Pupils and residents share lesson to get online

May 22, 2013 | News Share

Pupils from Walthamstow Girls School gave tenants and guests of Waltham Forest Housing Association a lesson in how to Spring Onlineâ.

WFHA’s older tenants were invited to bring a guest along for the Spring Online sessions. The sessions are run by Digital Unite to 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 tenants and guests. The event was held at one WFHA’s sheltered schemes where there were four PCs and five laptops available on the day.

Cheryl Whittle, Support Services Manager, said: There was some amazing work and stories that came out of the session. One tenant has family aboard and never knew how to Skype. To her utter amazement she was able to connect and speak with her family, which bought a tear to our eyes”.

Another tenant who does not have English as her first language and as 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 made the learning for the tenant so much easier and enjoyable.

We had a surprise visit from the Local Safer Neighbourhood Team, who 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 Tenants who has a disability. By the end of the session the tenant 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 tentants to take home.