Celebrating Girls’ Love of Technology in Clonakilty
In the past eleven years, fourteen students at Sacred Heart Secondary School in Clonakilty have been awarded for their exceptional results in either Junior Certificate or Leaving Certificate Technology. In fact, every one of these students has, impressively, achieved the highest result in the nation. There have oftentimes been consecutive successes, such as in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Leaving Cert exams and the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Junior Cert exams.
Defying the speculation that Technology is a ‘subject-for-the-guys’, there is a significant number of Sacred Heart students taking Technology as a subject every year. The option has been steadily gathering popularity and caters for a large cohort of the student body who are hands-on, practical, imaginative and creative.
The person at the helm is the talented Mr. John Woods, who brings a wealth of experience in Technology Education and has instilled in his students a passion for the design process.
The following are the students who achieved top marks in their state examinations:
- Hazel Hurley- Leaving Certificate 2009
- Aoife White – Leaving Certificate 2011
- Muireasa Carroll- Leaving Certificate 2012
- Maeve Moroney – Junior Certificate 2012
- Caroline Hayes – Leaving Certificate 2013
- Meabh McSweeney- Junior Certificate 2014
- Martha Woods & Ava O’ Hare- Junior Certificate 2016
- Sarah Cahalane, Ruth O’ Driscoll & Siobhan Kennefick- Junior Certificate 2017
- Claire Cullinane-Sexton & Shannon O’ Gorman- Junior Certificate 2018
- Martha Woods- Leaving Certificate 2019
 Martha Woods, overall winner of the Leaving Certificate award with Ciara Barrett and Hannah Cunningham who also received awards at the 2019 ceremony. Ciara was 3rd at Leaving Certificate Ordinary level and Hannah was placed third in the country in Junior Cert Technology |
 Martha Woods and her teacher John Woods first place winner in Leaving Cert Technology, Higher Level pictured with Seamus Lahart, President of the Teachers Union of Ireland, Stephen O’Brien, Chairperson of TechnoTeachers and Phil Ward from XTRATHERM at the annual awards ceremony in GMIT |