There is something quietly exciting about writing to a person you have never met.

You begin with a blank page and a few questions. What should I tell them? What will they be like? Will we have anything in common?

That sense of curiosity became the starting point for our Pen Pal pilot, commissioned by North East Wales Community Cohesion.

Before settling on the idea, Done Together CIC spoke with schools and other interested organisations about different projects we could develop. We wanted something children could genuinely connect with, not an activity that would disappear into a folder as soon as the lesson ended.

Letters felt personal. They gave every pupil a real person to write to and a reason to be curious about life beyond their own classroom.

We worked with teachers to create two hands-on lessons linked to aspects of the Curriculum for Wales and England. Pupils from Ysgol Bryn Clwyd and Ysgol Gellifor were connected with children at St Michael’s Catholic Primary School in Liverpool. Victoria CP School in Wrexham exchanged letters with Penygelli CP in Coedpoeth.

Finding connections close to home

Members of our team delivered the first lesson in each school. We wanted pupils to feel relaxed before asking them to write to somebody they had never met, so we began with a walking bingo activity.

Pupils moved around the classroom, asking one another questions and trying to find classmates whose names matched the statements on their sheets.

They might have been looking for somebody who shared a hobby, had visited a certain place or liked the same food. Even in classes where pupils had known one another for years, they still discovered new things.

It was a lively start, but it had a purpose. Before learning about a child in another school, pupils had a chance to notice how much there was still to learn about the people already sitting beside them.

Before asking pupils to connect with someone in another school, we wanted them to notice how much there was still to learn about the people already around them.

Holding history in their hands

Next came a collection of real letters and postcards, some between 60 and 100 years old.

The pupils examined stamps, handwriting and faded messages. They tried to work out what had been written and laughed at the occasional word nobody could decipher. Some were fascinated by how much information had been squeezed onto a postcard.

Those old letters made the activity feel bigger.

For generations, people have used letters to share ordinary moments, ask questions and stay close across distance. Now the pupils were becoming part of that same tradition.

A letter everyone could write

Starting a letter can be difficult, especially when you do not know the person reading it.

We created prompt sheets to help pupils gather ideas about hobbies, pets, school, family traditions and the questions they wanted to ask.

We also provided three different writing options: a fill-in-the-gap letter, a supported version with prompts and a blank page for pupils who wanted to write independently.

The goal was never to find out who could write the longest letter. It was to make sure every child had something of themselves to share.

Once the writing was finished, the envelopes came out. Stickers, drawings and increasingly ambitious decorations covered the tables. The envelope was not just packaging. It was the first glimpse each new pen pal would have of the person writing to them.

Sending something real

Teachers were given the resources for the second lesson, along with access to digital copies of all the materials so they could continue the exchange in school.

Then the letters travelled.

What had begun as a conversation between organisations became lively classrooms, carefully chosen questions and brightly decorated envelopes moving between Wrexham, Coedpoeth, rural North Wales and Liverpool.

Soon, another pupil would open one and read the first few words.

“Hello, my name is…”

A simple beginning, perhaps. But sometimes that is all a new connection needs.

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