A school for young & old
The first day of school is daunting. Unfamiliar faces, places and activities awaken anxiety while the fear of not making friends is paralysing.
The students arriving at a new purpose-built school in Sydney’s beachside suburb of Coogee are certainly feeling this, filled with nerves about what lies ahead. As the doors swing open there’s a sense of excitement as everyone rushes to introduce themselves, to form tentative bonds. Sadly, several clearly feel left out and ill at ease. “They mixed with everyone bar me,” says one newcomer sadly. “I don’t know whether or not to come again.”
The terror, we are about to find out, is far worse when you’re someone who hasn’t experienced a first day of school in over 80 years.
That’s the situation 11 Australian seniors find themselves in as ABC’s returns for a second season. The acclaimed observational documentary series is performing another televised experiment aiming to prove scientifically that intergenerational care can transform both the elderly and preschoolers. But this time, they’re putting the adults into the kids’ environment rather than the other way around. The other major difference? While season one focused on older
