Results day joy for Trim"s A students

There were relaxed scenes in Trim, punctuated with a few shrieks of delight, as students of Scoil Mhuire and Boyne Community Schools collected their Leaving Certificate results on Wednesday morning (13th August). Anxious parents waited outside for their sons and daughters to re-emerge with the white envelopes containing their results, then the mobile phones were out to furiously calculate the number of points they got. Some 135 students sat the Leaving Cert in Scoil Mhuire this year and two students got top marks of 600 points - one achieving seven A1s. For Niamh Cleary from Dunderry, the decision to repeat her Leaving Cert was well worth it and her 600 points will guarantee her her first choice of medicine. Last year Niamh got 555 points but missed out on medicine and got her second choice of veterinary. However, two months into the course, Niamh realised it was not for her and took the brave decision to go back to school and repeat her Leaving and was the only girl repeating. 'I can"t believe it,' said a delighted Niamh. 'I wasn"t that happy with biology coming out of the exam but I got an A1,' she said. Her mother Helena said: 'We"re so relieved. She got 555 last year but it wasn"t enough for medicine. She started veterinary but her heart wasn"t in it and she went back to school. Her results are richly deserved. She worked so hard. We are over the moon.' School principal Jacqueline Maher was delighted with the results and said that while she was pleased for those who got high marks, she was just as pleased with those who did the Leaving Cert applied and that they also did very well. 'I"m very happy for the girls. They got what they deserved. They put the work in and got the results. I"m very pleased and proud. They are the people who deserve the credit and I also congratulate the teachers. The girls are a credit to themselves, their teachers and their parents'. Ms Maher said there are always some students were disappointed but said the school"s maths results were not in line with the national average where 12 per cent of students failed maths. She said their pass rate was much higher though you would always have a few who fail. Rebecca Daly from Robinstown was delighted to get 480 points and has 40 points to spare on last year"s points for her first choice - Communications in DCU. Rebecca said she was totally shocked by her results and was thrilled to get an A1 in English. Dawn Ryan from Trim said she was nervous on the morning but was happy with her results and is fairly confident she had enough points for her choice - Science in UCD. Louise Slevin from Trim was delighted with her 380 points and is planning to do Photography at IADT in Dun Laoghaire and Emma Doran from Johnstownbridge was 'very happy' and had 'got exactly what she thought'. Emma is hoping to do Landscape Architecture at UCD. Karen Foley, from Trim was very happy with her results and said she got all 'A"s, 'B"s and 'C"s. Deborah Leonard from Broadford said: 'I"m really happy. I got mostly 'B"s and did better than I thought'. She is planning to do a PLC course in Computer and Business. Over at Boyne Community School, the mood was relaxed and by 9.30am there were still plenty of results to be collected. This year"s Leaving Certificate was a relatively small year with just 72 students sitting the exams. Deputy Principal Elizabeth Cahill said they were delighted with the results, particularly maths and said the national failure statistics were not reflected in the school"s results. She said the students also did very well in Biology and English and those doing the specialised subjects such as physics had all 'really achieved'. A number of students achieved results over the '500', according to Ms Cahill. 'We are delighted with the results and how well the students did across the board. They were good workers and we hope they do well in the future and get the courses they wanted,' she said. Ms Cahill said the students had been 'very relaxed', were taking their results and heading outside. 'There was no sense of panic, they were all very relaxed.' When asked if he was nervous that morning, Ciaran Dunne from Dunderry said he wasn"t and that he 'hadn"t been thinking about the results at all after the Leaving Cert'. Ciaran said after he reveiced his results that he is happy with them and sees his future course being agricultural science in Waterford. Daryl Marmion from Trim was delighted with his 420 points. The points for his course was 390 last year so he is hoping he will get his first choice of teaching at Mater Dei and plans to be a secondary school teacher. He commented that a few of his subjects were down from his mocks but he was delighted to pass maths. Kailem Gourley from Kilbridge got 520 points but said he could be short points for his first choice of actuary in UCD. He said he did better in the sciences than he thought but was disappointed in his languages. Eoin Kenny from Trim was delighted with his 335 points and said he did 'way better' than he thought. His first choice is engineering in DIT. Darren Coloe from Trim got 390 points and has plenty of points to spare for his chosen course - Arts in Maynooth. Darragh Kennedy said he aimed for 350, needed 320 and got 340, so he was happy. He also hopes to do engineering in DIT. Elaine Bradley from Trim said she did better in maths than she thought - and also construction studies. With her 415 points, Elaine is hoping to get her first choice of Arts in UCD which was 345 points last year.