SMILING children lit up the faces of elderly residents when they presented them with bouquets of flowers.

Pupils from Winnington Park Primary and Nursery school on Firdale Road visited four care homes with gifts from their harvest flower festival.

Head teacher Jane Dale said: "We invited families to send in bouquets, pot plants and flowers to celebrate the harvest.

"We received hundreds of flowers and distributed them to care homes.

"The interaction between the two generations was lovely. Children chatted to residents and haven't stopped talking about it since and were telling all their friends. They really enjoyed it."

Members of the school council accompanied Mrs Dale to Daneside Court and Daneside Mews on Chester Way and Avandale Lodge and Acorn Hollow on Manchester Road in Lostock Gralam.

Sharon Lelonek, wellbeing co-ordinator at Daneside Court Care Home, said: "Our residents were thrilled to receive the flowers and their faces lit up upon seeing the schoolchildren.

"We can't express how much this means to our residents. One lady has difficulty in talking but she wanted to express her gratitude and said: 'How lovely was it to see the children and bring us some flowers'.

"Our manager Jo Farrell thought it was such a wonderful inspiration in showing care in our community and how it expressed warmth in receiving the flowers from the children for our residents."

The harvest inspired pupils to work on an environmental project.

All the children studied pollution and wrote stories, songs and poems about plastic.

Each class then presented their ideas about how to keep the world safe to the whole school.

The school's eco committee, run by forest school teacher Shaun Agnew, is campaigning to encourage children to avoid using plastic bottles.

A writing week will also concentrate on the theme of plastics.

Mrs Dale added: "We are very proactive. We recycle, reduce and renew and try to get the children into patterns and routines as they grow up.

"Children love learning about life skills."

A life education caravan is visiting the school on October 25 and 26.