‘Weight lifted off’ of Leaving Cert students
NORTH WEXFORD’S class of 2021 are feeling like a weight has been lifted after last week’s announcement that the Leaving Certificate would go ahead this year with the option of exams or predicted grades being offered.
Practical exams and orals look set to go ahead over the Easter holidays, while a full Leaving Cert exam timetable was released last week.
Three Gorey Community School students, Katie Louise Murray, Robert Hogan and Anabel Kavanagh, have said they are all feeling much more positive about their future now that they’ve been given some clarity on what lies ahead.
‘I was go glad that we got some clarification and it’s like a big weight lifted off of my shoulders,’ said Katie-Louise Murray.
‘Now we’re going to get what we’re deserving, and I feel so much more confident about going back into school as I know what’s ahead. I will work that bit harder and it makes it that bit easier as I can decide what I might get predicted grades in, so it takes the stress off me.
‘What I’m planning on doing is doing both. I came to this decision because I’ ll be studying for the exams so I’m going to get more work in and better results in class tests which I hope means I’ll come out with better results either way. It means that if I go into an exam and I don’t know enough on the day, I can walk out and I’ll be alright as I’ll have the predicted grades to fall back on’.
She said that she is glad that the practicals are going ahead, but is hopeful that they might just take up one week of the holidays.
‘This mid-term showed me how much I needed the break to rest up, and I realised that we might have no break from now until the Leaving Cert itself. I hope we get more help from teachers before the time of our practicals as we’ve had very little time in class. The teachers are going above and beyond but it’s going to be hard on them now too. It was a lot harder to learn at home but I personally don’t have too many worries about contracting Covid during the exams as I get a private room due to being dyslexic.
Anabel Kavanagh, who hopes to study law, said she was very relieved and assured when she heard the announcement last week.
‘I was very happy to see the government acknowledge us and make the changes. It gives me confidence that my classwork will also represent how I will be assessed, and that I’m not doing any of this towards the exam so I do feel better about going into school.
‘I’m not going to sit every exam as I don’t know if I’d have enough time to revise and I don’t think I’ve covered enough of my courses to sit the whole thing. I have a few subjects picked out that if I sat it, I could pick up those grades.
‘I study music and a large part of that is practicals and it’s extremely important to me as they really secure your mark. I was worried about whether it’ll go ahead, how it will go ahead and how we’ll be assessed. This year there has been no singing in classes and we’ve had very little practical classes as our teachers haven’t been able to fully facilitate them. We’ve lost out on feedback from our teachers so it’s hard to tell if you’re improving’.
Given these challenges, Anabel said that Covid-19 cases in Wexford will be a deciding factor on whether she sits the exams.
I would feel if the masks, social distancing and sanitising was all in place in the correct way and students did follow the guidelines vigorously, the exams could go ahead with flying colours with little to no problems. I was worried at Christmas when we were meant to go back in three days a week,’ she said.
Ms Kavanagh said that clarity on CAO offers and places is still needed, something Robert Hogan agreed with.
‘The applications to the CAO are significantly higher to any other year, and there has to be extra accommodations made for students as more students are applying so there has to be more places.
‘The news last week has been a nice boost during a terrible time, and I’m delighted that we managed to get what we wanted as we worked hard to get that decision. It gives us a sense of finality but I think personally, I’m going to sit most of the exams. Getting Covid-19 is always a bit of a risk in this current climate but I think between now and then that they will have measures in place so that it is safe for us to sit the exams.
‘As well there will be a smaller number sitting the exams, I think it’ll be a half and half.
‘It’ nice to know what’s going to happen with he orals, as we weren’t sure if we should spend time learning it or whether it’d be a waste of time but it has given us the bit of motivation as we know for certain now that it is going to happen. It’ll be interested to see how they’ll approach it now, as some teachers hadn’t been focusing on it thinking it wasn’t going to happen,’ he said.
I FEEL SO MUCH MORE CONFIDENT ABOUT GOING BACK INTO SCHOOL NOW