Welcome to LaST

Building intergenerational connections face to face and online 

LaST (Learning and Sharing Together) is an intergenerational programme which has been created and successfully used in Burnham, Buckinghamshire since 2002.

Designed to be run as a partnership project between a primary school and a group of older people, LaST is ideally suited for use in sheltered housing schemes, residential care, day care or many other community settings.  Meetings can be face to face or online.

Based on over 20 years’ practice in Burnham, we have developed the LaST Toolkit in order to share our experience, ideas and materials.  The Toolkit includes detailed guidance to help you get started and everything you need to run your own intergenerational programme for a school year based on 30 themed modules. Each module contains a detailed session plan and all the material you should need to run a session of up to 90 minutes. In addition, there are some themed projects each of which contains enough material for several sessions. 

All the material is free for you to use but we do ask that you acknowledge this website www.learningandsharingtogether.org.uk. We would love to hear from you if you find our website and resources useful. You can contact us here.

Watch our video below to find out how we successfully adapted our project when face to face meetings were not possible.

 Benefits of LaST:

• LaST helps build a caring and connected community and fosters greater understanding, tolerance and respect between the generations.
• LaST helps to build self-esteem and confidence, reduces loneliness and isolation, and positively impacts on older people’s and children’s sense of wellbeing, in line with the Five Ways to Wellbeing approach championed by the NHS.
• LaST has an important educational role, reinforcing and complementing classroom learning. It makes history come alive and helps to deliver on specific requirements of the National Curriculum. LaST also links with Ofsted’s Guidance on Personal Development and the Relationships and Health Education Curriculum. For more information read our report LaST and the national Curriculum – Learning and Sharing Together
• LaST celebrates old memories and creates new memories for all
• LaST but not least, older people and children want to be involved because it’s FUN! 

To learn more about the benefits of LaST go to Impact – Learning and Sharing Together and for photos, drawings and press cuttings go to Gallery – Learning and Sharing Together

Watch our video below to hear from children and older people about their experience of being part of the Burnham Intergenerational Project