Pupils teach tenants to get online

Published by Craig Downs for Cestria Community Housing in Housing and also in Communities, Education

A group of youngsters from Chester-le-Street in County Durham turned from pupils to teachers yesterday afternoon after training local people on how to use social media.

Five pupils from the Hermitage School gave a lesson to tenants from Cestria Community Housing on how to use websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The initiative is part of a national campaign called ‘Getting Online Week’, designed to help people to use the internet and feel better connected.  Cestria has signed up to the week-long event, which runs from October, 15-21, as part of their aim to bring tenants and younger people together.

The pupils, aged between 14 and 15, volunteered to participate in the event, which was held at the Kickz Learning Centre at Gibside and said they enjoyed showing tenants how to get started, the benefits of using social media and the channels that are available.

Tweeting her comments about the afternoon,Hermitage student, Charlotte Guest said: “Had a great time today thank you for the opportunity to teach something new to someone.”

Amelia Hindmarsh said: “Thank you for the opportunity to help people get online, I’m sure we’ve all learnt something new today!”

Meanwhile, posting her comments on Facebook, Cestria Community Housing tenant, Eveline Cooper, said: “I have learnt a good bit about using Facebook and Twitter they have all been very helpful and I hope it will not be the last.”

Doreen Birleson said: “I have had a great time and learned a lot about Twitter and Facebook.”

Felicity Smith, Assistant Vice Principal at The Hermitage school, said: “We always encourage our students to support their local community and this presented a great opportunity to do this.

“Some of the students who were there today are already involved with ‘Kickz’ and were really keen to get involved and there was no trouble finding another three volunteers, as this will help students to build their confidence and improve their communication skills.

“Our Year 9 students have spent time during guidance lessons looking at social media and have learnt specifically about acceptable use of these websites and have been able to use this to support Cestria’s tenants.”

Gail Pattison, Support Services Manager at Cestria Community Housing, said: “Our tenants were very keen to get involved in this event and we thought it would be a good idea to invite pupils from the Hermitage School to teach our tenants how to use social media. 

“Our tenants said that they read and heard all about using social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook but had not actually used them.  The event was very informal and allowed the youngsters to work with our tenants on a one to one basis.  Feedback from tenants and the pupils has been so positive that we are going to run these sessions again in the future.”

Events to support Getting Online Week will take place in 1,500 locations across the UK during October where people can find the help they need to do more online, whatever their level of skill or confidence.