Schools for Silver Surfers – the plan so far…
Posted in Schools
I am Trudi Hamer, the Community Development Worker at Chailey School. In January we decided that Chailey School was going to run a Silver Surfer’s Day. Chailey is a specialist school with a Humanities specialism and a Languages specialism, which means that the school is required to work with the wider community; Silver Surfer’s Day is a great opportunity to interact with the community as well as develop intergenerational links with members of the wider community.
First I met with our Learning Resource Manager to check we could accommodate the sessions, next I met with one of our ICT teachers who agreed, in principal, to lead the sessions together with myself and some students. The running of the sessions is fully supported and has been approved by our Senior Leadership Team.
We are going to run 2 sessions “Beginner” and “Beginner/Improver” each session will accommodate 15 participants and we are going to ask people to book in advance so we have definite numbers. Each participant will have a student working with them and therefore will have one-to-one support and guidance.
I have approached some Year 10 Citizenship students and so far have 12 volunteers to take a lead in Silver Surfer’s Day for their Citizenship project, they are playing an active role in designing the programme and are researching how to communicate effectively with older people and how to design the feedback form amongst numerous other things.
The students are thinking about the most simple and effective way for us to run a successful event in order for us to show other schools how easy it is to get involved in this event.
We have a link with Downland Housing Association and are offering their Retirement and Care (Sheltered) Housing Residents first refusal. This is an exciting time for the school and students; we are investing a lot of energy into making this a success, and something we can participate in year upon year.
I would be very interested to hear comments from other schools that have held an event or are considering holding one. Do you have examples of Good Practice, what has worked well, what didn’t work well? Is it better for older people to come to the school or students to go to the housing scheme?
March 17th, 2009 bobholmes | 8 Comments »
March 18th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Hi, thanks Trudi – we are starting to try to link sheltered housing schemes with schools. A resource for Scheme Managers is here, just a two-pager.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Just to let you know that we are ERoSH (a consortium for Sheltered Housing Providers, http://www.shelteredhousing.org) support this and are publicising this to all its Members. We hope that this excellent initiative will prove to be very successful.
March 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
This is the piece that has just gone out to Specalist Schools via Specialist Schools and Academies Trust:
Schools for Silver Surfers
‘Calling all schools that would like to reach out to communities of older people — there’s a great opportunity here. It’s called Silver Surfers’ Day (May 15th 2009, the Friday of Adult Learners’ Week) and is a uk-wide annual initiative which has been going since 2001. The idea is that all sorts of different organisations invite older people into their facilities at roughly the same time (doesn’t have to be exactly May 15th) and give them a good first-taste of life online. As there are an estimated 10million older people uk-wide who haven’t yet taken the leap online, it’s urgent work.
This year, the organisers, Digital Unite, are for the first time giving special emphasis to what specialist schools can contribute. They’re working with SSAT on this, longer-term, and also the sheltered housing charity, ERoSH (Essential Role of Sheltered Housing). ERoSH see it as a key component of older people’s quality of life that they have the opportunity to become IT literate.
For now, though, we suggest you:
- think how holding a taster event for older people might benefit the school and its students (eg, widening participation, give pupils teaching practice, etc)
- consider whether you might invite older people into your school on or around May 15th
- have a look at the existing free-use planning and teaching resources on http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com (and sign up for the ezine top right if you want to stay informed)
- and consider making a link-up with your nearest sheltered housing scheme so you’ve got a ready supply of would-be silver surfers. Go here to do a postcode search: http://www.housingcare.org/housing/index.aspx ‘
Hope this is helpful for schools…
Gill
March 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Gill
Could you please tell me if there is an official feedback form for delegates to complete following the SSD event?
Also, I was unsure if the event was for over 60s or over 50s, could you please confirm?
Thanks
Trudi
March 30th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Hi Trudi, the feedback form is in the Event Holders’ Planning Guide, http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com/files/2009/02/eventholdersplanner.pdf
on page 25 .
Silver Surfers’ Day is for over-50s.
Many thanks and good luck with your Event, let us all know how it goes.
Gill
May 5th, 2009 at 11:55 am
We have 16 delegates booked onto our Silver Surfers’ Day event. It has developed that all delegates wish to stay all day for both sessions and therefore we are providing a complimentary 3 course lunch.
We have 16 students and 16 delegates, which is great. We managed to get 14 delegates via our link with Downland Housing Association and the other 2 via an information stand we held at the Chailey Parish Council AGM.
All plans are in place, the students are geared up – I will update you on how it goes.
Trudi
May 7th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Hi Gill
I am just putting delegate packs together for my Silver Surfers’ event next week, and I wondered if there was anything that I could hand out to promote the DU Learning Zone?
Also do you want copies of my delegate feedback forms once completed?
Thanks
Trudi
May 7th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Trudi, thanks, I’m sure others will be wondering the same. I think we’ll try to put together something generic for event-holders to hand out to help their visitors to return to the site. Watch this space! And news by ezine, too.
Re, feedback forms, get your visitors to fill in the visitors one and you add any juicy bits to your event holders’ form and send that back to us. The forms are at the end of the Planning Guide, which is a .pdf, here: http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com/files/2009/02/eventholdersplanner.pdf