On Sunday 13th January, Songs of Praise, presented by Aled Jones, will be featuring its recent visit to the Oasis Academy Dementia café on the Isle of Sheppey.

Aled, famous for singing Walking in the Air as a teenage chorister, spent a day on the Isle of Sheppey with a TV crew from the BBC.

During the episode, Aled will visit Blue Town's Criterion Theatre and Heritage Centre and the Oasis Academy's award-winning dementia café.

The Dementia Cafe is an intergenerational project hosted and run by students at Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, alongside neighbouring care homes, local churches, NHS, Alzheimer’s society, Kent County Council, Swale Borough Council and individuals throughout the county. The students at the school for children aged 11-18 hold regular dementia cafes, visit local care homes to work with the residents, undergo dementia training and provide training for others in setting up dementia cafes.

Paul Murray, Community Coordinator, said: “We had around 80 guests on the day of filming from all over Swale, including the Mayor. We had five care homes in attendance too, including Court Regis care home in Sittingbourne who are regular supporters of the Café. Aled Jones spent the whole time with students and guests, interacting wonderfully with everyone and was very kind and showed great patience with all. We were very proud to host the event and Aled was thrilled to see all the activities on offer.

“As well as singing and dancing, there were memory boxes to make and flower arrangements to put together and take away.”

Emma Ansley, Activities Coordinator at Court Regis, said: “We were delighted to be part of this event in November. The residents from Court Regis and I are very keen supporters of the Oasis Academy dementia café and have been for a number of years. Everyone at the café makes us very welcome when we visit and the residents always enjoying going there. There is some amazing work taking place at the café and I hope the recent visit from the BBC will showcase all of this hard work and dedication. The residents were so excited to see Aled Jones and to know they may be featuring on Songs of Praise, it was a very special moment, and we will all be tuning in this Sunday!”

www.avantecare.org.uk