From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Academic Stress and the Leaving Certificate 91
Some teachers noticed how some of the more ‘conscientious’ and ‘motivated’
students had become ‘run down’, ‘pale’ or ‘tired’ looking during
sixth year whereas other students ‘every day just take it as it comes’
(Wattle Street, boys’ school, mixed intake). One staff member attributed
stress to the amount of studying but also to students’ social and work
lives which put increased pressure on their time:
A lot of them really find the pressure to study, because a lot of them
are working outside school as well. You see, they’ve social lives,
very full social lives, a lot of them are working and that causes pressure,
the pressure of time and where to study. (Harris Street, staff,
girls’ school, middle-class intake)
Staff in Wattle Street also spoke about how students’ lives outside school
led to increased stress for some students, particularly those with parttime
jobs and cars:
You find they have been working on Sunday and Saturday … And
they are keeping these part-time jobs going and they are not able to
cope with school work. And they are actually working more than 40
hours a week, it’s not right, you know. But yet they are under pressure
to have money for their cars, to keep their cars going, and to keep them
in money for entertainment at the weekend. And that has an effect in
the classroom. (Wattle Street, staff, boys’ school, mixed intake).
A staff member at Fig Lane felt that because of the material wealth of the
students at the school, extra pressure was placed on them to do well and
succeed in their careers:
You know, the pressure can be sometimes on them to perform and
get these points and so on, and if they are not getting those points,
you know, there can be pressure on them, you know. But, yeah, I
think the perception there is that young people have never had it so
good and that is true in many ways. But I think there’s a greater
emotional pressure on them, one to succeed and get into good jobs,
good careers, and two to be confident and to be, you know, centre of
the party kind of thing and if they are not then why not and you
know. So there are definitely issues around that. (Fig Lane, staff,
coed school, middle-class intake)