Care Home Residents Delighted by Spring Crafts Afternoon with Children from Local Primary School

Lancashire Adult Learning (LAL) has launched a new Spring Crafts course for children and care home residents in Preston, as part of its family learning provision.

The course took place at Banksfield Care Home, which specialises in residential and dementia care for the elderly. LAL’s teachers delivered an afternoon of crafting activities this week to a group of children from Fulwood and Cadley Primary School and the home’s service users.

The course provided fantastic opportunities for both the children and the residents at Banksfield. The spring crafts activity aids in helping boost both the cognitive and physical abilities of the residents and proved a fun and engaging activity for the children. Additionally, the social benefits of spending time with the children of Fulwood and Cadley Primary School is seeming to have an effective impact on combatting loneliness within these settings.

The initiative builds on LAL’s longstanding relationship with Fulwood and Cadley Primary School, where the College’s teachers go out to deliver courses to parents in schools to help them better support their children’s learning. This new course extends the support to care home residents and strengthens the College’s commitment to engaging with the local community.

Banksfield Care Home’s service users enjoyed working alongside the children for a crafting afternoon making decorative crafts, which they displayed on the walls for all to see. According to Ria, the Manager at Banksfield Care Home; “Our residents had an absolutely wonderful time with the children doing craft work, they haven’t stopped talking about it, even after a few days they are still saying how wonderful the children were.”

Courses such as this further LAL’s commitment to providing inclusive, innovative, and high-quality adult learning and family learning opportunities for local communities in Lancashire. The College hopes to build on the success of this initiative and continue to strengthen its partnerships with schools and care homes in the area.

For more information on Lancashire Adult Learning and its courses, please visit https://www.lal.ac.uk/what-we-do/family-learning/