JUNIOR CERT ENGLISH:IT WAS a good morning for higher level Junior Cert English students, who emerged relieved after a "balanced and accessible" exam yesterday.

Last year higher level English papers were criticised for being too challenging and long in parts. There were no complaints this year, as teachers praised a well- pitched and appropriate exam.

For higher level students, paper 1 held no surprises. The comprehension extract was an account of the writing process by author Michael Morpurgo.

“It was very reader-friendly,” Teachers’ Union of Ireland representative Alan Thompson said.

But Sheila Parsons, Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland subject representative, thought the choice of extract was a bit too conceptual for Junior Cert students.

Essay choices were within the usual range, Mr Thompson said. One of the functional writing choices referred to the comprehension passage, a welcome development.

Ordinary level students had more of a challenge, Ms Parsons said. An extract on 50 years of the Tidy Towns Competition was boring. “It was full of figures and survey language that wouldn’t appeal to teenagers at all.”