During the Pandemic we connected with the residents at Silvanna Court through Zoom assemblies. We used these assemblies to join together for a sing song, which lifted everyone's spirits.
Christmas 2021
With the help of our School Community, we ensured every resident received a Christmas gift to open on Christmas morning. Two members of our Pupil Council helped Mrs Blakeley deliver the gifts.
Once Silvanna Court was able to open its doors again to visitors Book Club was established. This was based on the idea of 'Silver Stories' but instead of children reading stories over the phone, we visited the residents in person. We have continued to do this weekly each Monday since.
To enhance our links even further, our Pen Pal scheme was created. Each class had a resident friend attached to them.
Jean (Silvanna's PenPal lead) is still regularly writing to Gold Class today.
As part of our Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Year 6 took part in a VR project by 'The Way Back'. Following some training in class, they spent a morning visiting Silvanna Court to share the videos and talk to our resident friends about the Queen's coronation.
Jean ended the session with a fantastic speech. We all loved visiting and meeting the resident friends and our PenPals.
Year Four are looking forward to being part of the 'Archie Project' this year.
Mark Neville from the Alzheimer’s society was in school on Wednesday 21st September to deliver two assemblies and a staff meeting around Dementia. He was amazed by the behaviour and responses from the children and was very impressed by their questioning and maturity.
11/11/22
We were so excited that Marina (Manager) and Jean from Silvanna Court could come along to our school today to judge our Poetry Slam. Jean performed a poem that her granddaughter had written especially for us.
21/12/22
We were so excited to be asked to be part of The Singing for The Brain online Christmas concert. Year three pre recorded their three songs and were all able to log on and watch the concert on Zoom
Email from the Singing for the Brain organisers:
Dear Heidi Blakeley and the Year 3 team, along with the wonderful pupils at Abacus,
We want to thank all of you for your enthusiasm to participate in Alzheimer’s Society Christmas Carol Concert on Zoom. Your singing was brilliant, each and every one of you has a tuneful and melodious voice. You all looked so Christmassy.
A huge thank you to you all for participating in the Dementia Friends sessions. It is lovely to think of young people like you knowing about dementia and able to pass that information on to family and friends in the years ahead, so that people with dementia in Wickford can be truly understood and supported to live well.
The Archie Project
On 12th and 13th December 2022, Year 4 visited Silvanna Court to read to our resident friends and talk to them about The Archie Project, which they are taking part in. The residents loved hearing the children read and enjoyed talking with them.
To find out more about The Archie project visit https://www.reminiscencelearning.co.uk/archie
Hug Dolls
The Wellbeing Ambassadors were delighted to receive delivery of our two Hug dolls this week. We will be delivering these to Silvanna Court next week.
Our Wellbeing Ambassadors visited Silvanna Court on Monday afternoon to deliver the Hug dolls which were purchased with money raised from their cake sale. Marian, Alan, Jean, Una, Ivy and Wendy loved them and they all had giant smiles on their faces before we left.
