Wallace High School said “auf weidersehen”, “au revoir” and “asta la vista” recently to three teaching assistants who have spent the past academic year at the school. Head of Modern Languages at the school, Miss Pam Brown, commented, “This year’s Language assistants, Susanne Graf, Isabelle Rabeyrin and Andreas Garcia, have proven to be valuable members of our Departmental team.
While they mainly worked with small groups of AS and A2 pupils, they also participated in team teaching and group work with Form five pupils. All three assistants were very popular with the pupils and worked very hard to enthuse them about their respective languages, cultutes and countries, while promoting confidence in speaking skills. The language assistant programme is an essential part of our teaching in Wallace High and indeed in Northern Ireland as many of our own students will one day benefit from similar work experience opportunities in France, Germany and Spain.
We have been particularly fortunate with this year’s group of assistants as they all adapted very quickly to our specific needs in the school and they all added to the Department’s resources bank, updating both staff and pupils alike on current events and thinking in their native countries and on new vocabulary , such as how to say “SARS VIRUS” .Such essential information would be very difficult to obtain otherwise.”
All three visitors have greatly enjoyed their time in Lisburn and have been very impressed with what the City has to offer.
21 year old Isabelle Rabeyrin from Sens, a student a t Dijon University, said, “The friendly atmosphere in the City is amazing. People are always keen to stop for a chat. The shopping is excellent too – I love looking around the charity shops for individual fashion and I also adore the architecture of the train station.”
27 year old Andreas Garcia from Cjudad Real agreed, “I felt at home in the city after a couple of weeks. Northern Irish people are very welcoming . Lisburn is a great place with such a range of activities from sports to museums, shops to cinemas.”
24 year old Susanne Graf from Toging highlighted the cultural aspects of life in Lisburn ,”I thought the Island centre was magnificent with such a wide range pf exhibitions, concerts and theatrical events.It’s also a striking building with a beautiful setting.”
The three visitors’ time in The Wallace High School has also been very beneficial , confimring their desire to pursue careers in teaching. Susanne commented, “The students and staff are very interested and the school itself is very well organised.”
Andreas added, “The young people in Wallace have been a pleasure to teach and I’m now looking forward to becoming an English teacher back home in Spain. The extra curricular activities on offer in Walalce are very impressive – there is something for everyone form Drama to Sport, Music to Chess. Miss Brown has been so helpful to all three of us throughout the year – we’d really like to thank her , the Modern Language Department and the entire school community for making us feel so at home here.”
Isabelle laughed, “Even though I’ve been here at Wallace for a year I still get lost occasionally – but someone always points me in the right direction.”
The tourist attractions of Northern Ireland have alos proved to be very popular with all three young people. Vowing to make return visits soon, Andreas loved the North Coast, Susanne the museums and nightlife whilst Isabelle had the chance to fulfill a longheld dream durind her stay in the province, “I stayed overnight in a castle and truly felt like a princess.”
Pam Brown concluded, “We are very grateful for their valued contribution to school life and wish them a safe journey home and every succes with their furture careers.”
Last modified: February 24, 2016
