Dementia sufferers have been teaching high school students history as part of a ground-breaking new project.

Shuttleworth College, Padiham, has teamed up with Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Memory Assessment Services to help pupils learn while encouraging dementia patients to test their memories.

The project, which was launched in February, is now being extended by headteacher Martin Burgess who said the new GCSE Citizenship group was to invite health bosses into the school to share the details of the project.

Dr Amanda Thornton, Lancashire Care Lead Psychologist for Older People and brainchild of the project, said: “A diagnosis of dementia can have a devastating impact upon a person’s sense of identity and confidence.

“Helping to deliver lessons on history provides the perfect opportunity to engage people with memory problems, as memories of school days and early life are normally well preserved, even when newer memories may be lost.

“This experience has been shown to bolster the person’s self-esteem and sense of value at a very challenging time”

Head of Humanities Alan Riley said: “Hearing a first hand historical account really helps bring ‘history to life’, giving students a real flavour of how life used to be. It also teaches them how to use oral history sources as evidence of the past.

“Over and above that, enjoying each other’s company in the lesson has challenged younger and older people’s views of each other.”

The year 10 citizenship class have developed DVDs, posters, presentations and role plays that they will showcase to Health Professionals and Managers at the school.

Mr Burgess added: “We want this opportunity to be available in our school for a long time, so we need to make sure that those who can help us know how much we have valued it.”

Source: Lancashire Telegraph