In June 2017, Denis North sat his Leaving certificate examinations in English and Geography with his felllow 6th year students at Kennedy College, New Ross. The previous week, Denis received an achievement award for Lifelong learning at Kennedy College Awards day. Denis was delighted with his H3 result in Geography and O3 result in English following all his hard work for the previous two years.
Denis left education after completing the Intermediate certificate in 1960, when he was just 16 years old as he had no choice but to go out and get work to earn money to support his family. He worked for nearly 48 years in a finance company before receiving his pension at the age of 63. With a lack of confidence in getting new employment, Denis decided to return to education “to get involved with something instead of sitting around scratching his head”. He started by attending the Vocational Training Opportunity scheme learning about computers, communications, cultural and history classes.
Following this an opportunity arose for Denis to go on to complete a Post Leaving Certificate course in Information Processing at Kennedy College, New Ross. He followed that with the office Management course at Kennedy College and during that time he decided to try Leaving certificate Mathematics at Leaving certificate level in 2014. Denis studied the Leaving certificate maths curriculum independently (with a little help from one of the teachers at Kennedy College) and went on to sit and pass the examination in 2014.
The following year he decided to follow his love of History with sitting the Leaving certificate History examination in which he got a A result.
Denis then applied to go into fifth year and follow the curriculum with the other fifth year students. By the time the Leaving certificate came along he decided to sit English and Geography. He had no problem integrating with his fellow students as he did youth work for years with young people between 13 and 18 years and as a result he enjoyed sitting in class with them and was totally involved in school life. His fellow students also enjoyed his company and was a source of inspiration to them.
Denis was delighted with his results this year and has returned to complete Irish and Art to make up his full range of subjects for his Leaving Certificate.
Looking back at the school setting in the 1950’s Denis said that it is a lot easier for students to learn in today’s world because the education system has widened out with a greater range of text books and sources of information.
Denis had serious health problems during his time studying for his Leaving certificate but persisted with his studies to achieve the goal of achieving an education. He stated that any adult can go back to education by being positive and not afraid of hard work. He would encourage any adult to take their courage in their hands and have a go.
"Never too Late to get an Education"