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Helping pupils a breath of fresh air, says resident

Helen MulroyRoyston
News imageHelen Mulroy/BBC Jim Earle sits beside Eliza as she reads from a book. He is looking at the page that she is reading from. He is wearing a white jumper and she is wearing a purple polo shirt. They are sitting in a living room. Helen Mulroy/BBC
Residents at Margaret House have been hearing the children from a local school read every week for six years

An intergenerational buddy programme between residents of a care home and primary school pupils has been a "breath of fresh air", according to one participant.

Jim Earle, 93, lives in Margaret House Care Home in Royston, Hertfordshire, and regularly reads with Year Three and Year Four students from Barley and Barkway Church of England First Schools Federation.

The scheme has been running for six years and the groups meet weekly to read, take part in music and art projects and eat lunch together.

"The excitement in their little faces, I love it," Mr Earle said.

He added it was rewarding to see the progress in the children's reading and confidence and "you can actually see the improvement".

News imageHelen Mulroy/BBC Jim Earle smiles and looks directly at the camera. He is in a lounge setting and wears a cream cable knot jumper. Helen Mulroy/BBC
Jim Earle said the buddy programme improved the children's reading and confidence

Eliza, a pupil from the school, said: "It's really fun because you get to know more people and you get to read to more people.

"They always comment and they tell you stories about when they were younger, and I think it's really interesting."

News imageHelen Mulroy/BBC Eliza looks directly at the camera, she has brown hair pulled back in a pony tail and wears a purple school polo shirtHelen Mulroy/BBC
Eliza said reading with her buddies at Margaret House was "really fun"

Claire Goodman, a professor of health care research at the University of Hertfordshire, said there were many benefits to these types of intergenerational partnerships, between schools or nurseries and care homes.

"They really can benefit both the older people who take part and the children. But it's hard to do because if you want to do it well you need people who can plan it, facilitate it, and you need the resources to be able to sustain it," she said.

News imageHelen Mulroy/BBC Residents and pupils can be seen at Margaret House care home sat at a table taking part in a Vincent Van Gough art project. Helen Mulroy/BBC
The residents and pupils take part in art and music projects together

But Margaret House and Barley and Barkway have managed to keep the programme running and hope its success would inspire others to do the same.

"We are absolutely committed to supporting this project," said Carol Porter, the assistant head teacher at Barley and Barkway school.

"We'll always find a way. We can make those curriculum links. So reading is a really integral part of the curriculum. There is time in the curriculum for us to feed those skills in," she added.

"The message [to other care homes] is absolutely, 100% do it," added Lea-Ann Smith, who is the Margaret House's social and wellbeing manager.

"It's so rewarding for the children and beneficial for the residents as well. The social interaction, the emotional interaction - it's absolutely fantastic," she added.

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