Leaving Cert: ‘You just have to go with the child that’s in front of you’

It’s double trouble when it comes to the State exams at Petrina Mitchell’s house. The careers consultant’s middle and youngest children are sitting the Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle exams respectively. And though she’s been through the exams before with her eldest child, the fact that two of her children are sitting the exams this year is always at the back of her mind. “I pulled out one of the scented candles and there were two wicks in it. I lit the two-wick this morning,” she says. Having students sitting both exams requires a different kind of support from Mitchell. One that is reflective of age and maturity and the type of people they are. “It’s fairly calm”, she says of the house at the moment. She’s conscious with her Leaving Cert student of a need to encourage breaks. “You’re kind of going, ‘maybe we might go for a run, or go to the gym, or take a break’. You’re reminding [him] of that.” Whereas, she explains, with her Junior Cycle student, it’s about continued support and motivation. “You just have to go with the child that’s in front of you,” she says. And sometimes support looks like “cajoling”. And that can take the shape of buying their favourite biscuits or making their favourite dinners. She also makes sure not to engage in postmortems on exam papers, instead preferring, where necessary, to keep them focused on upcoming exams. “Let them debrief. Let them have the cup of tea. Let them have food.” While her eldest son already knows the path he’d like to pursue post-Leaving Certificate, with her professional hat on, Petrina can the Junior Cycle exams could help her youngest son to explore what options might suit him best. “That will give him awareness of what subjects he enjoyed studying more over the last couple of months. That conversation will probably start again over the summer months when we start thinking about what he’s going to do for transition year.” The Junior Cycle gives students a chance to they enjoyed studying, but Mitchell says she wouldn’t necessarily pin this on what were their best grades in the exams. “I would link what they’re learning in terms of skills,” Mitchell says about the subjects they’re studying. “Linking the subjects that they’re doing to their future.