What started as a few Christmas cards has now led to a lasting relationship between a primary school and a care home.

In December Kirkbride Primary School youngsters were tasked with sending cards to the residents of Inglewood Care home in Wigton – and the whole school got behind it, sending in dozens of cards.

Now the school and home have started to exchange letters with residents, with children becoming penpals.

Asda in Carlisle chose Inglewood to be its Christmas Community Charity and they involved Kirkbride School to join in and write personal cards to all the service users.

Home manager Audrey McKay said: “The service users really enjoyed receiving the letters and we are over the moon to have been chosen by Asda to be their charity.”

After the cards, headteacher Dawn Maxwell helped rally the children and encouraged them to send the residents letters

Mrs McKay said: “We handed the letters out to everyone and they were thrilled to get them. The residents that are able to will be writing back to the youngsters and we hope we can nurture our relationship with them.

"It’s really important to do activities such as this as it helps keep the residents simulated. It’s a difficult time and we look forward to in future, when it is safe, to meeting with the children.”

Echoing Mrs McKay's sentiments, head Mrs Maxwell said: “When we did the Christmas cards we had children in school, and at the moment we only have a few children in. But they all took part. One nursery child even explained what to write to the teacher, who was able to do it for her.

“We’re hoping to do more with Inglewood and I hope in the near future we can host a Zoom call. I think It would be great for the children to see who they have been writing to.

“The children wrote about their lives and what they had been doing, and they’re now looking forward to getting a reply.”