Northern Ireland Schools ranking: Report author recommends more pre-school support after seven NI Schools make Sunday Times top 50 list

East Belfast UUP councillor Dr John Kyle made the point after the Sunday Times published its annual list of top schools - with NI’s top seven grammars making the top 50 secondaries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The league tables are based on top A-level and GCSE grades.

The top ten NI schools, in order, are St Mary's Grammar School in Magherafelt, Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School in Belfast, Our Lady and St Patrick's College in Belfast, Strathearn School in Belfast, Friends' School Lisburn, Lumen Christi College in Londonderry, St Dominic's School in Belfast, Sullivan Upper School in Holywood, Rainey Endowed School in Magherafelt and Banbridge Academy.

Last month a research paper by QUB concluded that academic selection in NI perpetuates divisions and harms overall outcomes. However the DUP responded that while there are always areas of education which can be improved, there is an ideological motive for some people in "closing down grammar schools”.East Belfast UUP councillor Dr John Kyle spearheaded a report on improving educational outcomes for working class Protestants in 2015, while he was with the PUP.

Now he is the UUP representative on the Education Authority of Northern Ireland.

A fervent opponent of academic selection, Dr Kyle said that introducing a comprehensive education system across Northern Ireland would be difficult.

"To reorganise your secondary education on a comprehensive basis would be a massive undertaking and would be very disruptive," he told the News Letter.

"I think we recognise that."

But asked what the number one thing which could be done to improve educational outcomes for pupils at lower performing schools, he said pre-school years were key.

"This would help get them up to speed and working on their speech, their understanding, their capacity to learn and what people are saying to them - that is where the focus should be.

"Part of the difficulty is that when children start school at four or five, those who do least well are already at a disadvantage when they start school. They are developmentally behind their peers."

However he said tables based purely on grades fail to measure the progress made by children, nor do they measure soft skills.