JUNIOR CERT
A Summerhill College student was one of four across the country who received straight As across the board as the Junior Cert results were released last Wednesday morning.
Niall O’Donovan received an incredible 12 As in his Leaving Certificate, much to the delight of his principal Paul Keogh.
The nerves of over 700 students in Sligo were eased last Wednesday morning as they collected their Junior Certificate results across the county. This year marked the first year that English was examined under the new framework for the junior cycle. The grading system for English is different to the other subjects this year.
Rather than the old ‘A,B, C’ grade format, students will be awarded one of six grade descriptors which range from ‘Distinction’ to ‘Not Graded’.
Changes to Junior Cycle subjects are being implemented on a phased basis with both grading systems appearing together until 2021 at which time the last of the revised Junior Cycle subjects will be examined. At Summerhill College, Principal Paul Keogh said results were excellent across the board.
“We’re over the moon with the results overall. The boys did excellent. Very much appreciated by the teachers, with all the work they put in especially in the last few weeks of the term last year. The heads went down and they were focused.
“We’re particularly delighted with Niall O’Donovan, one of our students who achieved As across the board at higher level. We’re very happy with his results and in general,” he added.
Results were good across all subjects, and despite slight confusion with the new grading system for English, results were not affected.
“To be fair, there was a good balance. There would have been a bit of concern over the new English grading, we’re happy with that. The CBA is counted as 10% and that would have been done before the end of the year. That would have put pressure on the lads after the mocks and it would
have probably taken a bit of the rhythm away from preparing for the Junior Cert but overall I think they’ve responded very well.”
Mr. Keogh went on to wish his students well: “We’re very lucky, the majority of them are entering the Transition Year programme. That, along with Junior Cert results, should provide an excellent platform for them to develop and go to where they want to go in terms of the senior cycle.”
At the Ursuline, students were emotional as they collected their much anticipated results. Again, results were excellent all across the board. “There’s great excitement here. They were here from an early hour so we gave out results from half nine,” Sister Mairead O’Regan, Principal said.
“We have a lot of very happy students leaving here. We wish them the best and we wish them happy and responsible celebrations. They’ ll then be moving on and building on what they have already achieved.”
She continued: “All good across the board. Evidently this was the first year where we saw the new Junior Cert marking. So the comment on the paper is different. Much in line with other results, by degrees, the new Junior Cert will be coming in. We wish them the best as we all move on and try to help them to do the best they can,” she said.