It's the kind of school which gives comprehensive education a good name: St Louis High School in Rathmines, Dublin, draws its 800 students from as far away as Ballsbridge and Tallaght - and 300 of them started the Leaving and Junior Cert exams yesterday morning.
The principal, Sister Eithne Woulfe, and the guidance counsellor, Sister Betty Foley, were on patrol outside the exam rooms, full of cheery advice; the canteen was open around-the-clock and the staff-room packed with teachers in from holidays to give moral support.
The higher-level Leaving Cert paper was a rather solemn affair, seeking essays on contemporary culture and whether idealism is a thing of the past, and a prose piece on statues in modern Irish society.
Six smiling girls gathered to give their views on the higher-level paper. In her essay Fidelma McPhillips from Harold's Cross had questioned whether the children of the Celtic Tiger were caring.
Naoise Byrne from Brittas had chosen "hidden depths" for her subject. She had written a story based on her own experience of a friend of her own age who had shown huge courage in the face of a serious illness which had led to her eventual death.
Jean Byrne from Harold's Cross was just happy to get English over with. Art and art history are her passions - she hopes to get into the National College of Art and Design.
Most of them agreed that the worst ordeal would come today, when they face maths in the morning and history in the afternoon. They are not surprised that the latter subject is falling in popularity: even Nora Nelson from Rathgar, who loves history, said it would be extremely difficult to summon up the writing skills and organisation required to produce five historical essays in three hours. Nora, Naoise and Jean had spent last weekend taking a topic, one by one, and testing each other. Kate Hearne from Rathfarnham had taken off with a friend to a cottage in west Cork to study away from computers and phones and younger siblings.
The Junior Cert English students had emerged earlier. Olga Asabina, from Cuba via the north inner city, wrote an essay on "having to make an important decision" - her family's move to Ireland. English is her third language - she already speaks Spanish and Russian and plans to do French. However, she really wants to study electronic engineering, and her favourite subject is theoretical physics.
Caroline Murphy from Rathfarnham identified with the girl in Jonathan Miller's comprehension piece about teenagers, pointing with a giggle to the line: "She is embarrassed to be seen in public with her parents, who are variously `sad' and `tragic'. Although not so sad and tragic as to be above delivering, on her 17th birthday, a white Volkswagen Beetle - she hopes."
