Rose Bay Public School has spent recent weeks pairing its Year 1 students with local seniors and early-stage dementia patients for a shared sewing and art-making program, ahead of the school's Art by the Bay Fair.

The idea grew out of a meeting with Woollahra Council, which had found, through research, that many older residents in the area felt lonely.

The school then connected with local age care provider Holdsworth to run a pilot program called the ‘Intergenerational Project’ with its Year 1 cohort.

A connection through one student's grandmother - founder of a not-for-profit sewing initiative ‘Sew a Softie’- shaped the activity itself: sewing small felt hearts, symbolic given how often dementia patients experience isolation.

Rose Bay Public School Assistant Principal Curriculum & Instruction (Relieving), Hannah Hatzi, said the program had been a natural fit for the class.

"Our students are very receptive to having a good conversation," she said of the group chosen to pilot the initiative,” she said.

Teacher, Sarah Skelton, said the impact on the seniors had been visible from the very first session.

"I could see them walk up the hallway, and the first session they were walking quite slow ... last session one of them was zooming up the hallway," she said.

For the seniors involved, the experience has clearly resonated.

"I have loved the interchange between the kids and the adults," said participant Felicity, whose own grandchildren are now grown.

"It's been absolutely wonderful. My grandkids are all grown up so I don't have the opportunity to be with children anymore."

Jan, who didn’t have children of her own, said the sessions had been unexpectedly profound.

"I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed it, they are so lovely," she said. "It's been the most interesting thing I've done for years ... it gave me a new look on life."

The students have been just as affected. Year 1 student, Phoebe, said the sessions were about more than just craft.

"I feel we have made them happy because they might be lonely, and we cheered them up with sewing, talking and laughing," she said.

Classmate, James, said the value lay in the exchange itself.

"I like that we were helping each other to learn new things and talking about histories, because it's important to communicate with our friends," he said.

Ms Hatzi added that the staff had been struck by how naturally the students had responded to the sessions.

The finished felt hearts will be assembled into a combined artwork and displayed publicly at Art by the Bay Fair on October 24, alongside individual and class artworks from across the school.