Six Years of Free Education, You Cannot Repeat!

Pizster

Hey guys,

I'm currently repeating the Leaving Certificate in a school that caters for repeats. Due to personal reasons I fell behind and my grades dropped. I asked my tutor if it was possible to come back in September to repeat again and she said it was fine, that they don't normally take people back but there does be one or two students who they accept back. She said she would put my name down to repeat again. I then spoke to the guidance counsellor about it and she seemed pretty satisfied once I had explained my valid reasons. The principal however called me into her office and told me that repeating next year was out of the question, that we're entitled to six years of free education and thats it. She told me that if I was to return next year, alarm bells would go off at the department and they would want to know why I was back. She said that there must have been mixed messages with what the other two had agreed to.

I completed 5 years in my original school (transition year was optional), and now I am currently enrolled in the repeat school coming to six years of secondary education.

I plan on not sitting my exams in June as I will not achieve good grades, let alone enough to get my CAO choices. Also, the course I want to apply for only accepts one sitting of the LC for matriculation and scoring purposes so either way it will be irrelevant.

She called me into her office during the last day of the Irish oral trying to persuade me to sit the oral as she didn't want me to regret it should I change my mind two weeks down the line (I can tell you this will NOT happen). I sat the oral just to keep her happy.

When I approached my tutor about it she seemed pretty surprised at her decision, telling me they must have changed some rules?

Does anybody know if it is possible to repeat in the same school, again? Was she using it as an excuse to scare me into sitting my oral?

KKBL

I personally think it would be ridiculous of you not to sit the LC. Guaranteed you will get higher points next year (in 2013) if you sit the exams this year. Do the smart thing and sit the exams twice.

spurious

I have heard of the six year rule. I cannot remember the details of it, but it is certainly there.
Are you an EU National?

Pizster

spurious wrote: »

I have heard of the six year rule. I cannot remember the details of it, but it is certainly there.
Are you an EU National?

I remember stumbling across a post on this site that mentioned the rule but I cannot find it. Yeah, I'm Irish.

Chuchoter

I don't know if its the same thing, but my friend left school in 3rd year and then she turned 16. After that it was really hard for her to get back into a school because technically they weren't obliged to educate her anymore or something.

Pizster

I knew a guy who was in my secondary school who completed five years including his LC, who enrolled in the same repeat school that I'm in twice. He didn't sit the exams on both occasions.

Togepi

So, would 2012-2013 be your 6th or 7th school year?

Pizster

Togepi wrote: »

So, would 2012-2013 be your 6th or 7th school year?

It would be my 7th if allowed return to the repeat school.

biohaiid

I never heard of any 6 year rule?
Tons of people repeat in my school, never any problem with them coming back.

seavill

Pizster wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'm currently repeating the Leaving Certificate in a school that caters for repeats. Due to personal reasons I fell behind and my grades dropped. I asked my tutor if it was possible to come back in September to repeat again and she said it was fine, that they don't normally take people back but there does be one or two students who they accept back. She said she would put my name down to repeat again. I then spoke to the guidance counsellor about it and she seemed pretty satisfied once I had explained my valid reasons. The principal however called me into her office and told me that repeating next year was out of the question, that we're entitled to six years of free education and thats it. She told me that if I was to return next year, alarm bells would go off at the department and they would want to know why I was back. She said that there must have been mixed messages with what the other two had agreed to.

I completed 5 years in my original school (transition year was optional), and now I am currently enrolled in the repeat school coming to six years of secondary education.

I plan on not sitting my exams in June as I will not achieve good grades, let alone enough to get my CAO choices. Also, the course I want to apply for only accepts one sitting of the LC for matriculation and scoring purposes so either way it will be irrelevant.

She called me into her office during the last day of the Irish oral trying to persuade me to sit the oral as she didn't want me to regret it should I change my mind two weeks down the line (I can tell you this will NOT happen). I sat the oral just to keep her happy.

