Top marks and important advice coming from St Aidan's Comprehensive

There were joyous scenes in Cavan today (August 23) as over 900 students received their Leaving Certificate results.

Some 852 students in the county sat the Leaving Certificate, while 93 sat the Leaving Cert Applied.

Waking up on results morning can be nerve-wracking, but not for St Aidan's Comprehensive School student Rebecca Vogan who received the highest number of points available to students who sit the exam.

“To be honest my mam was more nervous than me, I was quite calm about the whole thing,” she laughed.

“There was nothing really more that I could do,” she said.

The Canningstown native made her way to school where the sealed brown envelope containing the results of her hard work awaited. Upon seeing she had earned 625 points, the eighteen year old was “in shock.”

“I just wasn’t expecting it, it was a really nice surprise to get but I was completely in shock,” she beamed.

She recalled “quite stressful” days preparing for the exams, however she worked at a steady pace for the entire year, meaning she wasn’t panicking at the last minute.

“I would have worked throughout the year quite hard so it did leave it not as stressful come June.

“It was a stressful enough month doing the exams but it paid off.”

Rebecca will go on to study speech and language therapy in Ulster University. Having already received her place there, she is excited to start her new adventure in September.

“I’m really looking forward to starting something new.

“It’ll be a big change from the last couple of years but I’m really looking forward to it, it’ll be a nice change.”

For some students, the first round of CAO offers will come out on Wednesday August 28 at 2pm. Round two offers will follow on Monday September 9 also at 2pm.

Principal of St Aiden’s Comprehensive School for the last year, Angela Flanagan said students at the school today were “very very happy” with their results.

She described how for some, this was their first time sitting a state exam due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As young people do, they’re very resilient, they did us all proud.

Despite students being “a little bit more anxious” the former St Aidan’s student said exam performance was not affected.

“To me it didn’t reflect in their results and it certainly didn’t reflect in their work ethic during their exams that it was the first state exam that they had sat.”

To those across the county who may have been disappointed with their results, Ms Flanagan had the following message.

“There’s lots of opportunities available to those students, just sit tight and wait on the offers that are about to come out.

“The points may go down, okay they may go up but there’s lots of opportunities,” she said, mentioning the “fabulous” Cavan and Monaghan Institute in the area.

“You can repeat if you wish but there are lots of different routes into different things so it’s about taking your time and just waiting on the offers to come out.”

She urged students “not to be worried.”

A former religion and Irish teacher in the school for sixteen years, she said staff were “equally excited” this morning to see how students did in the exams.

“It may as well be their own children sitting the Leaving Cert.”

Asked about her opinion on the Leaving Certificate examination system, Ms Flanagan said “it doesn’t suit every child.”

“I think the society that we are living in now is very different to the society we were living in when the Leaving Cert came out.

“A lot of our students would say that they prefer more continuous assessment but with the new senior cycle coming out I think we’re being promised that there’s going to be 40% going towards a practical component in all those subjects.

“I think that will help.”

“We welcome changes to the senior cycle, it is a stressful time, currently the system that we have puts a lot of stress on young people but it has it’s pros and cons,” she said, adding that the Leaving Cert Applied programme is “excellent.”

“It is really really suitable for a lot of our learners, especially those that want to go into apprenticeships and the practical subjects.”

“There’s certainly changes [that] should be made to make it [the Leaving Certificate] more applicable to all styles of learners, I think that shift needs to happen and it is happening now with the redevelopment of the senior cycle.”

While congratulating the students, Fine Gael Senator Joe O’Reilly confirmed that the State Examinations Commission this year intends to issue the results of any Leaving Certificate appeals on Friday, 27 September and also that it intends to issue Junior Cycle results on Wednesday, 9 October.

"Today is a day for celebration for all our students who have now completed their secondary school journey.

"During their years there they have experienced ups and downs but have grown and matured and are now at the very beginning of their next new chapter.

“There are a myriad of options available to them, whether it’s further education, an apprenticeship, work, travel or other possibilities.

"They should all be proud of themselves today and I’d like to wish them every success for their future as they take the next tentative steps into young adulthood.”