It's only days away from the exams, and for a family with sons sitting both the Junior and Leaving Certs, the Sheekeys are remarkably calm. We're seated in the roomy kitchen-cum-dining-room of their bungalow, which is situated along a leafy country road, just outside Ashford, Co Wicklow. In one corner, tiny tables and chairs and boxes of toys are piled high. Theresa - Mrs Sheekey - runs a morning playgroup on weekdays. Her husband Peter is an associate architect in Dublin.
It's late Saturday morning and the Sheekey children - Daithi (17), Karen (16), John (15), Niall (13) and Mark (10) - are arriving home after school, sports and other activities. The four older children attend Colaiste Raithin, Bray, Co Wicklow, which is an all-Irish VEC school. Mark goes to the local national school. Daithi is the first of the family to sit the Leaving Cert. His brother John is a Junior Cert candidate. Daithi, who is aiming for high-points courses - law in either TCD or UCD - got about 500 points in the mocks.
"That was perfect," he says. "It means that I've done most of the work, but I'm not there yet." He reckons he's currently studying about 10 to 15 hours per week, including weekends. His subjects are English, Irish, maths, German, applied maths, music and physics. "I made sure to get all my homework done in fifth year," he explains. "My theory is that if you do nearly all the homework as you go along, you're not left with 12-hour days at the end of the year." He settled down to serious work in March, though. "The teachers started backing off the homework and the emphasis shifted to us."
Daithi says there can be pressure to spend time studying simply for the sake of studying. "If there's something you need to go back over then you need to do it. But I don't think it's necessary to come in every night and work for three or four hours."
Burning the midnight oil is frowned upon in the Sheekey household. `We don't allow anyone to study late into the night," comments Peter. "And we don't let them get up early to study," adds Theresa. "Their physical and mental rest is more important."
There's a strict rule about homework, too. "They do their homework when they come in from school," she notes. "There's no question but that it's done, but there's no emphasis on spending a long time on it." Homework apart, music lessons, Irish dancing and, for Theresa and Karen, Girl Guides, take up most of the family's evenings.
The Sheekeys all go to bed quite early - 9.30 to 10 p.m. They have to. Peter sets off for work at 6.30 a.m. The early start means he can be back home by 5 p.m. The Bray school bus, which is shared between pupils of both Raithin and the Christian Brothers, leaves Ashford at 7.45 a.m. Daithi is bus monitor - so it can't leave the village before Theresa arrives down with her brood.
Daithi rises at 7 a.m. and hates it, but sister Karen is up by 6.30 to wash the hair. The bus arrives at school at 8.30 a.m. and leaves at 4 p.m. This gives Daithi at least a half-hour of study time each side of classes.
Bray Library is located on the same road as the school and pupils are encouraged to avail of its services. The Sheekeys speak with enthusiasm about the helpful staff. "It's handy to have the library so near school. I also go to the Ilac Centre library to borrow books and rent CDs. It's meant that I've been able to experience a lot of different types of music."
The Sheekey youngsters are lively, vocal and confident. Daithi wants to do law and, maybe, combine it with journalism eventually. Karen wants to be a teacher.
Are their parents ambitious for them? "I just want them to do the best they can," replies Theresa. "If David [he's Daithi in school] is capable of doing law then we want him to do it," says Peter. "But if he wasn't interested, we wouldn't push him. We've told all of them that it's more important to find something that they're happy with."
"We're lucky," says Theresa. "They're all fairly good at school. We've never had any difficulties. It's the other things they need to develop - their social skills, their inner discipline."
The family is music-mad. Daithi likes classical and jazz, John is a rock fan, while Karen prefers musicals. House rules include low volumes when people are studying and no music, radio or TV during meal times. "The chat and camaraderie are more important," Theresa says.
Although everyone's pretty relaxed about the exams just now, there was a slight flap back in Aprili did his Irish and German orals. "We could feel a bit of tension building up in David just before the orals," his father remarks. "But once he got over those first exams, he's been brilliant. He's not tearing his hair out. He's doing his own stuff - studying, beating his drums and watching TV."
Come the autumn, Daithi would like to be registering for law at TCD. "I like the fact that the classes are small," he notes. "It gives you the chance to get to know the students and the lecturers." The fact that his dad works nearby in Merrion Square is a bonus - Daithi could travel in and out with him each day.
Theresa and Peter, also hope he'll get a place in a Dublin college (he's also applied to UCC, NUI Galway and Aberystwyth and Cardiff in Wales.) "Being an over-protective mother, I'd like to hold on to him for a bit longer," Theresa says. "I don't feel he's ready to go out on his own."
