Gyles Brandreth hosts virtual 'poetry party' with East Sussex care home and nursery

Author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth made a virtual visit to Hastings Court Care Home and Bear's House Nursery to recite poetry and have afternoon tea and cake.

Gyles Brandreth, former MP, who starred in Celebrity Gogglebox and is a veteran of QI set up the ‘Poetry Together’ initiative along with Dukes Education in 2019 to unite young and old through reciting poems learnt by heart.

The intergenerational initiative has the support of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

To keep the initiative going through lockdown, carehome.co.uk and daynurseries.co.uk, got together with Gyles Brandreth to create Lockdown Poetry Together.

Mr Brandreth, founder of www.poetrytogether.com, said: “It’s brilliant that even in lockdown the very old and the very young are getting together through poetry.

“Learning poetry by heart is a fun way to keep the brain active and sharing a poem – and tea and cake – is a wonderful way for different generations to get together."

When Poetry Together was launched last year hundreds of schools and care homes took part across the UK.

"It’s fantastic that even in lockdown, people are finding virtual ways to have a poetry party. It’s just brilliant," says Mr Brandreth.

The children from Bear’s House Nursery in St Leonards on Sea aged between two and four started the proceedings by reciting the nursery rhyme ‘Incy Wincy Spider’. Then it was over to Hastings Court residents where they recited Edward Lear’s poem ‘The Pobble Who Has No Toes’. The nursery children waved their fish they had made and shouted 'Fish fiddle de-dee' in time with the residents.

Gillian Brown, resident of Hastings Court Care Home who knows ‘The Pobble Who Has No Toes’ poem off by heart said: “I have known this poem forever. It was a favourite of mine growing up.”

The residents insited they wanted to do the whole poem

Kimberley Mann, lifestyles manager at Hastings Court Care Home, said: “The project has brought [the residents] altogether and it has helped them focus their minds.

“This has been really good mental stimulation for them. They have been reminiscing what poems they learned in their childhood and what poems they have remembered from when they were young."

Hastings Court Care Home were initially going to recite three out of the six verses and impressed Ms Mann when they insisted they wanted to recite the whole poem.

Ms Mann said: "They didn’t feel the story was being told with only the three verses so they took on the challenge of wanting to know the whole poem.

"Rhythm and rhyme also helped our residents remember when we broke the verses down.”

Mr Brandreth told residents and children that he will be sending a recording to HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

In the afternoon, both care home and the nursery joined Zoom again to recite Tommy Thumb and Twinkle Twinkle Little star.

Chloe Green, deputy manager from Bear’s House Nursery, said: “Rehearsing the poem with the children was really good as it got the children excited. The children were really enthusiastic to learn Tommy Thumb as it introduced a lot of actions as we do Makaton signing.

“We will definitely be carrying on learning poetry as it is so good for their literacy and it helps children with speech and language difficulties. It can really help them as they can do it with the actions.”

As a way of communicating to their families and friends, the residents of Hastings Court Care Home have also created their own newspaper titled ‘The Hastings Court Crier’.

Residents are allocated different sections of the Crier. There is a sports reporter who covers the in-house table football tournaments between residents, an entertainment correspondent, a beauty writer, art critic and a cartoonist.

“One of our residents likes to write poetry so she is going to be doing some more poetry writing to put in our newspaper The Hastings Court Crier. The residents want to get together and do more poetry together,” says Ms Mann.

After the lockdown has ended, residents at Hastings Court now want to invite pupils from Bear’s House Nursery to have a Teddy Bears’ Picnic together.

If your care home would like to get involved with a local nursery to do a virtual poetry party, please click here to find out where your nearest nursery is.

Please send us your videos and stories of of the event and we can share them on our website.

To find out more about Poetry Together 2020 click here

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