‘Silver surfers’ drop-in clinics run by Year 12 students have been taking place for a number of years now at the Ursuline High School in Wimbledon.

Record numbers of elderly people are now coming to these sessions; once a week flooding through the gates of the Ursuline, then waiting in anticipation for the girls to greet them and begin teaching them better ways to use their computers. Each elderly man or woman brings a list of computing problems that they wish the girls to help them with. Each older person is assigned to two girls who will help them for the duration of the course. The girls stay with the same person throughout the whole course if possible, so they may focus on helping the elderly get to grips with the latest technology.

The main IT problems that the older people bring are relatively simple for the teenagers to explain, such as what certain keys on the keyboard like “enter” mean and how to use them, how to copy and paste pictures off the Internet or from the Desktop and how to move them around a Microsoft Word Document.  Many of us have challenges with our memory especially as we get older so the students have to be extremely patient teachers, perhaps writing down notes for the older people to read next time they use the computer. Getting the message across gives the Year 12 students more self confidence in their own abilities to communicate and work with others. Quite often the elderly ladies tend to be very chatty, which is pleasant for students because we hear their stories, forming a bond with them.

From an interview I carried out with one of the elderly ladies involved in the scheme, I learned that she is “finding this beneficial in learning what I am hoping to achieve”. She said she enjoyed meeting new people at the school, and that she could see clearly that both parties learn a lot from this intergenerational project.  This lady’s name is Sister Emmanuel and she is a nun at a convent down the road from the school in Wimbledon. Students have gained more confidence and found strengths in teaching and  that they never knew they had, and the elderly people have received advice from young people that they would never have received at home, as many of them do not have grandchildren of their own and have little contact with the younger generation. Therefore, they enjoy all the social interaction very much. Silver Surfers Drop in Club is held weekly throughout the winter months. 

 

Anastasia Sutton

Ursuline High School