Pensioners’ Link
Our Pensioners’ Link programme is one of our longest standing partnerships, established over 25 years ago.
Partnerships and social action have long been an integral part of life at South Hampstead, harnessing our pupils and staff to support those in the wider community. History Teacher, Mrs Boyarsky, has been involved in our partnerships with local care homes since 2003.
“Our Pensioners’ Link scheme is a wonderful way for students to make a real difference in people’s lives. Their weekly lunchtime visits create a huge buzz in our local care homes. When a young person sits down in front of a resident and begins to engage with them, you see a spark and lots of smiles.
The scheme enables Year 10 students to visit residents at three local care homes, often as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. During the academic year, they give up a lunchtime a week (even in snow, or sleet) to visit Henderson Court on Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Spring Grove on Finchley Road, and Compton Lodge Care Home on Hartley Road. Students are responsible for planning activities with the residents and have arranged singing sessions, board game tournaments, piano playing, colouring and rounds of bingo, as well as acting as dance partners! The scheme continued during lockdown with students writing letters to residents, sending cards and festive decorations instead of their usual visits; they also set up a website to send videos to the residents.
For me, the scheme is wonderful because I get to see the joy the girls bring to the elderly; I also learn so much about the girls on our walks to and from the care homes. I am always struck by how interesting, funny, thoughtful and kind they are – the care home residents are very lucky! Pensioners’ Link shows students how they can make a genuine impact. When the scheme ends, some students continue to arrange their own visits to care homes, close to where they live.”
Mrs Boyarsky has helped to create other partnerships in the local community, setting up links with our local foodbank at JW3 and leading on South Hampstead’s Mitzvah Day social action activities each year. Pre-pandemic, she arranged for Year 10 students to volunteer at JW3’s In the Loop programme, teaching IT skills to the elderly so that they could take advantage of the connections new technology brings, teaching them to text, Skype, set up family WhatsApp groups and initiating Zoom calls. With the subsequent pandemic, these skills hopefully enabled local elderly residents to alleviate the isolation.