On Friday the 9th of June St Chad’s College welcomed members of Durham County’s 50+ community into the heart of the Bailey. As part of a community Outreach project Chad’s has partnered up with the charity AGE UK. Part of the project involves meeting once a week with a coffee morning group made up of elderly residents from the nearby town of Framwellgate Moor. Our summer tea party was a chance to welcome the members of St Aidan’s into the heart of St Chad’s. After much preparation, organisation, and of course baking, we were ready and eager to host what promised to be a lovely afternoon for all involved.

On arrival the residents were offered a selection of teas, coffee, and most importantly, a choice of mouth-watering homemade cakes. Given the quantity of cake consumed we safely can say they went down well!

After a mini tour of the gardens, the residents then settled down for some entertainment by one of Chad’s finest musicians, Floris Winckel. His self-composed piano piece blew everyone away, and despite his nerves, he delivered a flawless performance. Following this was a monologue by one of our guests from St Aidan’s Kitchen, reciting a part of ‘Albert and the Lion’, which was received with great humour and laughs from both young and old. After the laughs, everyone knuckled down for some trivia with a quiz written by two of Chad’s finest (and harshest) quiz-masters: myself and Emma! The winning team won with an impressive 6 point lead. AGE UK representative Peter Dawson then preceded to entertain us with a second comedic monologue.

After a closing thank you from myself, the guests and students bid farewell in what seemed like high spirits. The afternoon was a great success with many more arriving that was anticipated. This was all due to the diligent efforts of the bakers, students, AGE UK members, and kitchen and college staff involved. Thank you to everyone who made the afternoon so wonderful and enjoyable – we look forward to hosting similar events in the near future.