Youngsters go back to the future with time capsule event
Local school children went back to the future when they joined Sanctuary Group and contractors Seddon to fill a time capsule with lots of goodies ready for burial on the site of a new £8m specialist dementia care home in Yarnton.
The event on Thursday, 9th December saw three local children from William Fletcher Primary School; brave the cold weather to take an array of artwork, photographs and letters – produced by them and their classmates – next door to the site of Yarnton Residential & Nursing Home, Rutten Lane.
To tie in with the new care home, pupils from classes four, five and six were asked to produce a piece of work on what they thought life would be like in 70 years. They came up with a whole range of work on themes including transport, sweets, comics, cars and fashion items.
On Thursday they were invited to come to the site, with their high visibility jackets and hard hats at the ready, to help fill the time capsule with their work as well as other things such as a newspaper from the day, a receipt for a weekly grocery shop, a petrol receipt and photographs of what the site was like before the development work began.
Sanctuary Group, together with its on-site construction partner Seddon, is building a specialist dementia care home which is due to be completed in autumn 2011 and the time capsule will be sealed and buried at the top of the driveway – ready to be opened in 2080.
The new home will be called Yarnton Residential & Nursing Home and is set to have 60 en-suite bedrooms, communal areas, a restaurant, a hairdressers, beauty salon and themed sensory gardens.
Sanctuary’s Director of Care Len Merton said: “I have been very impressed by the work the children have produced for our time capsule – it was so colourful and imaginative. I have no doubt that when our time capsule is opened in 70 years both young and old will have a lot of fun comparing what life is actually like to how the children imagined it would be.”
Headteacher from William Fletcher Primary, Chris Laybourn said: “The children had a lot of fun with the project and were very enthusiastic about being able to produce anything they liked within the brief we gave them – I was particularly impressed with the children’s work on environmental issues and global warming. It was exciting for them to be able to come onto the site of the new home and see it being built – although we’re going to have to give their shoes a good clean before they go home!”