VIDEO: Scarborough pen pals scheme cuts across generation gap

As part of the pen pals scheme organised by the charity, 31 Year 6 pupils from St Peter’s Primary School have been paired up with 31 elderly people and have written them letters to find out more about their lives, the war and other major events from the past.

Community Link Workers at Age UK Scarborough & District Sarah Cockburn said: “For the children it was really interesting because they don’t normally receive hand-written letters and for older people it was lovely to be asked to take part in this and share bits about their lives and their stories.”

Students invited their pen pals to their school play to meet them for the first time.

Georgia Maril Weiss, 11, who had been writing to 80-year-old Anne Phillips, said: “I found it a really nice experience because I don’t normally have many people with a different lifestyle that I can talk to. We have quite a lot of things in common.”

Anne added: “We talked about our hobbies, the things that Georgia does now and she asked me about the war and what care home I live in. I told her that I still live at home”, she laughed.

Anne and Georgia will continue writing to each other and organisers are looking to run the programme again next year.