Four first year pupils from St Colms Secondary school in Belfast have been congratulated for receiving outstanding grades in their examinations in GCSE Irish, four years earlier than they should have.
Caolan Kearney, Caolan McClory, Grainne McMullan and Jamie O Reilly achieved their Irish GCSE with the pupils attaining 2 'A's 1 'B' and 1 'C'.The pupils attended classes after school for two afternoons per week from January until the exams in June on order to prepare for this GCSE.
The grades are a reflection of the hard work, time and commitment put in both by the pupils and their Irish teacher, Mr Frankie Nixon.
Mr Nixon said
“It really is an extraordinary achievement to gain a GCSE which is obviously ‘pitched’ at 15/16 year olds at such an early age. What it demonstrates is that there is no limit to what young people can achieve if they decide to put their heart and soul into something ”.
“In attending after school classes on two days per week not only did they achieve that they also got the grades that they deserved. The only problem for me now is what I do with them for the next four years. Who knows maybe they will have their Irish ‘A’ level by their GCSE year”.
Imelda Jordan, the School Principal congratulated the young Irish scholars on their achievements and highlighted the fact that it was another part of what has been an amazing success story at GCSE for the Twinbrook school this year.
“At this school we do not discriminate. Absolutely all pupils are entered for GCSEs and with all of the results now in from every board 16% of our pupils, {1 in 6 of all entries} achieved 10+ GCSE’s at grades A* - C with nearly a third of all entries 32% attaining 7+ GCSEs at grades A* - C.
Furthermore we have the highest number ever 50 % achieving 5+ GCSEs at A* - C and we are confidently expecting this to be reflected in our largest 6th Form / ‘A’ Level enrolment ever”.