[stevemul]

Hi,
We live in the UK at present. Our daughter, age 18, finishes a BTEC Diploma in General Science at a local college in June of this year. She did GCSE's in the UK achieving 10 grade B/C's inc english and history.
Her career path is to go into Archeology and she has been given a conditional place at Liverpool University to do a BA in History and Archeology. However, she has deferred this until Sept 2011 for two reasons.
Firstly, she wants to do further study in History to complement her Science to give her a good grounding for the Archeology course. She has a particular interest in History but feels that the "O" level in the subject does not give her enough depth at present.
Secondly, we, as a family wish to spend a year in Ireland, particularly boating on the Shannon and she is keen to take a gap year to do this with us. We intend to bring our boat to Ireland, rent a house somewhere around the Shannon ( eg Carrick on Shannon) and spend a year on the river and lochs.
The plan would be that whist in Ireland she could do an Irish Leaver's Certificate in History. Could anyone therefore please answer some questions for us:
1. Is this feasible? ( The studying bit I mean! I've sorted the boating!)
2. Could our daughter attend any colleges ( state or private) to do the studying or would she only be able to do a distance learning course ( eg through Kilroys College Dublin)? The colleges I have identified all seem to do only Vocational courses.
3.Does anyone know of any private tutors for 1 to 1 tutoring?
I'd be very grateful for all advice anyone could offer.
Steve Mulrooney

[Minitonka]

Well the first thing to tell you is that the course is a two year course. It would be very difficult for someone who had not done History in the Junior Cert to manage to do the Leaving Cert course in one year. Mind you, nothing is impossible if one really puts one's mind to it but it would not be easy. She could study with Kilroy's College (www.kilroyscollege.ie). There is a list of Post-primary Schools on the website of the Department of Education and Science. You will find it at http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?pcategory=10917&ecategory=12016&language=EN. (At the bottom right hand corner). Pick out the various large towns that would be accessible for you and your boat and then see what schools they have. Community Schools and Secondary Schools would be the ones to contact. There may also be a few private schools but they would usually have fairly high fees. As for getting a private tutor, that would depend on where you decided to live. You would have to advertise locally. If your daughter is going to study with Kilroys, she would have to apply to sit the exam as an external candidate. If you go to https://www.examinations.ie/index.php?l=en&mc=ca&sc=ca you can read all about it. Hope you have a good time on the Shannon and that you get the weather that suits.