Exams are looming large in the Maloney home in the Ward, Co Meath. Sixteen-year-old Sarah Jane Maloney, a student in St Mary's School for Hearing Impaired Girls, Cabra, Dublin, is taking nine subjects in the Junior Cert next month.

Her younger brother, also deaf, is sitting the Junior Cert in nearby St Joseph's while her older (hearing) brother is doing the Leaving Cert. There is quite a lot of tension at home in Co Meath, Sarah Jane says with a discernible grin.

Sarah Jane has been attending St Mary's since she was four. Both her parents are deaf and her mother is a past pupil of the school.

Fellow student Rachel Saunders seems equally cheery as she lists out the nine subjects she will be taking at Junior Cert. Art, which she loves, merits a special mention.

"A study skills seminar during the year showed us how to study and how to take breaks. It helped me a lot," she says.

Also a day student at St Mary's since she was four, Rachel travels from Lucan to Cabra every day. There are just six girls in the Junior Cert class and Rachel says they are all close friends.

Principal Regina Duggan says there are 160 partially and profoundly deaf girls in the school, in primary and post-primary. "The primary school follows the national curriculum and at post-primary there is a full range of Department of Education programmes on offer, from Junior Cert to the Junior Cert Special Programme, to the Leaving Cert and the Leaving Cert Applied. The school also offers Transition Year, an NCVA pre-employment programme and a business studies PLC course."

About half of the students are residential. There are 12 students doing the Leaving Cert this year, five completing the LCA, 15 doing the Junior Cert, and three doing the JCSP, says Duggan. "This year is the first time we have a class taking French at Junior Cert."

There is an animated conversation in progress in the art room as the students pose for the camera, but not a sound can be heard. It is only fingers and lips that are moving. "The school tries to cater for every child, through oral methods (speech and lip reading) and total communication (speech and sign language)," says Duggan.

For the purposes of talking to E&L, a teacher, Niamh Clandillon, acts as interpreter for the students when needed.

Anne Marie Minchin is doing seven subjects in the Leaving Cert. From Carlow, she stays with her aunt during the week and goes home every Friday. She is hoping to get a place on a computer course in Carlow IT or on a social science course in DIT.

While she says the additional 10 minutes per written paper which she will get in June is not enough, it does mean "we are on the same level as other schools, not getting any extra treatment".

Niamh Corduff, who is hoping for a place on a degree course in advertising and graphic design in DIT, has already secured a place in Colaiste Dhulaigh, in Coolock. Living in nearby Castleknock, she gets the bus to school and sometimes drives.

Students at St Mary's are generally one or two years older than their peers in hearing schools. Niamh will re-sit her driving test in July, having failed it the first time. As for that other exam, the Leaving Cert, "I am not nervous, I'm doing two or three hours study a night during the week," she says, "and I have an interview for DIT this week."

Louise Byrne (20) has chalked up a number of distinctions in her tasks for the Leaving Cert Applied and has no worries about the final exams, which only account for one-third of the marks. "I hope to get work in an accountant's office. But, first I'll do a PLC in business studies here in St Mary's." From Roscommon, she says she "hates being a boarder".

None of the boarders E&L spoke to was happy to be away from home during the week but most seemed resigned. Louise is hoping to move out of St Mary's and rent a house with friends next year.

Niamh White, who is also enjoying the LCA, spent two years in Bishopstown Community School, Cork, before coming to St Mary's. "I felt I'd do better in English and my other subjects in the Junior Cert here," she says. From Cork, Niamh now lives in Castlegregory, Co Kerry.

"I have been a boarder for seven years. I like boarding but am tired travelling up and down. It's a four-hour journey home every weekend." She is also planning to do a PLC in St Mary's and then wants to study business administration and computers in Tralee or Cork Institutes of Technology.

As to the summer, she is taking one week off after the exams and then wants to work for eight or nine weeks before going to Majorca with five fellow LCA students. Santa Ponsa is also beckoning to nine girls from the Leaving Cert class although they travel on a different date in August.