Exploring Belonging Through Art with Aletheia

At Whitehill, we believe every child deserves to feel valued, nurtured, and part of something bigger. Since joining Aletheia Academies Trust earlier in 2025, our commitment to fostering a welcoming, inclusive and creative school culture has only grown stronger.

That’s why being part of the Trust-wide “The Art of Belonging” project felt like a perfect match for our ethos. The initiative, led by the Trust and local artists, invited Year 6 children from across its schools to explore notions of identity, connection and community through art.

How Whitehill contributed

For this year’s exhibition, Whitehill children joined peers from other schools to create expressive group artworks, featuring motifs like trees, fish, flowers and stars. These weren’t just pretty pictures: each element symbolised something bigger; a sense of belonging, identity, and shared community belonging across all of us.

Working alongside visiting artists, students used natural materials — local clay, chalk, soil, and pigments — many collected from the landscapes around Kent. They painted house-shaped wooden panels, combining mark-making, observational drawing, and imaginative design. The result connected each child’s personal identity to our shared local place and to the broader Aletheia community.

Why it mattered

At Whitehill, our Art & Design curriculum emphasises creativity, expression, belonging and confidence for all children.

Through “The Art of Belonging”, children had the chance to reflect on what it means to be part of a community – to feel at home, to feel accepted, and to recognise their own worth. By collaborating with students from other schools, they also experienced connection, unity and collective identity beyond the walls of their own classrooms.

This isn’t just about art. It’s about building empathy, inclusion and a shared sense of purpose. It reinforces our belief that every child matters, and that together we create a stronger, more compassionate community.

Looking Ahead

We hope our pupils, and our wider Whitehill community, will continue to benefit from projects like this. Belonging isn’t just a one-off theme: it is a core value for us. As Whitehill grows within the Aletheia family, we’re excited to find more ways to celebrate identity, cooperation, creativity, and above all, belonging, for every child in our care.