Should you lock 'em up for the Leaving?

In many Leaving Cert households, the arguments began in the first week back at school. "Our daughter said that now that she was 17, she should be allowed out more than the two nights a week that had been agreed the previous year, in spite of the fact that her workload was going to increase." A modest facsimile of the third World War ensued in Michael's household, after which a compromise was reached: parents and daughter agreed on two nights a week, preferably at weekends, one night until midnight, the other, 12.30 a.m.

In other homes, decisions were forced, with students being asked to scale down activities - choosing, say, between paid work and drama group or a sporting activity.

Often this is done by mutual agreement, as pupils are well aware after fifth year of the mountain they have to scale to do reasonably well in the Leaving. The stress is already mounting though, and reports filter through: so-and-so's mother "threw a freaker" in the midst of negotiations over time off for relaxation; somebody else's father is getting really heavy.

At this rate, some families will be burnt out before Hallowe'en, and God knows how they'll cope by the time of the mocks, never mind the Real Thing.

A lot of problems stem from teenagers' overactive lives: sports, music, drama or other kinds of extracurricular activies; babysitting regularly, working in shops and supermarkets - as well as having a social life. They think they can have it all and still get the results.

However, for the few kids who captain the school football team, hold down a part-time job and get 600 points, there must be far more who are burnt out.

So what is the most sensible way for students to manage their time? How can they strike the right balance between study, leisure and, most contentiously, paid work? Is after-school study the key? Is there such a thing as over-studying?

Pupils at Colaiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire, Cork, have set achievement records at both Junior and Leaving Cert levels: in the past two years, 25 per cent of its students got 500-plus points and more than 80 per cent took exam papers at higher level. Is there a special secret to their success?

Rosailin Ni Dhonnchu teaches English and history in the 480-pupil, co-educational, non-fee-paying secondary school, in a town that is now a Cork suburb. She says the school makes a very strong effort to establish good study habits from first year. By third year, it expects pupils to be doing 15 hours of homework/study a week - two hours each night, five at the weekend, with one night off. In fifth and sixth years, this would rise to 20-to-25 hours a week - three hours per night, up to 10 hours at weekends.

Pupils are also encouraged to be well-rounded; drama is part of the curriculum, as well as being offered after school, and the school has both a brass band and a traditional music group. Last year, the boys' basketball team won the all-Ireland under-16s championship, and the girls played in the finals.

"The day here is very varied - it's not totally academic," says Ni Dhonnchu. There are only, on average, 18 pupils in each Leaving Cert class; there is strong home/school communication; and the school has a policy of targeting reluctant pupils early on. "Students aren't able to slip through the net here."

By senior cycle, students get advice on study habits and a lot of help from guidance counsellor Bernadette Breathnach. Interestingly, the school doesn't have supervised after-school study - it offered it last year, but there wasn't much demand.

Ni Dhonnchu is hardline about paid work. "We discourage it in fifth and sixth years, we do not advise it. Our top achievers certainly weren't doing paid work."

Senior cycle students should, she says, take one night a week off from studying, and one weekend day, to relax properly - and to keep up extracurricular activities (as long as they are relaxing, and don't tire pupils out for the school week).

Like Kathleen Brennan, a guidance counsellor at St James CBS in Dublin, Ni Dhonnchu says the exact balance is unique to each student. Some pupils can handle more activities than others - there are even some "who need to take a night off and won't," says Ni Dhonnchu.

Teachers seem to object more to paid work than to students' social lives; parents are more ambivalent about the jobs, possibly because they ease the family financial burdens.

Brennan doesn't say jobs should be forbidden completely in fifth and sixth years, but argues that when and how students work is important: if they work three hours a day, three days a week, it will inevitably affect a night's study, as will working until 10 or 11 p.m. on a school night. On the other hand, working in a Dublin inner-city school, she is conscious that some students are contributing to the family budget.

Weekend outings are vital, Brennan says. "Students shouldn't give up everything - it's not all about points. Anyway, to study properly, teenagers do need fresh air and physical activity."

Like Ni Dhonnchu, Brennan emphasises building study habits in fifth year: apart from getting into the swing of studying, they will feel psychologically prepared for sixth year if they have covered a lot of the ground. Essentially, Brennan says, "the idea is to be consistent about work - it shouldn't be feast or a famine."