Care home shares stories with children for World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day, children from Walmsley Church of England Primary School on Blackburn Road in Egerton visited residents at neighbouring Egerton Manor Care Centre, for an intergenerational afternoon of fun and storytelling.

Dressed as characters from their favourite books, the mixed age group of 20 children from Y5 and Y6 at the junior school, along with class teachers and community leaders, brought a selection of books to read with the residents.

Residents at Egerton Manor gathered in the lounge to greet the group of children aged between nine and 11 years old, proving that age is no obstacle when it comes to a love for books.

The afternoon was great fun for all; with residents from Egerton Manor enthralling the younger children with readings from their favourite books and sharing memories of their childhood and some of the junior children reading paragraphs and passages from their favourite texts.

Martha Hamill, registered manager at Egerton Manor, says: “Over the last three or four months since our beautiful new home opened and welcomed its first residents, we have slowly built a lovely relationship with the pupils at Walmsley Primary School. World Book Day provided the perfect reason to invite them in again and it was wonderful to see how much fun everyone had in each other’s company sharing their favourite stories.

“Intergenerational activities such as these have such a positive impact, not only on the wellbeing of our residents, but also for the children.  You are never too old to enjoy a good story and seeing the residents read with the children really was lovely.”

Egerton Manor resident, Graham Gibbons, age 93, added: “I have always loved books and still enjoy reading, so it was a real joy to see the school children today, learn about their favourite books and share some popular stories with them.”

Teacher and community lead at Walmsley Primary School, Jenni Brookes, said: “We place a huge focus on reading within the school curriculum with the aim of instilling a lifelong love of books and stories with all of our children.  World Book Day is a great opportunity to celebrate everything that we love about reading, and to be able to share it with the residents at Egerton Manor made it all the more special, proving that reading is for everyone whatever your age.”

New Care is one of the UK’s leading care home providers.  Its portfolio of purpose-built ‘new generation’ care centres is fast gaining an enviable reputation for outstanding care that is second to none.  Egerton Manor is the latest New Care facility to open, situated on Blackburn Road, it offers individual, person-centred residential, dementia and 24 hour nursing care services.