Nursery Celebrates Intergenerational Connections After Award Success

Nursery Celebrates Intergenerational Connections After Award Success

Children at The Nursery in Belong at Belong Chester, which is operated by national charity Ready Generations, have been marking national days honouring their older friends and celebrating national recognition for its positive impact on the local community.

Their weekly intergenerational Stay and Play session, which brings together parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, nursery children and babies from the local community for a morning of creative play and music, was used to celebrate Silver Sunday. Originally started as a local campaign to tackle loneliness and isolation and raise the profile of older people within communities, the annual event is now celebrated nationwide and brings people of all generations together through free activities.

Nursery children wore Silver Sunday t-shirts and gave balloons and chocolates to their older friends. There was also a family sing-along with the Sankofa Songsters, the intergenerational choir comprising nursery children and care village residents.

National Grandparents’ Day, which acknowledges the important role of grandparents in society and provides an opportunity for families to show their gratitude and respect for older generations, was marked with a ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’. With help from grandparents and care village residents, children created hats before parading their creations around the village. They also made jam tarts to give to their grand-friends to show their appreciation for them.

The events come less than a week after the Nursery in Belong was highly commended in the Community Support Award at the national Nursery World Awards, recognising its positive impact on the wider community, as well as the children attending the nursery, their families and care village residents.

Commenting on a memorable week, Ready Generations co-founder Sue Egersdorff said: “A little over a year after the nursery opened, we are delighted to be recognised for demonstrating the benefits of multi-generational relationships, as well as contributing to the pool of knowledge on best practice in this growing area at these and other prestigious professional awards. The events this week are a great example of the value of this work.”

Pictured: Nursery children and their older friends mark Silver Sunday. Back: Local residents Alec and Pat Pilsbury. Front: Ashleigh Evans, aged 3, (left) and Evie Heywood, aged 3, (right).