Good evening all Parents/ Guardians,

This post is specifically in relation to the Christmas Exams. Copies of timetables for 1st, 2nd and 5th years are for viewing on the school website.

Students have been provided with hard copies and we will meet the boys closer to their start date to go through with them exam protocols etc.

Also, information is being sent to 1st year parents in relation to choices for Practical Options (Art, TG, Technology, Coding & Digital Media) and in relation to Christmas tests. There will be no Christmas exam in any of the option subjects for 1st year students. 

1st Year Options

As you are aware our first-year students have had a taster in a selection of practical subject options since last September.

The options available to the students is a choice between Art or Technical Graphics or Technology or IT (Coding/ Digital Media).The students will choose one of the subject options listed in order of preference. It is important to note that Coding and Digital Media fuse to form one option, as these courses are referred to as Short Courses in the New Junior Cycle.

Forms will be distributed to students on Monday December 6th and must be returned to Ms. Shiels (Deputy Principal) not later than Thursday 9th December 2021. The students will be met at assembly and the filling of the form will be explained to them. A box will be left outside the office where students can submit their forms daily, up to the end of the school day on December 9th. Every effort will be made to allocate your son to a group which will allow him to study his preferred subject. In a small number of cases this may not be possible (due to limitations on class size). Please be assured that if this situation arises you will be contacted directly to discuss the matter.

Please be aware that failure to return this form on time may result in your son being unable to study the subject(s) of his first choice.

1st Year Christmas Tests

As mentioned on yesterday’s e mail our 1st year students will commence their Christmas Exams on Tuesday 14th December. They will have exams on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (14th- 16th December).

The boys will be sitting their Christmas exams in the Sports Hall this year (to ensure that we can adhere to adequate social distancing) and all exams are 1 hour and 10 minutes in duration. The protocols and rules that we follow for house exams are closely aligned to those that are in place for the State Examinations i.e.

• all students will receive an “exam number” which will be posted on their tutor room classroom door (tutors will remind students to make note of the number)
• all students will have an assigned seat in the exam hall (dictated by their exam number)
• students will have a supervised study slot prior to each exam. This is usually a 40-minute slot and is important as it allows students to immerse themselves in the subject matter that will be examined

The idea behind the above measures is to allow students to become comfortable with an exam environment from early on in 1st year. This is so important for students so that when they reach 3rd year (exam year) they are not fazed by an exam environment.

Students must bring the materials for their next exam with them in the event of finishing an exam early. No student should finish early, as once the writing aspect of the exam has been completed, students need to look over their exam paper to ensure that they have put their name on the paper and numbered their questions correctly etc. The exam timetables are available to view on our website and have been sent to all parents. As mentioned, we will explain all of the above to the boys, however, as is always the case we want parents to be involved and informed every step of the way in everything that we do.

Please feel free to e-mail us at any time in relation to any of the above or indeed if you have a question or a query. We would only be happy to help if we can.

Christmas Exams