'Huge effort' by Marist College students and teachers pays off

At Marist College, Athlone, 104 students received their Leaving Cert results last Friday with three out of every five achieving 400 points or more. Ruairí Dolan, from Fardrum, achieved the maximum score of 625 points while one of the most satisfactory aspects of the results, said principal Michael Dermody, was seeing nine out of every ten students reaching 300 points or more. Six per cent of its students achieved 600 points or more, said Mr Dermody.

"Overall, we are very happy with the results, and that's the same feeling coming back to us from the students," he said.

"The majority of the students are confident they will get their first choices and it was great to see them all coming into the school to receive the results. It was a bit of a throwback in that sense, with the teachers also on-site to add to a general good atmosphere around the place. Our results are pretty much in-line with our previous years showings and that's very pleasing," added Mr Dermody.

He thanked the teachers for their "huge effort" in guiding the students in recent years and said they were delighted to see pupils reach their individual targets.

"To see 29 per cent of our students achieve 500 points or more is extremely good and above the national average. We had a couple of other students go very close to maximum points, as well, so overall I think we can be very satisfied and proud of what the students and the teachers have achieved," Mr Dermody said.