A message to all 3rd year students & their parents/guardians

Dear 3rd year students, parents and guardians

I hope that you are all keeping safe and well at this unusual time. I would like to thank you all for your support as we navigate these unprecedented times in education and society as a whole.

You will be aware that on the 10th April the State Examinations Commission (SEC) in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills (DoES) notified all schools that the Junior Certificate examinations will not take place in June. Instead they proposed that the SEC would send the papers to schools and students would sit the exams in September. The proposal was that these would not be state certified.

In the past week or so you will have seen much discussion in the media surrounding this initial proposal. The discussions now centre on staging some form of Junior Certificate/Junior Cycle Assessment before the end of May. We in Carrigaline Community School are in regular contact with our managerial body, the Association for Community and Comprehensive Schools (ACCS), regarding this issue. The DoES have advised us that negotiations are ongoing at national level, and have asked that schools refrain from making local decisions pending the outcome of these talks. As soon as I have further information on this matter I will be in contact with you.

In the meantime, I would urge all third year students to engage as fully as possible, be it through set assignments or online classes, with their teachers and to continue with their school work as much as is possible. This engagement will allow them to be best prepared for whatever format the assessment of the Junior Cycle experience will take. As a school community we will endeavour to do all that we can to support students at this time. If your son/daughter is completing their online work on their mobile phone (if they do not have access to a tablet, computer or laptop), please email lcollins@carrigcs.ie and we will try to make some arrangement with the use of school devices.

Thank you again for your support at this time, I appreciate that the uncertainty is frustrating for students, families and the school community.   

Kind regards

Paul Burke

Principal