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Pupil creates 'musical dream' with Makaton choir

Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI education correspondent
BBC Troy has black short spiky hair with a side fade. He is in a wheelchair and is wearing a blue school polo shirt with a blue school lanyard. Behind him is a corridor with windows and white walls. BBC
Troy, 17, is a pupil at Fleming Fulton Special School in Belfast

Despite being non-verbal 17-year-old Troy McKay has used his voice to create a unique choir.

Troy is a pupil at Fleming Fulton Special School in Belfast, and communicates through an app on his wheelchair.

It was his idea to create a special choir made up of pupils from Fleming Fulton and Belfast Boys' Model school.

They use the sign language Makaton, and BBC News NI was invited to their first performance.

Three rows of around eight pupils seated in mixture of blue uniforms and black uniforms. Then there's three standing pupils. They are in front of a black curtain. On the left of the shot there is a big lambeg red and white drum.
The Fleming Fulton and Boys' Model joint choir performed at the Boys' Model school concert

Their performance of Avicii's Wake Me Up and Ben E King's classic Stand by Me brought the house down at the Boys' Model school concert.

And Troy was pleased that his musical dream had been realised.

"I am part of the Makaton choir at Fleming Fulton," he told BBC News NI.

"I thought it would be a good idea to collaborate with the Boys' Model school and teach them some songs in Makaton."

"I have really enjoyed organising this collaboration," he added.

"I would like to thank Mrs Baird and Belfast Boys' Model school for letting us be part of their concert."

What is Makaton?

Makaton is a form of sign language, which uses symbols, gestures and speech to enable communication.

Troy's speech and language therapist at Fleming Fulton, Natalie Wray, said Troy had first suggested the Makaton partnership with Boys' Model when he was elected to the student council.

"Makaton would be used across our school," she said.

"A lot of our pupils would use Makaton to express themselves but also to help understanding."

Natalie is smiling at the camera. She has blond hair with some short ones falling like a fringe on her forehead. She has blue eyes and is wearing a blue top. Behind her is a multi-coloured school sign with services the school offers like mentors and counselling services.
Natalie Wray is a speech and language therapist at Fleming Fulton

Ms Wray said the enthusiasm of the boys at Boys' Model who were learning Makaton for the first time was "amazing".

"They were practising with me and practising without me and they've just done so, so well."

She said she had found it "very emotional" seeing the pupils perform together.

Troy's friends from Shankill Juniors Football Club, Ross and Lennox, were among the pupils at Boys' Model to learn Makaton.

Carter has blond spiky hair, brown square glasses and is wearing a white shirt. Behind him is a white walled corridor.
Carter Gibson was part of the joint choir performance

Another Boys' Model pupil who performed was 17-year-old Carter Gibson.

"We've been communicating in videos, doing Makaton and some of their teachers have come up to us," he said.

"We've been rehearsing every Wednesday to practice for this concert."

He said Makaton was "so unique".

"It's something that me and none of the boys have ever done before, so it's been quite fun to learn.

"Everyone's loving it, so they are", he added.

Sharon has blond shoulder length hair, hazel eyes and is wearing a black top. Behind her is a school corridor entrance and windows and a school bin.
Sharon Baird is a music teacher at the Boys' Model school

The Boys' Model music teacher Sharon Baird said her pupils had learnt "singing in a different way".

"We learnt the tunes and we had great fun actually putting it all together," she said.

"They picked it up really quickly.

"Particularly in the Avicii number where there's a little bit of freestyle dancing they really embraced that."

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