'If you make it to Junior Cert, your risk of being homeless begins to drop'

The Peter McVerry Trust Learning Centre in Lucan provides an alternative environment for students who struggle in mainstream secondary education

Holly Gilmore in the Peter McVerry Trust Learning Centre in Lucan, Co Dublin. Having completed her Junior Cert with the centre, she is now studying a QQI in IT. Picture: Moya Nolan

Holly Gilmore, 16, Lucan, Dublin, didn’t like a lot about school.

“I wasn’t in very much and I used to get very anxious over how crowded the corridors were,” she told the Irish Examiner. “It was kind of a struggle to get me up.”