Wellington School Students Work with the Elderly to Alleviate Loneliness

Wellington School is committed to supporting the elderly and trying to alleviate loneliness.

Pupils from Year 10 upwards elect to be part of the Citizens Programme, designed to provide public community benefit.

Aims

During Wellington Citizenship lessons this term our students we have been focusing on the ‘senior’ citizens in our communities – those over the age of 65.  It is a concern that during the pandemic, contact between the generations may have been more sporadic than in usual times and that this may lead to potential generational divides within our communities.  Students have devised a project as a way that we may be able to mitigate this a little. 

 

Background

One aspect of the programme has been for all students, both from the day and boarding community, to research, discover and collate simple biographical information about the most senior members of their families.  There have been some wonderful stories discovered.  This has enabled students to find out that their grandparents were also young once – with the hopes and dreams that being young brings.  It has hoped that this has helped students develop empathy for all elderly members of the community.

Students have also developed a ‘pen pal’ letter correspondence with elderly members of the Old Wellingtonians community and are also forging links with the elderly in some of the local care homes.  

 

Resources

Time, each Friday afternoon is dedicated to the Citizens programme and pupils write letters and research in their own time.

Impact

It is hoped that this correspondence will continue throughout the year, with the aim that if we get back to some form of social normality in the new year, we can have a tea party for the elderly we have got to know and share stories about their contemporaries around Britain and the world. It would be great if we could build links with all generations within our’ Wellington community.

Pupil Involvement

Pupils from Year 10 upwards elect to be part of the Citizens programme. They have worked to develop this project as well as activating it.

Frequency

Each Friday afternoon in term time is dedicated to this activities and in addition, students work on this project in their own time.