By Alexander Hughes and Andrew Wong

This year, we, a group of sixth-formers, have been volunteering at Jesmund Nursing Home - a provider of support for individuals with dementia or recovering after a stroke. Our volunteering has focused on enhancing the residents’ lives through the variety of activities run by the home. So far, not only have we had the chance to play bingo with the residents; we have also enjoyed chatting with them, each conversation being an opportunity both to provide the residents with good company and for us to learn something new - about the residents and about care provision.

On 24th October, the care home celebrated UN Day, which marks the anniversary of the ratification of its foundational charter. This was an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of both its staff and its residents. What is perhaps the most valuable and certainly the most interesting part of celebrating UN Day is the connection it provides for the residents to the wider world but also to their pasts through the stirring of memories of experiences or life abroad. This was very much the focus of our involvement with the care home’s UN Day, which saw us help the residents draw flags for the decoration of the home. This was, of course, more than an opportunity to help the home with its preparations: it allowed us to find out more about the residents as we made the flags, and to add some colour to their lives as we helped them colour in the German flag.

This half-term, we have been involved in helping Jesmund Nursing Home observe Remembrance Day. In addition to joining the residents in making poppies, we created memorial stones to honour veterans buried in Banstead, including a Canadian soldier who had attended Sutton Grammar School for whom we made memorial stones decorated with Canadian flags and the Sutton Grammar owl.