When I approached my tutor about it she seemed pretty surprised at her decision, telling me they must have changed some rules?

Does anybody know if it is possible to repeat in the same school, again? Was she using it as an excuse to scare me into sitting my oral?

In trying to get you to sit the oral the principal was only looking out for you whether you agree with it or not.
The principal has been in the education system a lot longer than you and me and I'm sure that she has seen these things happen before and even seen people who regretted it afterwards. So in reality the principal was only looking out for you whether you chose to accept her help or not.

There is a possibility that the principal is trying to scare you into doing the exams as she may feel that you may do better than you think, however as far as I am aware it is completely up to each school whether they accept repeat students or not.
I have worked in schools where they have changed from accepting 20 -30 repeats to accepting only 10, and even one schools that went from accepting repeats to not accepting any at all the following year.
Schools are under pressure with numbers and teachers, the current 5th years may be a larger group than yours and as a result she may have very few places to give out and they may be people wanting to repeat with just as genuine a reason as yours.
The principal has to look at it in the overall context of the entire school cohort both this year and in coming years. She has a responsibility for every student not just you.
We have had students repeat this year who have put in no effort and who have stopped attending. These students have taken a place from another student. These students also had terrible attitudes which have had a detrimental effect on other students in 6th year (I am obviously not saying this is the case with you I am just giving an example). This can have knock on effects the following year. The principal may be looking at it from a point of view of younger students looking at someone doing the leaving 3 times so can just swan through each year until the time is right.

There are probably another 5 or so reasons I could list from the principals point of view. As someone mentioned education is compulsory only up to a certain point and the principal has 100's things to thing about for next years 6th years, you being only 1 of those things. You must see it from her point of view also.
Don't take the above as a criticism of you, just trying to explain another side to the story.
Is there another local school you could try if not successful?

Togepi

Pizster wrote: »

It would be my 7th if allowed return to the repeat school.

Oh okay. Slightly off-topic but would you have been allowed to repeat if you had done Transition Year? (ie. You had six normal school years done and then wanted to repeat.)

biohaiid

Oh also, if you cant get anywhere to let you repeat you can do it yourself at home

spurious

I will ask the Deputy Principal here in work today and get back to you on the six year thing.

Pizster

Togepi wrote: »

Oh okay. Slightly off-topic but would you have been allowed to repeat if you had done Transition Year? (ie. You had six normal school years done and then wanted to repeat.)

She said that the department make an exception for students who do transition year due to it being compulsory in some schools. I don't know if the same rule applies to those who do it if it's optional in their school.

Pizster

spurious wrote: »

I will ask the Deputy Principal here in work today and get back to you on the six year thing.

Thank you very much!

spurious

Still waiting on further clarification from the DP, but the Principal says the Dept. wants a 'plausible reason' (this usually involves extended illness) as to why a student should do an extra (seventh) year in second level education at the expense of the taxpayer.

I think the poster above is correct where they mention the exception for those for whom TY was compulsory.

However, we've all heard tales of people repeating for a second time, so unless they are not in schools, but in grinds businesses of some sort, I don't know how they manage that.

Pizster

spurious wrote: »

Still waiting on further clarification from the DP, but the Principal says the Dept. wants a 'plausible reason' (this usually involves extended illness) as to why a student should do an extra (seventh) year in second level education at the expense of the taxpayer.

I think the poster above is correct where they mention the exception for those for whom TY was compulsory.

However, we've all heard tales of people repeating for a second time, so unless they are not in schools, but in grinds businesses of some sort, I don't know how they manage that.

Thank you very much!

Naomi00

You should sit it this year because the English course next year is completely different and you won't be able to do their exam next year. Same for a few things, I'd say there's probably different poems and stuff for Irish next year. You need to at least sit those exams because I doubt you can do them next year.

whiteandlight

Maths will also be different, nearly the whole new project maths is in next year as opposed to one paper. At the very least I agree with the others here, you should sit it for practise, for good or for bad it is brilliant experience