Marten House is a retirement home in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. London Meed Primary School is located just a 15 minute walk away.

Scheme manager, Dee, has told us that the visits are a highlight of the month at Marten House. They are now one of the most popular communal activities, with residents and children getting to know each other over a variety of different activities, from human bingo to life story interviews. 

The visits have enabled quieter residents to come out of their shell. One of the residents is deaf and would not usually participate in such activities. The children were very understanding and she ended up teaching them how to spell out the alphabet in sign language. This interaction led the resident to run a sign language session with other residents, helping drive further connection within the scheme.

Another resident lives far away from her grandchildren and one of the children asked to call her ‘grandma’. She loved being able to speak about her life and her grandchildren with other children.