The Dover Fastrack is a bus rapid transit system that connects Whitfield, Dover town centre and Dover Priory Station, providing a reliable, high-quality, and frequent bus service. The Fast Track Team very kindly brought one of their buses in for our children to explore. They taught us about the importance of lower emissions and shared some key Road Safety Messages to make us aware of Safe Road Crossing, but the danger of quieter electric buses and cars. 

Our Young Language Ambassadors led by Madame Carter laid on a fantastic French Breakfast of croissants , pain au chocolates and condiments for our children to practise their serving and ordering skills.

Children thoroughly enjoyed being using visuals and supports to help them order their breakfast in French. 

Children from the Mainstream and SRP got an insight into life with a Visual Impairment for Braille Awareness Day. Children had the chance to Braille, see the Hot Spot Machine in Action and we held a Q&A with some of our Visually Impaired Children. Big thank you to the County VI/HI Team for their support with our workshops and activities. 

Carl Brett returned from the Kent Police, Child Centred Team to remind us all about the importance of staying safe in the online world. Craig provided us with examples of.....

- Children who thought they had met new friends online, but they turned out not to be who we thought they were. 

- The specific age you should be to access Whatsapp, Snapchat and other social media platforms and why can be dangerous. 

- The law on cyberbullying. 

Santa and his elf, Tiny, visited the children at Whitfield Aspen. They treated the children to an early Christmas present as they had promised they were all on the good list.  This was an unexpected addition to Santa's busy schedule and the children certainly enjoyed the visit. May we hope the good list status lasts for the next few days. Merry Christmas all!

 International Mountain Day is celebrated annually to promote awareness of mountains, and the communities that live on and around them, across the globe. 

Organised by the UN General Assembly, it takes place on 11th December and was first observed in December 2003.

To celebrate the day the children at Mayfield became explorers in Forest School and learned some skills to help them. The children learned how to use a Bothy and a flint and steel to create a spark. A Bothy is a survival shelter to shield explorers from rain, wind and extreme temperatures.

We also looked for fact files about famous mountains.

This term, the choir have worked hard learning their Christmas music. They performed altogether at their Christmas concert to family and friends. This was a huge success and was standing room only in the hall! We have also been taking the choir children to visit different local residential homes to spread some festive cheer. The homes we have visited so far have been Beeches, Alandale Residential home and Alexander House. We have one more trip to the Whitfield Residential Home to go. The children have performed beautifully and everywhere we have visited, we have left them smiling. 

IRock came back to visit children at Mayfield following their visits to both sites in July. The Irock Crew amazed us with their musical skill and then got children up from the audience up to take part in a fantastic rendition of Queen's "We Will Rock You".

Reverend Sean joined us to help us celebrate Christingle in a very unique and fun way at Richmond, whilst Y3 went to visit the Whitfield Church for their Christingle. Every child decorated an orange and we learnt that in the Christian Church....

• The orange represents the world.
• The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God’s creations.
• The lit candle represents Jesus’s light in the world, bringing hope to people living in darkness.

The candles on top of the oranges let off a wonderful glow that really set the event apart.

Both Mayfield and Richmond were treated to a special performance of Jack and The Beanstalk by Hurricane Productions on Friday 6th December. 

Children thoroughly enjoyed the event and it was a great way to recognise the importance of live theatre as we build towards a great Christmas. 

Roast Turkey and all the trimmings was the order of the day. The children wore Christmas jumpers along with their 12 Days of Christmas hats. 

We would all like to say a big thank you to our brilliant kitchen staff.

To raise money alongside the PTFA, Y6 children baked products, crafted and designed a series of stalls for their very own Christmas Fair.

Teachers were bystanders as our children and the PTFA led the way and created a very festive atmosphere. Y4, Y5 and our SRP had a great time visiting the stalls and spending their tokens.

We learnt about Road Safety with the support of Kent Police this year.

We found out about the different ways we could be seen in poor light conditions, cycle safety and how to use the specific crossings outside our school and within the local area. It was lovely for children to meet Carl from the Child Centred Policing Team as well, Carl will be working in our local area.

We celebrated Mental Health Awareness Day with an Assembly at the Mayfield and Richmond Site from The NHS, Mental Health Support Team.

MHSTs are a new government initiative to help increase children and young people’s access to support for emotional wellbeing and mental health. MHSTs are part of the national Children and Young People’s Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP-IAPT) programme and we were one of the first schools to sign up with their regional programme. 

Children then took part in some specific tasks to promote their self-awareness. In KS2 Mrs Coates worked with Selina (Our Play Therapist) to develop a self-awareness chart. In KS1 Mrs Chatfield delivered a Pupil Voice Survey that allowed children to identify what aspects of school they like and dislike and how they perceive their friendships and progress.

In line with the Anti-Bullying Alliance, Whitfield Aspen signified our stance on Anti-Bullying by wearing odd socks. Odd Socks Day is celebrated annually in November to mark the start of Anti-Bullying Week and encourage people to celebrate each other’s differences.

Children then took Anti Bullying Surveys to identify bullying patterns or behaviour. The event was capped off by the creation of friendship bracelets and bespoke anti-bullying art pieces in our classes.

Jean from The Blue Cross came in to provide Assemblies and Workshops at Mayfield and Richmond. The workshops were aimed at improving the welfare and quality of life for all pets by developing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours through education. We learnt about what welfare needs pets have and how to look after pets properly.

Miss Wild also ensured that arrange of sensory feel boxes were available for children unable to access the workshops. 

British Legion Veterans and bugle players joined us at Mayfield and Richmond for assemblies on Remembrance Day this year, whilst the children created personalised poppies and wreaths to honour the fallen.

The Last Post playing into the two minute silence helped reinforce the sense of occasion. Following the silence, Y6 children read some of their war poetry before we returned to class.

International Languages Day, November 2024

Our amazing Language Ambassadors hosted another superb event to celebrate languages and cultures from many countries, helping us appreciate and value differences in our world.

Whitfield Aspen learnt about a local story for Black History Month this year.

We were loaned artwork and engaged with the Turner Gallery 2023 Exhibition Banned. Banned was a two-year project led by Sabina Desir, Artistic Director, Vocalist and Curator of the exhibition. Prompted by a 1957 archived newspaper article in the East Kent Times involving Black US Servicemen and women having their liberty and freedom to travel to local towns restricted, Sabina was compelled to look at the issues of place, belonging and identity that remain prominent in all aspects of contemporary life.

Children took part in Assemblies/Exhibitions led by Sabina, they could read original prints of the letters written by the town to decry this segregation, took part in workshops, accessed Project Books and listened to live musical performances of popular US Music from the 1950s.

Fire Safety Day provided a timely reminder of the need to be safe around fire and fireworks before Bonfire Night. Unfortunately the Whitfield Fire Crew were called away to an emergency just before one of our Assemblies, but they did come back to let us explore their Engine later in the day and Teachers reminded children of the Key Fire Safety Messages. 

Children at Mayfield and Richmond have been fortunate to receive inspirational Assemblies and Workshops from some of Team GB's top Athletes. 

• Aidan Sayers, Team GB Sprinter and Relay.
• Joel Clifton, Team GB Wheelchair Basketballer.
• Ryan Raghoo, World Champion Long jumper. 
• Mercy Brown, Team GB Weightlifter.

The Athletes discussed their journey to the top level, the importance of the right nutrition, training and inspired our children with their dedication, resilience and humour.

Children from the SRP and Mainstream took on a scene from Hamlet, coming together to create an abridged version of The Bard’s renowned tragedy across two performances on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 June at the Marlowe in Canterbury.

Entitled Hamlet: Something Rotten, this unique production was the culmination of a year-long project enabled through the Associate Schools Programme: a collaboration between the RSC and Associate Regional Theatres including The Marlowe.

Throughout the programme, Mr Lowrey received training from Royal Shakespeare Company practitioners at The Marlowe, with RSC rehearsal room techniques deeply embedded into his classroom when teaching and studying Shakespeare.

Whitfield's Got Talent!

Please go to the Video Resource Centre (under about our school) to watch the winning participants performances.