Lewis School Pengam saw pupils and older people from the local community come together on Wednesday 9th July at a special ‘Goldies’ event.
‘Goldies’, short for Golden Oldies, is a national charity that offers monthly singing and activity sessions for the elderly across England and Wales. They have recently launched ‘Time after Time’ – a Big Lottery funded intergenerational project – that allows young and old to get together to commemorate the First World War through song. ‘Goldies’ founder Grenville Jones visited Lewis School Pengam’s intergenerational club to lead a special sing-along session.
Music pupils joined elderly members of the community to enjoy a range of hits, kicking off with ‘Summer Holiday’ by Cliff Richard, patron of the Golden Oldies charity. Renditions of Tom Jones and ABBA followed as everybody got into the party spirit, singing, dancing and even playing air guitar before chanting along to ‘Sweet Caroline’. A medley of World War I tunes led to poignant remembrance of both World Wars and the enormous impact they had on people’s lives. Pupils were able to enjoy lunch whilst chatting to their newfound friends, sharing stories about their lives and families. Lewis School holds an intergenerational club every Wednesday lunchtime and will now be making ‘Goldies’ a monthly event.
Cllr. David Carter, Mayor of Caerphilly county borough, praised the event saying: “The ‘Goldies’ event was a tremendous success. It was a joy to see the generations getting together for a good old fashioned sing song. I think that more schools should get behind ‘Goldies’ and involve the whole community in a great fun event.
“Goldies give thousands of excellent pupils a chance to meet with people of an earlier generation, and for the earlier generation to see and share the great new modern facilities that our schools are providing, and of course help make our schools truly community focused.”
Cllr Rhianon Passmore, Cabinet Member for Education & Lifelong Learning, said: “It’s always a pleasure to see schools in Caerphilly county borough engaging successfully with their local community. I’m delighted that Lewis School have had the brilliant opportunity to work with ‘Goldies’ and that pupils enjoyed chatting and singing over lunch while hearing some fantastic stories and experiences of the older members of their local community. Well done to all in this fantastic initiative.”
