And on Wednesday September 13, the residents visited the school on Wednesday September 13 for a chat and afternoon tea.

Teacher Mitchell Nicholson said the project was about celebrating the joining of the generations.  The kids worked with MaryKnoll residents once a week for a term.

“Today is about acknowledging what they’ve achieved and coming to see us.  A lot of our kids don’t have much contact with their elders so it’s a good opportunity for them to connect with a different generation,” he said.

Artist and art therapist Yvonne Kiely chose the four seasons as a theme for her first inter-generational project.

“It’s been absolutely fantastic watching the children and the aged people working together.  This project went on for 10 weeks and we did layers of laying down colour, and collage and sculptures and the result is awesome,” she said.

“We heard some wonderful stories from people in aged care of their memories of seasons and what happened to them in their lives.  

“The big thing that happened was that the older people had so much more energy being with the children.  It brought them to live and excited their memories and imaginations.”

Morrow Taplin from the school loved the project.

“It was quite cool doing art with old people and going out of the school.  They were really nice and it was great fun,” he said.

Jaycie Pickworth agreed.

“It helped us work our creativity and it was a fun experience.  It was nice to adventure outside of school,” she said.

MaryKnoll resident Ray Law said the older generation don’t forget what it was like to be young.

“Things are a bit different now, but they will be different when you get older too,” he told the children.

Alison Sherratt from Catholic Care of the Aged said that people in homes just need someone to help them do what they want to do.

“To have you being part of their lives is beautiful,” she told the students.

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