LEAVING CERT RESULTS JOY FOR WICKLOW STUDENTS
GRADUATES OF ST KILIAN’S COMMUNITY SCHOOL PAY A LAST VISIT TO SEE TEACHERS AND FRIENDS BEFORE MOVING ON TO THEIR THIRD LEVEL CAREERS,
ST Kilian’s Community School was able to invite Leaving Cert students to the sports hall last Monday throughout the day, to reflect on their results and have a chat with staff and friends.
Principal John Murphy explained that they were invited to come in small groups so that social distancing could be observed. Most of them had already accessed their results in the morning online, and came to say thank you and goodbye to the school they had spent six years attending.
‘What a year,’ said Mr Murphy. ‘Ideally it wouldn’t have been like this and the last six months would have been different. Ideally the students would have sat their exams and we would have finished off with our graduation night. But we have to deal with what we have to deal with.’
He said that Monday was a very special day. ‘It’s the first time we’ve been able to welcome the students back. It’s been lovely to see them all. It’s kind of book-ending March 12 when we had to leave all of a sudden and we had to move online.’
Mr Murphy said that the students had always been a wonderful group in terms of their personal qualities and in terms of their relationships they had amongst themselves and with the teachers.
‘ That stood out today,’ he said. ‘It’s been fantastic to have an opportunity to celebrate with them.’
Mr Murphy said that the young people had all been gracious, poised and mature in they way they have handled al that’s been put in front of them in the last six months.
‘It’s been great to be able to share a little bit with them today. I hope that all of the students will find contentment and happiness in the next stages of their lives,’ he said.
‘What we’re doing today is reminding them that while they have moved on, they’re still very much part of our community in the school,’ said Mr Murphy. ‘We will be there for them should they need us as they make their way in the world.’
Dylan O’Toole went online at 9 a.m. on Monday to find out how he had done. ‘I was happy I think they were fair,’ he said. ‘ There wasn’t a grade where I thought I should have got higher or lower.’
He was able to put the matter out of his mind in the last few months, and wasn’t stressed waiting for the results. ‘ This just marks the end of the chapter, said Dylan, who hopes to study new media at IADT. ‘I’m not 100 per cent sure if I’ll get it but I
think I have a good chance with the points I got.’
Melinda Szabo was a little disappointed and felt she deserved better than she got. ‘ There were a couple of subjects I think were fair, and I wouldn’t have done much better on the exam,’ she said. ‘But some were a bit unfair.
‘I know I’m not the best in the class but I know I can do better than what I got so I’m just waiting for next week, and see if I can appeal some of the subjects. We have a two-day window of the 14th to the 16th to appeal if we’re unhappy.’ Melinda hopes to go on to study veterinary medicine. Kayleigh Howick said she was delighted with her results. She is hoping to get into medicine in UCD and put in six years of hard work to achieve that. ‘ This year was very weird,’ she said. ‘Getting the results today felt strange because you haven’t actually sat an exam. It’s a good sense of closure now because we didn’t graduate or have a debs or a last day. So it’s nice today to see everyone and the teachers.’
While this year’s school leavers wouldn’t have the traditional big get-together to look forward, Kayleigh was planning to go for ‘socially distant dinner’ with a few friends.
Paris Flynn had a nerve-racking morning. The system crashed as she was trying to access her results. ‘I had to wait five or 10 minutes maybe but it felt really long,’ she said. Paris had secured a conditional offer to study art in NCAD, based on her portfolio and pending a certain points requirement. Her sister was with her when she looked up her results at home. ‘I got her to check my points two or three times before I told my mam.’
‘I got exactly what I expected so I was pretty happy,’ said EJ McAteer. ‘I’m very strong in a lot of the practical subjects and that pushed up the points I got.’
He would like to study fine art in IADT. ‘I wasn’t too worried because a lot of my points for that course were already in the bag,’ said EJ. ‘It was still nice to see how much I did get. I’m looking forward to going to college and doing something that’s really for me. There are a lot of subjects in school I wouldn’t necessarily do. I can’t wait to focus on one topic that really interests me.’
He was also planning to see a few friends, in a quieter manner than what would have been. ‘We need to have some form of celebration but obviously within guidelines.’
Dawid Zukrowski couldn’t open the file when accessing his marks online.
‘It took about 20 minutes to get into it,’ he said. ‘But I was delighted when I got it.’ He hopes to study physio in UCD.
‘I did my best and hopefully the points are going to work out. It was stressful, especially with covid and the online classes. We’ve definitely had a memorable year.’