Graduation season is fast approaching and there's a special class of seniors that's proving it's never too late to learn.

Tuesday marked the last day of classes for the 20 students enrolled in the School Days Program at the Valley View Villa nursing home in Riverton, N.S.

It's the first year for the program, which is modelled after a 20-year success story at Mountain Lee Lodge in the Annapolis Valley.

“A lot of people feel that when they grow old, that they stop learning, but they don't,” says recreation director Cathy Ryan. “I mean, you grow old when you stop learning, you don't stop learning when you grow old.”

Classes are held once a week, on subjects ranging from English and history, to science and math.

Most of the students haven't been in a classroom setting for decades.

“I was excited about it really, because I didn't do good in regular school. It was the teachers, they wouldn't teach me,” says senior student Norman Rector.

“I knew I'd never make it to college, so I just quit in Grade 10 and my mother, I remember her chasing me up through the backyard with a broomstick, ‘you gotta go to school, you gotta get an education,’” says senior student Evelyn Pettipas.

The school year is nearly over and the graduates have all tried on their caps and gowns, an experience that makes 93-year-old Pettipas curious about what could have been.

“I would love to have gone to college but I knew I'd never make it to college because we didn't, couldn't afford it. In those days, you know, you didn't get loans from the government or anything like that,” she says.

As graduation day approaches, it's hard to tell who's more excited - the teacher or the students.

“I think I share more of the excitement, because it's been a learning experience for me as well,” says Ryan. “They've engaged me. They've taught me a lot over the past year, so it's been a great experience.”

School Days graduation will take place on June 9.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh