Osborne Primary Grandparents Day brings generations together

An Edrington primary school welcomed generations of local families when it threw open its doors for a Grandparents Day event. 

Pupils at Osborne Primary School, which is part of the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, were joined by their grandmas, grandads and other friends and family, for two sessions to mark Grandparents Day at the end of September.

Organised by Deputy Headteacher Clare Harris, the two events saw dozens of grandparents attend sessions for Reception and Key Stage 1, and also Key Stage 2, which aimed to reach out to families in the community and engage the children with reading through activities.

The grandparents of the younger children helped them read a book called ‘When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree’ and then had fun making fresh lemon juice with them.

The older children read a book called ‘How to Babysit A Grandad’, which includes advice on how to draw a picture of them – so afterwards the pupils and their grandparents created portraits of each other.

Headteacher Lisa Dodd said: “It was lovely to have the grandparents and parents come into the school.

“After the lockdowns during the pandemic, we really want to encourage the community to come back into the school, and we want them to feel that it’s their building, to create a school family.

“We put out an open invitation and had dozens of grandparents and parents come in. One pupil’s grandma couldn’t come, because she lives in Ireland, so her 96-year-old Great Aunt came instead, which was wonderful.

“The younger children really enjoyed making lemon juice, and the older pupils had great fun drawing their grandparents, and then being drawn by them too.”

At the end of the sessions, the children got to decide if their grandparents had earned a sticker and badge for their work.

Mrs Dodd added: “We had a wonderful response from a lot of families, who said they really enjoyed it and were already looking forward to coming into the next event.

“We are trying to get to know local families and perhaps build a sense of family within the school too and these events really helped with that.

“We even had one grandma offer to cook us food!”