Library Pen Pals Overview: Aims and Goals

Here at St Dunstan’s School, we wanted to create a club that would help students with their transactional writing skills ahead of their English GCSE exams, whilst also connecting with the local community, and improving communication, self-expression and empathy. We got in touch with Glastonbury Care Home as we thought that writing letters to residents would be a perfect way to enhance all of these areas, whilst bringing joy and companionship to local residents, particularly those who once would have once communicated mostly through letter-writing, and would enjoy seeing the dying art resurrected. It has so far been a wonderful success. We opened it up to Year 9 and 10 students, as they would get the most benefit from the letter-writing practice ahead of their exams, whilst also having the emotional maturity to respond to the residents in a way that would resonate with them. Many of the residents we have teamed up with have dementia, and want to discuss their youth and their early life. In our introductory letters to the residents, the students asked lots of questions about residents’ school days, and talked about their favourite lessons and hobbies. All our students signed their letters with a pseudonym, for safeguarding reasons, and they all chose names that resonated with them. Once the letters were sent, the care home assigned residents with students, who will remain each others’ penpals for the duration of the project so they can form a better connection. When we received our return letters from the residents, our students were incredibly excited (and had been eager the whole time they had been waiting for their responses). It was a wonderful moment for St Dunstan’s, seeing our students jumping for joy and feeling sentimental about their new penpal, and connections were instantly forged.

St Dunstan’s looks forward to enhancing this connection over the coming year, with more letters back and forth, and visits to the care home. Library Pen Pals has moved on from being predominantly about GCSE practice and now has become about care and compassion for the residents, with students excited to send Christmas cards, and to visit them and get involved in fun activities. We think it will be equally as beneficial for our students as it will be for the residents. Our students are already learning the value of empathy and service through connecting with their pen pals, and the project will further enhance respect and communication, connecting our students with a different generation in a caring and generous way, ensuring residents feel comfortable by discussing topics that interest them most. It will be a challenge for our students to communicate in a different way to the way they do at school, and it is a challenge they are keen to accept. The letter-writing practice will also enhance their vocabulary, their ability to express themselves and even help shape their self-expression and deepen understanding of their own character as so far the letters have been insightful and caused the students to really question what it is they enjoy and what they want in life.  We have already been impressed with the level of kindness our students have shown, and the level of enthusiasm with which they have taken to this project. It is wonderful to see.

Our future letter-writing will continue, and we aim to visit the residents four times across the spring/summer terms to discuss books for world book day, get active with residents in aid of National Walking month in May, to make music for World Music Day and to discuss plans for the summer ahead in July. Next year we would love to roll out this initiative across other year groups, beyond the pen pal group, to get other years involved in the community, improving connections between residents of the care home and our students, as it will be beneficial beyond our pen pal group.

Pen Pals Letters

Library Pen Pals Trip Letter