Pupils from Walthamstow Girls School gave residents and guests of Waltham Forest Housing Association a lesson in how to ‘Spring Online’.
All of erosh member WFHA’s older residents were invited to bring a guest along for the Spring Online sessions, which is being run by Digital Unite to help encourage older people to access computers and get online.
Year 11 pupils came along with a teacher and provided one-to-one support and tuition for residents and guests at one of the sheltered schemes where there were four PCs and five laptops.
Cheryl Whittle, support services manager, said: “There was some amazing work and stories that came out of the session. One tenant had family aboard and never knew how to Skype. To her utter amazement she was able to connect ad speak with her family, which bought a tear to our eyes.
“Another resident does not have English as her first language, and one of the young people spoke her language. They sat together all day and used the computer. It was such a joy to see her face when they spoke together it miffed the learning for the tenant so much easier and enjoyable.
“We had a surprise visit from the local safer neighbourhood team, which joined in the sessions and sat with one of the tenants and found a local ‘jam can’ radio station so the tunes were flowing during the day.
“The tutor we had specialises in one-to-one training and was able to spend time with one of our residents who has a disability. By the end of the session the resident was able to go on to YouTube and listen to her favourite classical music.
“By the end of the day we had very satisfied and happy residents to take home.”
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