Over 1,900 in Meath receive their Leaving Cert results

This year in Meath, a total of 1,813 students sat their Leaving Certificate and a further 126 students sat the Leaving Certificate Applied in the county. Nationally, some 57,839 students sat the exam. Of the 1,813 who sat the Leaving Certificate in Meath, there were 880 females and 933 males, while some 51 females and 75 males sat the Leaving Certificate Applied. Ratoath College celebrated its first ever Leaving Certificate results last week when some 39 students who began schooling at the college five years ago were among the Meath students who got their Leaving Certificate results on Wednesday. Principal, Máire Ní Bhróithe expressed her delight with the results and was thrilled that all students came up to the school on Wednesday morning to receive their results. This year is the first year that the new curricular development initiative in maths, called Project Maths, was examined at Leaving Certificate level in Ratoath College. Students took the same Paper One as the other Leaving Cert mathematics candidates, but had a different Paper Two. Ratoath College was one of 24 Project Maths pilot schools and were delighted that no Ratoath students failed maths, despite high failure rates reported nationally in the subject. Teacher Dave Nelson was particularly delighted with student's results in his constructions studies class with five students receiving A grades. At Coláiste Pobail Ráth Chairn, there was also great celebrations as their 22 Leaving Certificate students got their results. Some 14 boys and eight girls sat the exam with an average result of 364 points and a top mark of 550. There were As at Higher Level in seven subjects and English and science subjects were particularly strong. Meanwhile, a large cohort of pupils and staff gathered at St Oliver's Post Primary School in Oldcastle as early as 9am last Wednesday, in eager anticipation of their grades. The atmosphere hummed with nervous excitement, but any trepidation was unnecessary as the student body received an impressively high level of results which reflects the talent and dedication of the students. With smiles all around, it was straight to the phones to spread the good news. Principal Martin O'Reilly was delighted with a number of pupils exceeding the 500 mark which is a fantastic achievement by any standards. Also notable, was the large percentage of students who broke the four hundred point mark with higher level A grades present across all subjects. Equally satisfying for all concerned was the almost universally held optimism that first choice university places will be attained. There was great excitement and celebrations at Ashbourne Community School on Wednesday. Aine O'Sullivan, principal, proudly spoke of the school's students. "Our students are extremely happy with their achievements in general, with the majority reaching their targeted points. These young people now have to make decisions and choices around CAO offers and other course offers and our guidance team is available at this time with lots of support." "The day brings a mixture of emotions, both happy and sad. Our celebrations are tinged with sadness at the loss of loved ones during the years. As a staff we will miss the group's enthusiasm and friendship but we are equally very delighted with their achievements and wish them the very best for their future," she said. At Loreto St Michael's Secondary School in Navan, principal, Sister Elaine Troy said they were very pleased with the results and that 98 per cent of students were delighted with their results though they would have to wait until the CAO offers come out to see how pleased they are. She said the results were particularly strong in maths and the sciences with exceptional results in biology and very good results in chemistry and physics. "These subjects were a cause of concern nationally and we expected it to also be the case for us but we had very strong results in honours maths and the sciences. History and music were also very strong." Sr Elaine also said that according to the radio, a large proportion of students had failed pass maths nationally but that this was not the case in their school. "The girls are very pleased. Those who were looking for high points got them but they have to wait and see what Monday will bring," said Sr Elaine. Beaufort College principal, John Condon said they were delighted with the results and that overall the students were very happy. He said their maths results were up on other years and that the national trend for maths and sciences was not reflected in their results. "We are particularly pleased with our international students. One of our international students from Poland who came here two years ago, got 555 points. He is a credit to himself and his teachers. It is a magnificent achievement," said Mr Condon. Mr Condon said the Leaving Cert Applied class had also "excelled" and they were absolutely delighted with their results. Beaufort College runs four Post Leaving Cert (PLC) courses and Mr Condon said all four courses have waiting lists. While in previous years he said that a quarter to a third of their students would go on to apprenticeships or directly into employment, this year they are practically all going on to third level and PLC courses. Elizabeth Cahill, principal of Boyne Community School said they were delighted with the performance of their students across all subject areas. "Great credit is due to them whose hard work was rewarded. The majority of them will be heading to third level education. The management and staff of Boyne Community School would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our students on their excellent results. The students also contributed hugely to the school, we are very proud of them and wish them continued success for the future," said Ms Cahill. At St Fintina's Post-Primary School, Longwood, 35 students sat the Leaving Certificate examination this year. The majority of these students opted to collect their results directly from the school last Wednesday morning where senior management and guidance personnel were at hand to answer queries. The school principal, Tom Stack said that overall the results were "extremely good with excellent grades recorded by some students". In particular he was very happy for those students who had worked consistently over the last two years and now had reaped the reward for their labour. Mr Stack said he was confident that the majority of students would be offered their first preferences in the initial CAO offers. He also thanked the staff of St Fintina's for helping these students achieve their potential. Brian Goggins, principal of O'Carolan College, Nobber, stated that "the staff and students were absolutely delighted with the Leaving Certificate results". Some 70 students completed the Leaving Certificate in O'Carolan College this year across 18 subjects. Mr Goggins states that "once again we compare very favourably with national statistics across all subjects and we are particularly pleased and happy with students gaining A,B and C grades at higher level subject. "The majority of students are confident of getting their first choices when offers are made," he said.