starting point for the boys to learn more about themselves while also recognising the needs of others;
“I see my role as providing the boys with opportunities…they get the opportunity to do something they normally wouldn’t get to do, and in doing that they learn about themselves, and they learn about the feeling they get when you do something for someone else.”
From Years 7 to 12, students are given the opportunity to engage in several programs, tours and voluntary events at the local, national and international scenes.
Mr Madden stresses that there is a strong interrelation between leadership and service, “We’re in an environment where we have lots of kids who are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, so the more we can impart those sort of values in them, or let them discover those values, the more likely they are to do something with them in later life,” he said.
The Service Learning Program at Newington is currently thriving and will continue to explore and offer these challenging and vital learning opportunities, so important in developing the ‘Newington Men’ that are proudly sent out of the College.