KGS Pupils Undertake Multi-Generational Visits with St Rognvald’s House

Local school pupils have been given an insight into careers in social care thanks to a partnership initiative between Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Orkney and St Rognvald’s House in Kirkwall.

Throughout the past academic year, pupils from Kirkwall Grammar School have been developing and delivering a range of activities to residents of St Rognvald’s House, giving pupils an opportunity to engage with residents and learn more about some of the roles available in social care.

Kirstin Swannie, Senior Social Care Worker at St Rognvald’s, worked with DYW Orkney to offer this activity to interested pupils.  She said:  “The pupils who came along to St Rognvald’s were fantastic, developing activities that helped residents with their fine motor skills, cognitive ability and overall wellbeing.

“As the programme progressed and relationships between the young people and residents developed, pupils were able to shadow staff members, assisting residents back to their rooms after the activities had been delivered.  This has enabled them to build their confidence and get an insight into the different aspects of working in social care.”

Two pupils took part in the programme.  They were identified after they had indicated to the school’s DYW Co-ordinator that social care was an area they were interested in learning more about.

DYW School Co-ordinators are based in the two local secondary schools and three Junior High Schools and they work with local employers to develop and deliver employer engagement activities to help them develop transferrable skills and learn more about careers.  This programme was developed to give pupils an introduction to social care, helping them to see if this was a career they wanted to pursue when they leave school.

Pupils used their study periods on a Monday afternoon to visit St Rognvald’s House to work with residents.  They attend every three weeks, using the other weeks to plan and develop their activities.

Leah Rendall, DYW School Co-ordinator at Kirkwall Grammar Schools explains, “The programme has given the pupils a good introduction to social care and being responsible for developing and delivering the activities has given them ownership of the visits.  At the start of the programme, they met with Kirstin Swannie who helped them to understand the reasons behind the different activities that are delivered and throughout their visits to St Rognvald’s House they got to see these benefits first hand.”

Some of the activities that pupils developed included painting stones, Halloween crafts and playing with a parachute.

One of the pupils who took part said:  “I really enjoyed my time spent at St Rognvald’s doing activities, as I loved getting to know the residents and hearing the stories they wanted to share. I also enjoyed the rewarding feeling when leaving, knowing that you have managed to make someone's day by simply sitting and having a chat with them or doing a little activity.

“I went into placement not knowing what career path I wanted to go down so was trying to find what I enjoyed most, I feel the care home would be a very rewarding job, the staff are all lovely as well; it would be a great team to be part of.”

Kirstin Swannie concluded:  “Multigenerational visits such as these are hugely beneficial to everyone involved, as well as the benefits to the older people, the school pupils were able to develop their transferrable skills and build their confidence.  We were delighted to work with Leah on developing this activity and I hope we will be able to continue the programme next year.”