Regional NSW’s largest special needs school joins forces with aged care community in ‘grandfriends’ experiment
From Uno to Justin Bieber dance parties, an Old People’s Home For Teenagers-style experiment is bringing joy to students and elderly residents alike in this regional town.
With a freshly brewed hot chocolate in one hand and a deck of Uno cards in the other, 84-year-old Orange Grove Care Community resident Cecelia Penrose is no match for her opponent – Anson Street School captain Dylan Reihana is playing to win.
Their fellow players – Year 11 student Mellee McGrath and deputy principal Jodie Pritchard – hatch a plan. They team up to take Dylan down, landing Mellee a come-from-behind victory.
Competitive boardgame sessions, movie days and ‘Justin Bieber dance parties’ are now par for the course for the teenagers and their elderly “grandfriends” after Anson Street, a public school for kids with special learning and support needs, teamed up with the retirement home across town.
Skills Development Officer Edwina Brennan, 39, initiated the ‘Old People’s Home For Teenagers’-style program, bringing in a consultant from Intergenerational Learning Australia to get the partnership off the ground, and both the school and care facility say they’ve seen fantastic results two terms in.
“Our students – particularly with autism, particular disabilities or who have faced a lot of hardships in their life – naturally have a lot of empathy, so this connection that normally takes quite a long time actually happened a lot faster for our school, with Orange Grove,” she said.
“Similarly the Orange Grove residents are really patient with our students – they shake all the boys’ hands, which is a really big thing for them. They’re almost men, they’re about to leave school … but around town … people don’t shake their hands, they treat them as children.
“It makes our boys stand up so much taller.”
Anson Street School is the largest ‘school for specific purposes’ outside of Sydney, with 135 students across 21 classes catering for all abilities and disabilities from Kindergarten to Year 12.
Demand in the region is high – there is a waiting list for Anson Street, which is at capacity.
Dylan, who had taken up work with his schoolmates Zane and Blake at a local McDonalds, is one of the older boys who has pursued barista training to brew up the perfect cuppa for his new grandfriends.
“They do so well don’t they, with what they learn? Years ago, you wouldn’t have hardly seen them,” Ms Penrose said.
On his way back to class, Year 11 student Ryan Wilks gave Ms Penrose and Audrey Stephenson warm farewells; “I love making people’s day with hugs,” he said.
For 88-year-old Marguerite Tuit the visits are bittersweet and emotional, having lost two grandchildren who once attended the school.
“I’ve had quite a long relationship with this place, sad as it’s been,” she said.
“It’s a wonderful place … and it’s lovely for me to now come, and make friends, with all these lovely kids.
“I just like them all, and I just like being with them … they’re all terrific people.”
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Originally published as Regional NSW’s largest special needs school joins forces with aged care community in ‘grandfriends’ experiment
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