Silver Robin asks school children to write letters to the elderly – helping to reduce loneliness Pupils writing to the elderly is about connecting people and writing with a purpose.
Oxford, Dec 4, 2019 (Issuewire.com) - Avril Lethbridge, the founder of Silver Robin, is calling for school leaders to encourage children to write to their grandparents or the elderly in their communities to reduce loneliness.
Schools who take part in this new initiative have found that having a clear purpose helps children to produce these handwritten letters and encourages even the most reluctant writers.
Chronic loneliness is a major issue across the UK with 1.4m* lonely older people in England alone.
Avril Lethbridge says that "Loneliness is a major issue that is now widely recognised in society today, which is only getting worse. This is an easy way that we can connect generations and make someone's day and put a smile on their face."
The Silver Robin letter-writing scheme is currently running across six schools in Oxfordshire and their leaders are finding it has benefits all around:
"A challenge in all schools today is making writing for children purposeful. The letter writing scheme helped our children switch off technology and switch onto the idea of writing a letter." Says Lynn Knapp, Windmill Primary School in Headington.
Schools are being asked to sign up to the scheme in time for Christmas, so they can start the new decade connecting young pupils with older relations or the elderly in their local community through traditional letter writing. Those signing up will receive a project pack by email created with the funds donated by Bicester Village.
"For one elderly relative, it's sad but the reality is that receiving a letter could be the only contact they have that week. Perhaps for one pupil in the class, possibly a very reluctant writer, it could be the just the purposeful writing task they need to help them really engage with writing."
It takes a couple of minutes to register and there is a download available to help schools implement the Silver Robin initiative at school.
School leaders and teachers wanting to find out more about Silver Robin should visit http://bit.ly/SilverRobin to sign up for updates.
You can also follow @Silver_Robin1 on Twitter #SilverRobin
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