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Eight members of the school's Year 13 French class, under
the guidance of the Head of ML, make weekly visits to a
local feeder primary school and teach French to pupils in
Years 4 to 7.
The experiment was undertaken for several reasons but the
main one was to give (particularly to the primary school
boys) a male role model for the learning of a foreign language;
in the previous year, the school had had a female French
assistant. Another was to ease the transition of boys from
the feeder primary to the senior school.
The venture was originally made possible by funding from
the Department of Education in Northern Ireland. The Head
of ML planned Schemes and Units of Work, gathered and created
resources, and gave the volunteer members of his sixth form
class a crash course to turn secondary school students into
primary school tutors. Cover was provided to allow the Head
of ML to observe the boys at work and to discuss the project
with the teachers and principal of the primary school. The
boys were allocated two to each class and taught, in the
presence of the classroom teacher.
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