This article is from page 36 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 36 JPG
SIXTH class students got a glimpse of day-to-day life in a secondary school in Ennis last week.
Timetables, German classes and bells ringing on the hour were just some of the newer aspects of school life experienced by pupils from Holy Family senior school taking part in a week-long pilot scheme in Colaiste Muire.
“We forget sometimes,” explained Colaiste Muire principal, “that for students coming in from primary school even something like a bell ringing in the middle of the morning is something completely different from what they are used to”’.
The scheme, initiated by Colaiste
Muire, allowed pupils from Holy Family to sample the routine of changing classes that they will be- come very familiar with over the next few years.
It is hoped that the experience will, in part, help smooth the transition from primary to secondary level education.
Over the course of the week, the students from Holy Family sat in on, among others, classes in foreign lan- guages like German and home eco- nomics.
As part of a broader approach to ease the transition, first year and leaving cert students guided their primary school counterparts through the process of switching classes and explained the kinds of extra-cur-
ricular activities on offer at Colaiste Muire.
Ms Pound said, “The aim was to offer them an experience of what secondary school is all about. We had our first years and leaving certs explain about class timetables and changing classes because when you are in primary school, you have the one teacher and you mainly stay in the one classroom”.
“Of course many primary school children will have sisters and broth- ers in second level education so they’ll know in a way what to expect. But we hope that through the pilot scheme, we can show them the ropes and explain what second level is all lerele lie
Parents will get the opportunity
to have their input to the scheme at open meetings to be held at Colaiste Muire.
“So far the feedback we have re- ceived has been very positive’, ex- plained Ms Pound.
She added, “The experience seems to have been beneficial to the stu- dents involved and it is something that we would look at continuing in the future”’.