BJF and a local primary school worked together recently with colleagues from Keele University to explore the subject of pets, companionship and ageing.
During our meetings, through conversations and by working together, we found that the connections we have with our pets remains the same across the generations.
Bringing older and younger people together is part of BJF’s intentional intergenerational work. By spending time together, focusing on a topic of interest, we often discover what we have in common, our similarities across the life span.
We facilitated a workshop in June at St John’s DE (A) Primary school for the children and invited older people join us. We also invited a local company, Rent A Beast who provide educational sessions. www.rentabeast.org They are passionate about educating through interaction, bringing in a huge variety of minibeasts into the classroom.
“From leaf insects to tarantulas, we specialize in invertebrates and all our sessions are very interactive where each child (and teacher!) can get hands on whilst learning all about the amazing world of creepy crawlies.”
The second workshop was held in July at Parkfield House (BJF), where everyone was encouraged to creatively share stories of their experiences of pets.
The final workshop took place a few weeks later, with reflections on our times together and what we had learned from each other. Our last session involved capturing stories on film, with photographs and drawings. These stories and the artworks will be collected in print to share the learning from this project more widely.
Recently we returned to St John’s CE (A) Primary School and invited everyone who took part in this project, along with their family members and friends. We shared our film Pets, Companionship and Ageing which shows the story of this project, featuring some of the stories and artwork produced. During the workshops, one of the children commented that it would have been lovely to see some larger animals, like Llamas. So, BJF arranged for Teddy and Carlos, two friendly alpacas from Knightley Alpaca Trekking to join our film show event.
We would like to thank the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at Keele University for both the funding and for taking part in this project. With thanks also to our colleagues at St John’s CE (A) Primary school for another wonderful, intergenerational collaboration. Thanks to Rent A Beast and to Knightley Alpaca Trekking for bringing along the animals. Thank you to The Community Cast for producing the film Pets, Companionship and Ageing, enabling us to share this wonderful project. Huge thanks to the children, to our volunteers and older community members for helping us to learn more about pets, companionship and ageing.