Extra-curricular 

Students have the opportunity to take part in a wide variety of activities. Every year a group of students visit the Kent Mountain Centre in Llanberis and we run the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, for students in year 12.

Other activities that have taken place this year include indoor climbing, on the school’s climbing wall, and orienteering.

We have a fantastic selection of opportunities for students here at Dane Court. Whether you are a proficient musician already, a beginner or just enjoy music for pleasure, there are plenty of choices. 

We offer a wide range of instrumental lessons, with a good variety of teachers who are professional musicians performing in and around Kent or London. Students can ‘opt in’ to instrumental lessons. Over a hundred students are learning instruments here at Dane Court, with over 14 peripatetic teachers. 

We offer a multitude of trips, such as to musicals like The Lion King, Wicked and Hairspray and concerts in and around London or Kent. Workshops are a regular part of our extra-curricular programme, such as Musical Theatre, jazz and vocal workshops. We also take part in The Deal Festival every year with termly jazz workshops and a concert at the end of the year as part of the festival. 

Students have a wide range of choice in ensembles here at Dane Court and are working hard to build our orchestra. Concerts are a regular feature of the school calendar. The House music cup competition is always a fantastic day, with outside judges and prizes such as the chance to perform at Broadstairs Folk Week. 

• Orchestra - Woodwind, brass and strings (Grade 1+)

• Jazz band - Brass, woodwind, drum kit or percussion, bass, guitar (Grade 3+ approx.)

• Choir - For students in years 7 to 13 (Any level)

• Rock bands and individual groups - For students in years 7 to 13 (Any level) 

• Steel Band - For students in years 7 to 13 (Any level)

Ensembles rehearse after school and all participate in performance opportunities in the school or community on a regular basis. 

Extra-curricular drama at Dane Court has many strands. 

The department aims to stage one whole school production each year in the summer term. Most recent productions have been Little Shop of Horrors and Bugsy Malone, which involved students from year 7 to year 12 both on the stage and behind the scenes. Students from all year groups worked together as actors, stagehands, dancers, musicians, choreographers and other important supporting roles. The Tech Team were also a huge part of the productions and were well drilled in making the productions look and sound like a professional performance.

At GCSE there is a fantastic opportunity to be involved with the Theatre-in-Education project where students devise plays with a moral theme and present them in local primary schools. Recent involvement has grown to incorporate Palm Bay, St Peter-in-Thanet and Dame Janet primary schools. This has built on the continued liaison with Minster Church of England Primary School. 

Students from years 7 to 10 also have the chance to join the Drama Club which is run once a week and is open to all students from these year groups. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to come and join in drama outside of the classroom to help hone their performance skills, try out new and challenging skills and techniques, help develop their confidence and self-esteem and to socialise with other students from other mentor groups from all three years. We aim to channel their enthusiasm into a showcase of performances at various stages throughout the year.

The physical education department offers a wide range of activities beyond the curriculum throughout the year. Our dedicated department members coach all the major sports. Dane Court is widely recognised as one of the most successful schools in terms of participation levels and sporting success within the district. Our philosophy is that all our clubs are open to students of all ages and all abilities and we actively encourage our students to be involved.

We enter teams into every district competition, including sports that are new to us. Following their success, these events have led to our teams representing Thanet at the Kent School Games. Our teams are also involved in county-wide competitions. Recently we have won recognition in the latter stages of competitions at rugby, football, handball, athletics (both indoor and outdoor) and table tennis. We are very proud of our students and applaud their skill and dedication.

The department is supported by other members of staff who run clubs, for example, climbing.

Every year we have students who pursue their sport at district, county and even national level. While we do not offer swimming as an activity, we do enable our local club swimmers to compete as the Dane Court team at the county championships, as well as at the county biathlon competition.

Football (for boys and girls), climbing, netball, rugby (boys and girls), basketball, cross country, tennis, handball, badminton, dodgeball, rounders, cricket, volleyball, table tennis, athletics, softball, trampolining – the Dane Court extra-curricular programme has something for everybody!