Omagh students hopeful for the future

STUDENTS of two Omagh secondary schools are hopeful the decision not to hold exams this year will not negatively impact their future aspirations.

The North’s Education Minister Peter Weir recently announced guidelines on summer exams and said teachers in the North will predict the exam marks they think students would have achieved in cancelled GCSE, AS and A-level exam.

A level results will calculated using statistical predictions based on previous student performance combined with teacher/centre assessed grades and teacher/centre rank orders.

The decision has caused confusion for teachers and students, but Jamie Harkin, head boy at Drumragh Integrated College believes ‘there is no one system which is going to work to the advantage of everyone.’

He said, “Some pupils peak under exam conditions but these are the peoples who work intensively approaching those times and maybe surpass all expectations.

“Then there are the others who are stressed by exam hall conditions and may under-perform. These are the students who benefit from teachers’ input.”

Jamie hopes that the current situation will not impact his future aspirations of attending university.

He said, “Generally, we have been reassured by the government that nobody is going to be disadvantaged by the decision not to hold exams.

“Some people may welcome this and as I said before, others may prefer the heat of the exam situation but hopefully it will not impact negatively on future ambitions and the end goal so to speak – university admission.”

Aoife Bogle, head girl at Sacred Heart College in Omagh believes the predicted marks is the fairest way that grades could be given out.

“Obviously it depends on the work that we’ve done throughout the year in preparation for exams, along with mocks so because it’s not just set on one mark from a mock exam it’s not as bad. It’s not ideal but obviously it’s completely out of our control.

Aoife said the situation is completely out of her and her fellow pupils’ control, and hopes that she has done enough to progress in her education.

She said, “Even if things don’t turn out the way I would’ve hoped it’s still okay to repeat exams or whatever the plans would be for next year.

“I know that I worked to the best of my ability throughout the year, so there is not much more we can do now.

Students have been adapting to learning online and have been given lessons to complete while off school.

“At the minute teachers are still setting us work to try and finish the course,” explained Aoife.

“Although we won’t have to sit exams, teachers are focusing on us going to university and wanting to prepare us for it.

“We are also having some Zoom virtual lessons to finish the course.

“This is actually really beneficial because at least the course isn’t left unfinished- and because I find my subjects interesting I’m enjoying having something to do with my time,” concluded Aoife.

Jamie also praised his school’s efforts towards helping students through online learning.

“We were well up to speed on completion of the specification.

“Our teachers had us well prepared before the pandemic hit and now we have been encouraged to complete our specifications using our materials and resources as this will undoubtedly help us in our future studies,” concluded Jamie.