Cork student overcomes late autism diagnosis and expulsion to collect Leaving Cert results
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Overcoming a late diagnosis for autism, ADHD and an expulsion from mainstream school, were just some of the battles faced by Kris Hayes-O’Sullivan up until the moment he collected his Leaving Cert results on Friday morning.
The 17-year-old St Luke’s native was one of 12 Leaving Cert students who opened their results in Cork’s Life Centre, supported by staff and volunteers as they celebrated their success.
The school offers an alternative education centre that allows students to reach their full potential, with many having transferred from various mainstream schools.
“I’m over the moon,” Kris said, crediting the move to Cork Life Centre for offering him the support to allow him to complete his final exam with flying colours.
“There’s a lot more support and other sorts of help that you would be waiting years to get through mainstream school,” he told the .
Kris says his decision to attend the school is “one of the changes I made for the better”, as he looks ahead to September, when he will begin a carpentry course in the Cork College of FET, Tramore Road campus.
Kris’s mother Donna credits the Cork Life Centre for acting as a “life saver” for her son.
“Every day in primary school, I was waiting for a phone call and when he went to secondary school, I walked around with my phone in my hand because I knew I was going to get a phone call, text or e-mail about something,” she said.
Donna says her son was able to be himself within the school, allowing him to finish up with a “really good Leaving Cert”, something she could only have dreamed of if he remained in mainstream school.
“The world is his oyster now,” she added.
“I'm so proud. We knew this was him, every parent knows, but you need someone else to advocate with you in the school system and they [the staff] have advocated for all of our children. It's just amazing,” Donna added.
After dropping out of mainstream school at 15, Katelyn Cross was in disbelief collecting her Leaving Cert results, marking a huge milestone in her life.
The 18-year-old from Grenagh, Cork, was delighted to find out she had passed her final exams, after experiencing hardship throughout her schooling years.
“I was brutally bullied about family circumstances, and I dropped out of school at 15,” she told the .
When her mum found the Cork Life Centre, Katelyn was hesitant to return to school, but admits it was “the best decision I ever made”.
“I never thought I would have done a Leaving Cert, I never thought I would have sat it, not to mind pass it,” she said.
Although upset to leave the centre behind with “great memories” and friends made, she plans to study veterinary medicine, to incorporate her love of animals.
Katelyn’s mother Katherine said: “We are so delighted for her, she so deserves it.”
Katherine said the small class size and one-on-one approach to learning allowed her daughter to unlock her full potential, after transferring from a large school.
“If she went to another school there could be 500 or 600 people. So you're only just one out of that, whereas here, you’re considered like family,” she said.
Secretary at Cork Life Centre Eimear O’ Connor said she had watched them grow and develop as individuals throughout the years.
“I would have taught a good few of them in Junior Cert as well and it's just making me even happier if anything to see them grow, to see them change and develop, even the ones who would have come into us in fifth year, seeing that development is just massive,” she said.
Director of Cork Life Centre Sharon O’Neill was once at the other end of the table, when her child attended the Cork Life Centre back in 2007.
It is because of this she truly understands and cares about the students and tries her utmost to help them in their developmental journey.
“We don't try and fit any child into a particular mold, but we try to fit around who the child is and how they're showing up in the world,” she said.
Ms O’Neill explains the centre is “privileged” to show some of these children there is an alternative method of learning out there for them.
“I have the full breadth of the experience and relationship with the centre as a parent, as a tutor, and now to have the privilege of being the director of something so completely amazing,” she added.
Ms O’Neill admits she “has a pain in her chest” from thinking about her students over the past couple of days, filled with pride as they finish their schooling days.
“Their future is not written on those pieces of paper. Their future is engraved in their hearts and every single one of them has the right to claim that and to follow that path, their path, whatever way they choose,” she said.