Aveen is the toast of her school with 600 points

PRINCIPALS reported some of the best overall performances in years at schools in the South-East yesterday.

While straight A’s student Aveen Gorry from Rosberkin in Kilkenny was just 16 when she sat her seven exams, it didn’t phase her. She had the support of her mum, Mary, a teacher in her school when she went into the office at Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School in Rosberkin, on the Kilkenny/Wexford border yesterday.

The bright 17-year-old discovered she’d received top marks in Maths, Irish, English, French, Accounting and Business Studies, as well as an A2 in Physics.

She is the toast of her school, the 41 others who sat the exam there as well as her proud parents, Edwin, a pharmacist, and Mary, a Maths, French, Irish and Computers teacher at the school.

Aveen has 600 points and will get the place she wants on the coveted Financial and Actuarial Studies course at UCD.

“The results were a big surprise. The exams went fine. I wasn’t sure about English Paper One though. I’m fairly calm in exams and worked throughout the year, and in fifth year. I didn’t end up cramming at the end,” she said.

Just down the road at Ramsgrange Community School in New Ross, deputy principal Marie Diskin was also handing out the good news to her pupils.

“A number of our students got 500 points plus. Even students who struggled did exceptionally well. What struck me when I was going down through the results was how well everyone did.”

There were also celebrations in Waterford where principal at Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School Michael Lane was also delivering the good news. One of his pupils got three A1’s, two A2’s and two B1’s. Another got six A’s and a B1.

He said the CAO system should be changed, to allow pupils select a college course, after they get their results.

“I’d be in favour of allowing them wait a little longer, before choosing a college course. It would give them a salient dose of reality.

“In January, these students are putting down Medicine and Law as their first choice, some knowing they won’t get it. It would be a lot better if they were given more time to make a realistic choice.”

In Kilkenny, James Freeman finished top of the class of 2003 with 590 points. He too will have a free choice of courses this autumn.