Presentation College Awards Academic Excellence

On Saturday, 1^st October a distinguished gathering from the world of academia converged on the Seven Oaks Hotel for the fifth annual Presentation College Academic Awards ceremony.

Shortly after his appointment as Principal in November2007, Mr. Ray Murray requested the Board of Management to implement a new system of Academic Awards for the top achieving students in the Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations. The Board readily agreed to this request and since then the top achieving students in the Junior and Leaving Certificate Examinations were honoured. This time it was the turn of the Presentation College high achievers in the 2011 summer state examinations. The Academic Awards, implemented by the Board of Management, are designed to recognise and reward academic achievement among the students in Presentation College and to publicly celebrate their success.

The Academic Awards are just one of a series of initiatives introduced in the college to acknowledge, support and sustain the high level of performance and success by the students in that centre of excellence. The high achieving students in the non exam classes, based on last summer’s in-house exams, will shortly be presented with their Academic Subject certificates at ceremonies to be held in the school. In a further measure to promote academic excellence among the students the First, Second and Third Year class structure was revamped to comprise of one top class and three other mixed ability classes. Third and Sixth Year students have recently completed Study Skills seminars and students also avail of after school Supervised Study from Monday to Thursday evening and on Friday afternoon. Testament to the ability of the students is the fact that five of them have recently returned from Malaysia and Singapore where they performed very well in the World Finals of the very prestigious F1 in Schools Technology Challenge.

Academic achievement among the students is a top priority in Presentation College and they perform consistently at a very high level in terms of results in the Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations each summer. This is due in no small manner to the hard work ethos of the students and their teachers coupled with the support and encouragement of their parents.

The Awards Ceremony on Friday night consisted of a sit-down meal for all recipients and their parents, along with the Principal, Deputy Principal, School Chaplain, Year Heads and Board of Management members followed by the presentation of awards. The Chairperson of the Board of Management, Mr. Alex Stenson presented awards to the Junior and Leaving Certificate high-achievers. He wished the senior students every success in their future studies and encouraged the junior students to return for further awards based on a successful Leaving Cert.

The recipients were; Junior Certificate – Hannah Clarke, David Hatton, Philipp Heim, Ellen Murphy, Keith Nolan, Emily O’Callaghan and Peter Thompson.          The Leaving Certificate recipients and their current course of studies were Lisa Carroll (Bachelor of Education at MIE), Eimear Connolly (Applied Science in Food and Business Management at NUIG), Niamh Murray (Commerce in UCD) and Áine O’Neill (Biomedical, Health and Life Science in UCD)