AMBITIONS REALISED:STUDENTS AND teachers in Cork welcomed yesterday's Leaving Certificate results, which revealed six students from the city and county were among the 13 students nationally who achieved eight A1s.
Principal of Christian Brothers College on Sydney Hill, Cork city, Dr Larry Jordan, was particularly pleased with the results achieved by the school's 131 students who sat the examination. "There's been a lot of emphasis this year on maths and physics and our results have been tremendous, particularly in maths - we had 30 students who sat higher-level maths and 24 of them achieved A1s, three received A2s and three achieved B1s, so we're very pleased," he said.
"We had seven students in all who achieved the maximum 600 points and three of these received received eight A1s, so there's great credit due to all of them and their teachers and their parents because a lot of hard work goes into achieving those results."
Among those who obtained eight A1s at CBC were classmates Mark Moriarty (18) from Rochestown and Kevin O'Keeffe (18) from Cobh, both of whom plan to study physics at UCC, and Ian Chisholm (18) from Wellington Road who wants to study engineering at Cambridge.
Also celebrating yesterday was Kate McCutcheon (19) from Model Farm Road, who attends Mount Mercy Convent and who achieved eight A1s - more than enough to achieve her ambition of going to Cambridge to study mathematics.
Joining Kate and the three CBC students on Cork's eight A1s list was Eabhann O'Connor (18) from Glanmire, who attended St Aloysius in Carrigtwohill, where she too scored top marks and more than enough to realise her ambition of studying medicine at Trinity.
Kenneth Howick (18) from Skehard Road in Blackrock studied at Coláiste Chríost Rí in Turners Cross and he too achieved eight A1s to earn himself a place on the pharmacy course in UCC.
"I'm thrilled - I was aiming for 565 for pharmacy so I have more than enough but I was haunted [lucky] really two years ago - I was doing another subject but I switched to chemistry after a couple of weeks and now it's one of my favourite subjects so I'm delighted," he said.
At Coláiste Choilm in Ballincollig, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe was congratulating principal, Pat Kinsella, and his staff on their fine results. One hundred and fifty-six students sat the Leaving Cert and a further 15 sat the Leaving Certificate Applied.
"We're very pleased with the results," said Mr Kinsella." There was only 1 per cent failure in maths so we're very pleased with that and in terms of the top range of performers, we had four on 600 points and five on 590. Everyone seems to be happy in terms of the courses they targeted.
"The science subjects and the languages went well."
