Wednesday 27th September

This week we visited our friends at Winton Court and what a lovely time we had! We enjoyed sharing our story books, playing games and drawing. One of the residents shared some stories with us about his life working on a farm. This led to us building vehicles and animals with our sticklebricks. The children were amazed by the different types of machinery used on a farm and in particular wanted to know what a combine harvesters job is.

We have observed some wonderful interactions between the residents and children. In particular, we have found that books are a fabulous way for everyone to engage with one another. Books are a universal language where the pictures can tell many stories. The residents are currently enjoying some of our Julia Donaldson stories.

We're back!!! - September 13th 2023

This week saw us head back to Winton Court with a brand new group of children. These children will stay with us for the coming year, visiting the care village regularly. This week the children enjoyed getting to know the residents. We have already seen relationship between the children and residents begin to bloom.

We took a variety of activities for everyone to engage in. The children happily shared their resources with the residents and even supported them by handing them equipment, putting lids on pens and moving closer to them so everything was more accessible.

“ “How did you feel at the care home?”
Kirsten”
— "Happy because Jean” child

Saturday 29th July 2023 - Our Final Farewell

Today was a very special day for everyone. It was our final farewell to all the special friends we have made at Winton Court over the last year. But today was a little different as we had invited all the families of the children and residents to finally meet. We also had some surprises up our sleeves!

The day began with some special awards for the residents who have been working with us. They received a special gift and a certificate after being nominated by one of the children. We then moved on to giving the children a special certificate for their work over the last year. They were all really proud of themselves! We shared the preview of our video from our time at Winton Court. Everyone finally got to see just how magical this project has been and how much of an impact it has had on everyone involved.

We held a toast to our friends and everyone was given the chance to meet one another. The residents and children’s families enjoyed chatting about our visits and finally faces could be put to names. This was a remarkable project to be part of and we cannot wait for September to visit our friends at Winton Court.

Friday 28th July 2023

This week we celebrated our very last session at Winton Court. We were all feeling a little sad but we wanted to celebrate our time together. It was also Pat’s 95th birthday so we definitely needed to host a party. The music was in full swing with lots of party games and of course, cake! The children showed off their amazing dance skills as well as showing everyone how to play musical statues, musical bumps and musical corners.

When it was time to leave we were all sad but we remembered that we would be back tomorrow with our families to say a proper goodbye.

Friday 30th June 2023

This week we visited our lovely friends at Winton Court. As soon as we arrived, the children immediately went to greet their friends and tell them all about what they had been up to since their last visit. We also brought lots of new photographs to share with our friends. Everyone enjoyed looking at themselves in the photographs and pointing out what they were doing.

This week was a particularly special week for us. Working on our Born4life project alongside the Ready Generations charity, we were able to nominate a special person who has been involved in our project. It was extremely difficult to choose just one person as everyone has been so welcoming but we did put the lovely Jean’s name forward and she is now our ‘Intergenerational Champion’. A huge well done to Jean. You deserve it!

Friday 14th July 2023

This week was a very exciting week as we had a special visit from Newcastle cat and dog shelter who brought three therapy kittens to Winton Court. One of our residents adores cats and was very excited to meet the kittens.

We were truly amazed by how gentle and caring the children were with the kittens. The enjoyed carefully stroking them and watching them running around playing. The residents also enjoyed holding the kittens and spending time with them. At the end of the session, the kittens went into their ‘play basket’ and the children enjoyed observing them interact with one another. We want to say a huge thank you to Chris and his team for making today so special for everyone.

Thursday 13th April 2023

This week we wanted to work together to make the community lounge look beautiful to celebrate the kings coronation. The children and adults chose the flowers they wanted to create a bouquet of flowers to put in a vase. Theo wanted to work with Terry to create his bouquet and talked with him about what colour flowers they would choose. Theo then gave Terry a pair of scissors to trim the edges of the flowers. They worked together to trim them down and place them into the vase.

“I was holding the book because she couldn’t hold it. I headed the book for Evelyn. I told her what was happening using the pictures”.

Visiting our Friends at the ‘Caring Home’ - March 2023

This children have enjoyed another trip to the ‘caring home’ to visit their friends. As it was ‘World Book Day’ we asked children to come dressed as their favourite character. We had Elsa’s, Stickman, Mr Sneeze, Little Red Riding Hood, Skeleton bat, tigers and rabbits. The children enjoyed working with the adults playing games, reading stories and making their own stories.

Henrietta created her own book and asked each adult their name and what their favourite thing is. She then drew their favourite thing in her book. Terry kindly drew a horse for her as horses are his favourite thing. Henrietta was very proud of her book and when she returned to nursery made a copy so she could share it with her friends at the caring home.