Repeating the Leaving Certificate

urbeau

My son has mess a bit of a mess of his prep for LC 2011, he will sit it but not looking great for grades as he has only really started working since about December in 6th year. So, looking like repeat in 2012 is on the cards. He wants to go to university and is targeting strong honours leaving.

We are based near Drogheda and just wondering if anybody has good experience of repeat schools which would be within range (we are expecting he will have to go to Dublin). Ideally love to hear from someone who either had a good personal experience or knows someone who got on well after resitting with a particular institution.

I repeated my own leaving many years back and I came from pretty awful result to top notch honours leaving in one year. This was down to attending an excellent repeat school, where the teachers really cared, were superb and guided student through study skills, exam technique etc. as well as just course content. Looking to find the same type of setup for my son.

TimeToShine

December in 6th year is a fine place to start if he does it properly, have a little faith in your son and give him a chance before planning to fork out 5 grand for no reason.

Exothermic

Not having confidence in your son won't be much of a motivating factor for him. From what we've been told, repeating isn't an easy option this year. The Maths and Irish courses will change for those sitting their LC in 2012 so your son may have an even harder time catching up on those within one year. Luckily enough, if he's currently doing Hamlet, he'd also being doing that next year for English.
Spoon-feeding your son with information for a year may not work. People respond to learning in different ways. Why not look into your son doing afterschool study? Many of those repeat schools offer an afterschool study package for secondary school goers, something like 4-9pm with breaks. Or looking into getting him grinds/intensive revision courses for Easter. I'm sure it wouldn't please your son if he knew you'd gone behind his back and were doubting him with months still left to go. Confidence is a big factor.

I don't mean any of the above in a hostile way, please don't take it that way :P

I don't think you've lost faith in your son at all, especially since you believe he can go from zero to honours in a year. However, I think that the fact that you repeated is making you far more comfortable with him repeating than most parents would be. It will be very difficult for him to repeat, and by all means do a little research into it, but try not to say much about it to him. If he feels he'll definitely be repeating, he'll be really demotivated to try for this year. I did my leaving 2 years ago, barely went to school through 5th and 6th year, started studying after christmas, and still got 495 points. I'm sure your son can do similarly well or even better, and unless he wants medicine or psychology or something very high, he's still got enough time to clock up those points.

As for your question, the only place I've known people to repeat at is the institute, and they usually do well, but I've no idea why because it seems like a very un-nurturing environment. The teachers are more like lecturers from what I've heard.

Dr. Ring

Well I'm glad to see that you care about the success of your son and it seems like your not the type to put an enormous amount of pressure on him to achieve outstanding results. Pity all parents are not the same

Is there some issue with the school he is currently attending because the fact that you say he's not working (or wasn't) suggests that there is a problem withing the school he's at. Teachers are there to push their students to an academic level that corresponds with the individual. However, you have said that you have confidence in your sons ability to go from a poor grade one year to academic excellence the next. I guess my question is: Why are you sending your son to his current school when you have no faith in it's staff?

Of course there is always the possibility that he will surprise you and excell this year. Not everyone requires hours and hours of study to get an excellent Leaving Certificate. He may be one of those people who, if they listen in class, can act like a sponge and soak up the information.

And even if he does do poorly, he may be happy with that and if he is, perhaps you should be too. The thing you should focus on is "If he's happy I'm happy".

Best of luck to you both anyway. And fair play to you for being such a good parent.