Update re. The Leaving Certificate
Dear Students and Parent(s)/Guardian(s).
You have probably seen the Minister’s statement on the Leaving Certificate.
On Friday, 8th May 2020, the Minister has issued a statement that, in order to achieve the fairest possible outcomes in the current circumstances, he is offering a system of Calculated Grades. A Calculated Grade is a grade that can be provided to students following the combination of school information about a student’s expected performance in an examination and national data available in relation to the performance of students in examinations over a period of time.
There are two main phases in the process of arriving at a Calculated Grade:
• A school-based phase
• A national standardisation phase
The following is a breakdown of the process to be applied for students to be given the option of Calculated Grades or to sit the examinations.
The 2020 Leaving Certificate examinations, previously scheduled to take place in late July and August, have been postponed.
There will be no Leaving Certificate fee this year. All exam fees which have been paid will be refunded.
Teachers will be asked to provide a professional judgment of each student’s attainment which will be subjected to a rigorous in-school alignment process to ensure fairness.
The school principal will approve the estimated scores being provided and the rankings of each student in each subject in the school.
A special unit is being established within the Department of Education and Skills to process the data provided by each school and operate national standardisation, again to ensure fairness amongst all students.
The Department will finalise the grades for each student which will be issued to each student as close as possible to the traditional date.
Formal State certification will also be provided.
Students will retain the right to appeal.
This will involve checks on school-entered data; correct transfer of that data to the Department; a review that it was correctly received and processed by the Department; and a verification of the Department’s processes by independent appeal scrutineers.
Students will also retain the right to the sit the 2020 Leaving Certificate examinations at a date in the future when it is deemed safe for state examinations to be held.
Senior Cycle will now conclude for the current 6th Year cohort as of today and any further information will be passed on through the website, webtext or Facebook.
Should you need to, the principal and/or deputy principal can be contacted at students’ school email and the Ms. Martin, Ms. Flynn, Ms. O’Donnell and Mr. McGuinness remain available for career advice etc.
We are very proud of our students who are now finishing their time with us and we are especially proud of how you have presented yourself in the last 6 weeks of this unprecedented situation.
We now trust the professionalism and integrity of the new system that is put in place nationally.
Be assured we will continue to support you in the days ahead.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Pat O’Brien
Principal