This year, as part of our Extended Schools programme, we have participated in a whole-school e-learning Citizenship project, called 'Generations Together', to raise pupils' awareness of how all ages can work together and learn from one another.

One of our first tasks was to create a cITizenship zone on the school's Intranet and Website. This covers general aspects of Citizenship such as caring for the environment, healthy living, friendship and keeping safe, as well as an area specifically dedicated to generations together.

However, the heart of our project has been the Generations Together Basic Computer Courses for the Over 55s and Mums/Women Returning to Work. These are free 8-week courses, with the classes meeting on Monday and Wednesday afternoons in our ICT Suite. Pupils from Primary 6 (including 4 from St Mary's Primary, Comber and 2 from ethnic minority groups) act as facilitators. To equip them for the task they received in-house training in word processing, desktop publishing, search engines and the Internet but, more importantly, communication and basic facilitating skills.

We have run six courses altogether (2 each term), with more than 80 adults participating. They have been a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by participants and facilitators alike.

The adults, many of whom at the beginning of the course knew nothing about computers, are now proud of their newly acquired skills and keen to progress to the next step. The facilitators, too, have gained so much from talking to and helping the older generation. It really has been a win/win situation.

In a letter of appreciation to the school, the grandparents said, "Each morning we wake to the news that another pensioner has been robbed, hurt or attacked in their home. What better way to educate our young adults of tomorrow than through projects like 'Generations Together'.

Gillian Stevenson - ICT/Extended Schools Coordinator.
Presentation from Conference: Generations Together Project