The pupils have taken over the school – but the teachers wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s the last day for the sixth years at Athlone Community College and they have commandeered the sports hall for a singsong.
Two days before their graduation, it’s a bittersweet moment for school principal Lisa O’Kennedy and for Gráinne Macken, one of the deputy principals.
“We hate saying goodbye to them, and it’s emotional,” Ms O’Kennedy says.
“With our sixth years, we’re at the point that they feel they can take over the sports hall and we have built up trust.”
The college, which is under the patronage of Longford Westmeath Education and Training Board, marked its 50th anniversary this year.
About 10 years ago, students and staff moved into a specially designed building. It is bright, spacious and well lit, with woodwork, engineering, music, science and art rooms that many other schools would envy.
As schools go, Athlone Community College is one of the biggest schools in the country, with 1,162 students.
How do they manage such a large operation?
“Communication is key, we need to keep each other in the loop,” Ms O’Kennedy says.
“As well as the three deputies, we have a middle-management team including year heads and assistant principals.
“We have a diverse range of extracurricular options. Over a third of our staff are taking a sports team this year, and there are a lot of student-led initiatives including, to name but three, chess, the Young Scientist exhibition and Formula One.
“The arts are huge here, too. Because we are such a big school, we can offer a lot of opportunities to our students.
“Students come up with a lot of their own ideas; for instance, we just received an application from the student council to set up a gardening club.”
Ms Macken says students should feel as much ownership of the school as staff do.
“Their voice is important. We don’t have a mass for graduation, because this is a multi-denominational school. So we gave the students carte blanche to be as creative as they like. We didn’t tell them about the timings, the music, rehearsals, symbols, artwork or decor; they are deciding both the finer and grander details,” she says.
Last year, after the students advocated for it, the school set up a sensory room so neurodivergent students – and anyone else who wanted it – could find a quiet space. The students developed the space themselves.
As school leaders, Ms O’Kennedy and Ms Macken both say they worry about how their students will get accommodation while in college.
They are concerned, too, about the mental health of students across Ireland. Ms O’Kennedy says young people struggle to get the right mental health supports.
“We have a mobile phone ban here from the first bell in the morning. We don’t have special pouches or lockers for their phones, because they see the value in being separate from their device for a while,” she says.
As for teachers, Ms O’Kennedy and Ms Macken echo their colleagues nationwide: recruitment and retention is becoming harder, especially for science and language teachers.
“They don’t want to be living in a house with five other people, when they can get better pay and conditions abroad,” Ms Macken says. “The profession is losing great teachers, but we can’t blame them – there just isn’t enough of a carrot to stay in Ireland.”
Five students from the school will individually share their exam highs and lows in The Irish Times during the first week of the Leaving Certificate examinations. They will also talk about their hopes and worries about the future.
‘I’m enjoying my final year’: Princess Collins (17)
Princess is the third eldest of nine siblings. How does she manage to study in such a busy house?
“I’m used to the noise and I like being around lots of people,” she says.
“Fifth year was a little more stressful, I think. Now we have most of the work done and I’m enjoying my final year of school.”
Across the country many Leaving Cert students are still unsure of what course they want to do, and may well be using the CAO Change of Mind form right up to July 1.
Not Princess, however. “I’m dead set on what I want to do: engineering in UCD,” she says.
‘I’m not big into studying’: Amy Cox (17)
Amy is one of Athlone Community College’s Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) students.
Unlike the traditional Leaving Cert, where the focus is on academics, the LCA is focused on vocational learning, continuous assessment and practical life skills.
“In the run up to the Leaving Cert I thought it would be harder, so it could have been worse,” Amy says.
“I’m not big into studying, so the practical route works well for me. I am hoping to get into a general nursing course at Moate ETB [Education and Training Board], which is linked to the TUS university nursing course.”
Vocational routes mean that not every young person feels the need to pursue an academic route, and that the labour market is not oversaturated with too many overqualified university graduates.
In Germany, about half of second-level students take a vocational route, with a greater emphasis on providing training for much-needed, well-paid apprenticeship options.
In Ireland, just over 4,000 of 62,000-plus students (6.5 per cent) sat the LCA in 2024, although the numbers are growing and the number of schools offering this option are rising.
‘There’s a good college here’: Killian Keegan (18)
The pressure of the big exam has started to grow, Killian says, but he knows what he wants to do.
“I’m hoping to study sports and rehabilitation in TUS [Technological University of the Shannon],” he says.
“It’s a route towards a master’s in physiotherapy, either in Ireland or abroad. And if I don’t get that, sports science is another option for me.”
TUS was formed from an amalgamation of Athlone IT and Limerick IT.
This happened at the same time as most other institutes of technology across Ireland merged to become “technological universities”.
For students, it means those who want a university education can now get one closer to home, without having to move to Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick or Maynooth and face the increasingly difficult battle for accommodation.
“I’m glad to be staying here,” he says. “I like the area, there’s a good college here and I can hang on to my part-time job.”
‘I don’t see myself going abroad’: Heather McDermott (18)
Heather hopes to study medicine and is awaiting the results of the HPAT test.
The HPAT was introduced to Ireland in 2009 and its purpose was twofold.
First, it aimed to reduce the pressure on students who needed a near-perfect Leaving Cert score to get near medicine.
Second, it was supposed to assess the suitability of candidates for medical school.
While there is some evidence that it has eliminated the need for top marks, there’s less clarity on its suitability as an admission test for medicine.
“If I don’t get medicine, I will accept it; I don’t see myself going abroad,” she says.
“My other options are mostly engineering courses, and I’m happy if I get one of them.”
‘As I get closer to the exams, I feel the needle drop’: Shreyash Shukla (17)
“This year is difficult,” Shreyash says. “As I get closer to the exams, I feel the needle drop.”
Shreyash is hoping to get enough points to study medicine as he says he is more oriented towards science and maths subjects.
In the past, aspiring medical students had fewer options outside of Ireland. Today, many European universities offer medicine courses, taught through English, giving another outlet for talented students who would make great doctors but may fall short of the relatively higher Irish points requirement.
“I’ve looked at courses in the UK, but you need to be 18, and I won’t be 18 on time,” he says.
