There were scenes of jubilation around Athlone earlier this week as the Leaving Cert class of 2009 returned to school for the final time to pick up their exam results.
With the first round of CAO college offers due on Monday, students now have just a few days’ wait to find out if their hard-earned results are enough to gain entry to the course of their choice.
Local schools reported high levels of satisfactory results, with students bucking national trends of falling numbers of A grades and low achievement in maths and science.
Principal of Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone, Sr Denise O’Brien, said staff were very pleased with the results achieved by their students.
“Overall, results were excellent. We are extremely pleased and the students are very happy. They have done very well and acquitted themselves very well.
“Some students achieved several As. There are reports that the number of As is falling, but that is certainly not the case here,” she added.
Meanwhile Marist College principal Thomas Blaine said that overall, staff, boys, and parents were happy with the results, with one student achieving seven A grades and 580 points.
“Our results are consistently good every year. Of course there are always boys who get 580, 560, or 550 points, but teachers are always concerned about the ‘average’ students, and thankfully everyone did very well.”
He added that the school’s results flew in the face of falling maths and science grades nationally; “We consistently buck trends in maths and science at all ends of the scale. We have no complaints.”
Some 57,455 Leaving Certificate candidates across the country received their examination results on Wednesday morning this week.
Of these, 50,883 were school-leavers, 4,361 were external candidates, and 2,211 repeat candidates.
Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe congratulated students, parents, and teachers following the release of the results, and urged students who performed well in the Leaving Cert to consider courses in the science, technology and engineering sectors.
