Primary school children are turning teacher to help educate their peers about dementia.

Year 5 and 6 pupils at Glebe Primary School have teamed up with residents at nearby Parkfield Housing Care Home for the innovative project aiming to breakdown stereotypes and uncertainty among children about dementia.

Known as G-Force, the group of children are all from military families or have caring roles. Over the past 2 years they've built up friendships with residents during creative workshops supported by artists and creative ageing charity Equal Arts.

Seeing the benefit creativity and being in the moment can have for people living with dementia, the 10 and 11-year-olds have come up with a novel way to share their knowledge and understanding of the condition with other children and families.

“G Force was set up with the pupils as a way for them to make friends and make a difference in their community. It's been wholly led by their interests and ideas and wanting to share with others their experiences of spending time with people at Parkfield to help build a strong community. We can’t wait to see how the project develops!”

“We think it’s important for people to know more about dementia, some children and adults don’t know what to expect and that can seem scary. If someone you know has dementia, like your Nan and they do something out of character, it can help if you know about dementia. We have friends in school whose grandparents have got dementia so we really wanted more people to know what this means and to understand.”

The 12-month project, funded by The Co-op Foundation's Young Gamechangers Fund, will see the children, residents and artists, supported by Equal Arts, exploring stories and visual arts to create an animation and information that can be toured across classrooms.

Keep up-to-date with the project here!