Active Age for All are very pleased to have been given the chance to collaborate with a class of transition year students from the community college on a 4 week project of intergenerational activities proposed by one of their teachers.

The first week was an hour of meet and greet, getting to know one and other, with the 3 elders outlining their life experiences and the students then telling us of their aims and ambitions. Then a bit of team work with a music quiz, quiz master Gemma was kind enough to put in some antique stuff for the ancients !

Also we were able to discuss with the students about what they would be interested in doing as part of the project; not really a surprise but sporting activities came out very strongly. The plan that evolved was the sports of pickleball, bowls and table tennis with a balance of jewellery making and photography.
On our second day there was a choice of pickleball or jewellery making with the majority opting for the jewellery making, our tutor Helen had her hands full with 17 girls and boys all eager to be creative.

Meanwhile Active Age members Joe and Noel were running the rest around the courts at pickleball.

The next session was on photography with members of the AAfA camera club giving a talk and practical session on the basics, with an emphasis on getting the best out of the mobile phone camera. We then gave them a variety of objects eg: shells, pottery figures, fabric and asked them to use different lights and angles to create pleasing photographs. The Bleeding Pig Festival have invited the students to put on an exhibition of their photos as part of the festival in May and I really hope that they do as a lot of talent emerged in this session.

The last session of carpet bowls and table tennis in the Sports Hall was good fun; the table tennis was very energetic but the carpet bowls, I think, was the biggest surprise for the students. Initially they viewed this as too easy, too quiet and gentle but they quickly discovered that it wasn’t as easy as it looked and presents quite a challenge, and some skill, to get that bowl going where you want it to !

These four weeks have been an absolute pleasure for the three of us and the willing helpers brought it for specific activities, we were all very impressed with the students, a lovely bunch. Many thanks to the teachers from the Community College and the Active Age members who took part, we do hope that this could become an annual (or bi-annual) event, there is a lot more scope there.