A group of women who proudly call themselves "grannies" are dedicating their retirement to teaching refugee children how to read and write in English.
Blair Athol North Birth to Year 7 Primary School principal Darren Stevenson said he began brainstorming how he could establish a remote-teaching program at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic which could support both the young and the old.
"The world was panicking, and schools were certainly impacted and also vulnerable elderly people were really impacted by the restrictions and the fear of COVID," he said.
"We came up with a concept after Zoom technology came into our lives that we could give the children and also our elderly, more vulnerable, members of the community a sense of purpose and get involved with teaching as well."
Mr Stevenson said he was inspired by his time teaching in rural towns when he would take his students to visit a nursing home.
"I saw a great benefit in the intergenerational relationships that can be developed that are mutually beneficial for young and old," he said.
A conversation with his mother Gill Stevenson — a former teacher herself — made the idea a reality.
Ms Stevenson gathered four of her friends, all who have a background in education, to support the school's intensive English language students, the majority are refugee children from Afghanistan who arrived in Australia with little or no English.
'They came to us and embraced us'
After seven months of weekly one-on-one online sessions, the children were finally able to meet Gill, Betty, Sheri, Julie and Judi face-to-face at the end of 2020.
Ms Stevenson said it was a heart-warming experience.
"The children just came to us. They came to us and embraced us," she said.
"It was just amazing … the connection."
Three years on, the children have had the opportunity to catch up with their 'granny' in person on a regular basis.
Ms Stevenson said as the children became more confident speaking English, so too did their willingness to open up about their personal lives.
"We don't ask them about their experience unless they volunteer it because some of them have had terrible trauma in their lives, so we're mindful of that all the time," she said.
"It's become more than just someone online that I'm helping with English, it's far bigger than that, it's huge."
Coaching sessions grow to include more students
Sheri Paschke said she had missed teaching and interacting with children prior to the program.
"We've been retired for a long time, we've got lots of other interests but it's still very refreshing working with young people, particularly young people from other countries," she said.
"The relationship is the most important thing, that's what I get out of it … and their beautiful smiles."
About 100 of the school's 500 students are now involved in the program.
Mr Stevenson said he would love to expand the coaching sessions even further in the future.
"Resources are interesting, obviously running a school is a complex thing … to have a program like this is time and labour intensive," he said.
"We have 42 different nationalities represented here — it is incredibly diverse.
"If I could find some funding, if someone out there saw that this would be something worth investing in, I think the realm of where we could take a program like this is endless."
