Care Home Carol Service and Morning Refreshments

A morning hosted at Woldingham School to enrich the lives of some of the elderly that live in care homes locally and give an opportunity for some of our pupils to interact with members of the community with differing needs.

Aims

The aim was to provide a special excursion to visit the  elderly in the community and foster links between the girls at the school and local care homes and their residents.  It has been reported that music and contact with young people has a positive impact on the lives of the elderly.

Success was measured by the successful co-ordination of the morning meeting transport needs etc, the happiness of our guests and the growth in maturity and understanding of our girls.  The school community drew huge benefits from hosting such an uplifting and well received event.  The staff and home residents all went away moved and pleased with the whole event.

Background

Woldingham School has hosted similar events for many years in different formats, last year we travelled around to the different homes.  This year Sue Jones, a housemistress at the school decided to introduce a format to make it an in school event therefore having the facilities of a well resourced school at hand to produce a special event.  Sue organised the event visiting the homes with groups of girls and this was an evolvement of that plan.

Resources

The guests and the girls are the most critical resource.  Beyond that the attention to organisation and planning.  The event was run by a non teaching staff member and involved 2 teaching staff (tutors) to supervise the girls, a music teacher to provide musical accompaniment and support staff to prepare the room and refreshments.  The whole event took approximately 2 hours, however, the teachers and girls were only needed for 1 hour to provide the entertainment.  The financial implications included minibus travel for some guests and providing refreshments.

Impact

This is an annual event although a similar event is carried out in the Summer term.  Our assessment came from vocal and written feedback from our guests who described the morning as a huge and immensely enjoyable time.

Pupil Involvement

We had approximately 30 girls aged between 11-12 who sang and served refreshments.

Frequency

This is an annual event.