Lucan CC’s Junior Cert students celebrate top marks

Diane Birnie (Principal) and Deputy Principals Andrew Purcell and Stephen Brett congratulated Junior Cycle students on their outstanding results this year in the first ever Junior Certificate/Junior Cycle examination. Celebrations began as the 164 students who completed their examinations this year collected their results envelopes with the college justifiably proud of their achievements.

Particular mention goes to top achiever Samuel Doyle with 8As and a distinction in the new Junior Cycle English examination. Alex Hanley, Lucy Reade, Delfin Malaj, Sophie Scanlon, Laura Lakes, Sheik Bah, David Akinwale, Emmet Bellew, Aaron McGrath, Stanko Lazerevic, Gabrielle Kolesnikovaite, Sean Egan and Aisling Kavanagh who were among our top achievers achieving at least 5As.

Principal and former Year Head Ms Birnie and Deputy Principals Mr Purcell and Mr Brett joined in congratulating the students who were anxious to contact parents and to thank teachers. In a short assembly, current year head Mr Brett along with tutors reminded students to be proud of their achievements and to build on their results going forward. These students have already immersed themselves in the Transition Year and Leaving Certificate Applied programmes and are actively engaged in senior cycle learning. Students were also advised about celebrating safely this evening and community gardaí were on hand to advise about appropriate celebrations.

We are delighted that the number of distinction grades achieved in the new Junior Cycle English course was above national average and commend the work of students and teachers in engaging fully with the new curriculum. In Maths, 75% of our students took the higher level paper, which represents an increase of 10% since last year. 67% of these achieving either an A, B or C grade and 15% securing grade A, again above the national average of 14.1%.

22% of our Religious Education students achieved an A grade with 92% achieving an A, B or C grade which was well above the national average. In technology 24% of students taking the higher level course achieved an A grade, compared to 7.7% nationally, and in science 23% achieved an A at higher level, against 9% nationally. The results across all of the subjects follow a similar positive trend and teachers were delighted that students achieved so well.

“While statistics show the overall success of this year group, we celebrate in particular the individual achievements of students who overcame challenges and setbacks and we appreciate the help and support given to them along the way by parents and staff”, Ms Birnie said. “The Lucan Community College Junior Cert/Cycle class of 2017 can justifiably celebrate three years of hard work and effort” Ms Birnie added. The students will be issued with the first ever Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement later this year which will include details of their final exam grades (following conclusion of the appeals process), results from their English Classroom Base Assessments as well as a profile of student’s involvement in other aspects of school activities. The JCPA marks the widening of the assessment process to reward achievement across a broader spectrum of student learning.

“Well done to all of the teachers, parents and support staff who helped to prepare our students for their examinations and who created opportunities in our curricular and extra-curricular programme to engage students in a broad and balanced educational experience”, Ms Birnie said. “Lucan Community College is extremely proud of this group of students and looks forward to seeing what they accomplish in the future”, she added.