Kidzrus, a group of nurseries based in Salford, made a visit to Pendleton Court Care Home on Thursday to sing Christmas songs with the residents there.
Usually, the children would be welcomed into the care home, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to make do with an outside meeting.
Director of Kidzrus, Nicola Fleury, said: “We’ve got really strong links with County Court Care Home, we have for the last couple of years now, and last Christmas the residents actually came to the nursery and we had a Christmas singsong, mince pies and we celebrated Christmas.”
Nicola spoke of how strongly Kidzrus feels about the importance of the meetings, not just for the residents, but for the children too.
She said: “That intergenerational link is absolutely key for both age groups. It’s wonderful for the older people to reminisce, to remind them of their children growing up and it’s also wonderful for the children themselves as many of them don’t have that older person like grandparents at home, so we feel it is really important.”
Care homes have been one of the worst-hit places since the pandemic began, most haven’t allowed visitors since the beginning of the first lockdown.
Nicola continued: “Our Nursery manager, who has been absolutely brilliant, Gemma Fletcher, has great links with Lesley, the care home manager. And Lesley confirmed to us that the residents haven’t had any visitors since March, so us visiting was really refreshing.
“We knew we couldn’t enter the building so we decided that we would make the visit with the residents at the window.”
Kidzrus also recently won Nursery Management Today’s Community Nursery of The Year Award for 2020, as well as the Nursery Group for Under 10 Settings Award, highlighting the fantastic work this nursery has been doing.
In a time of lockdowns and tiresome tiers, it is important to sometimes stop and smell the roses, as Nicola alluded to: “Obviously, since the residents haven’t had any communication since March, it was a lovely change they were really excited, but so were the children. It was an adventure for them, something different and so everyone’s taken something away from it.”
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