Research shows that intentions don't necessarily align with reality, and people often end up retiring astheyhadexpected because of health reasons, job losses or simply a miscalculation of their own desires.
It was an unnerving experience for a lot of them, astheyhad never expected to see their friends and relations again when they were leaving the country.
Mr Porter said he and his wife Beverly were "holding things together" as a family and added theyhad not spoken to their son since Monday who was "as good as can be expected".
While this was welcome as an indication of the significance of the topic, it did create difficulties as members of the group had to scrutinise more documents than theyhadexpected.
Children involved in the virtual school - known as Notschool - have gone on to get much higher academic qualifications than theyhad been expected to, said Professor Heppell.