Scarborough’s Saint Cecilia’s Nursing Home and Wheatcroft Primary School have cemented a mutual friendship which is bringing benefits to both the home’s residents and the children.
Throughout the school year, children from the school have been visiting the Filey Road nursing home to do things like arts and crafts and book reading with the residents or sing them songs.
And at the end of the year a competition was held to design a poster to celebrate the school becoming a Friend of Saint Cecilia’s and the nursing home in turn becoming a Friend of Wheatcroft School!
The home’s managing director Mike Padgham says: “The relationship between the school and the nursing home has grown really, really well this year and we are delighted and very grateful to the school for doing so much with our residents.
“The residents love having the children visit. They look forward to it and find it really stimulating and rewarding and I very much hope the children gain a lot more from it too.
“It has been a real pleasure to work with a school within our local community, hopefully helping young people to learn more about caring for older people and dispelling some of the myths about nursing homes. We look forward to continuing this relationship for many years to come.”
To thank the school for visiting, the nursing home put on afternoon tea and unveiled the winner of the poster competition, who was Ashley Mayes. She won an art set and tickets to Alpamare. Mr Padgham also visited the school to present runners-up prizes to other pupils.
Wheatcroft’s headteacher Jenny Hartley says: “It has been wonderful to see the relationship between our school and Saint Cecilia’s grow over this year. The positive impact on our pupils has been immense with their confidence increasing as well as their empathy and compassion.
"Last Thursday, it was lovely to see the delight on the residents’ faces as well as our pupils’ as they shared conversation and cake. I am delighted to see that many of our pupils are very keen to be involved in visits next year and that our friendship can positively grow.”
