Northern Ireland schools ranking: Seven NI grammars make top 50 in Sunday Times national list

Based on top grades at A-Level, GCSE and iGCSE, the top seven NI schools with their ranking place in the national top 50 are;-

34. St Mary's Grammar School, Magherafelt

35. Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School Belfast

36. Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Knock Belfast

37. Strathearn School Belfast

41. Friends' School Lisburn Lisburn

49. Lumen Christi College Derry

47. St Dominic's School Belfast

The other three in the NI top ten this year are Sullivan Upper School in Holywood, Rainey Endowed School in Magherafelt and Banbridge Academy. (Scottish figures are not added to the national list until February).

Last month a research paper by QUB academics Prof Joanne Hughes and Dr Rebecca Loader concluded that academic selection in NI Catholic and state grammar schools perpetuates divisions.

However, asked by the News Letter if it was necessary to break the grammar model in order to improve other schools, Dr Loader did not directly address the question.

She said that seven NI grammars making the national top 50 was "good news for the schools concerned" and that staff and pupils "are to be congratulated on their hard work". But she added that it should be recognised that the top NI grammars are highly selective, “so the fact that their pupils go on to achieve high grades should not be surprising”.

She added: "What this table masks is the impact of current educational structures on those in non-grammar schools, who, research suggests, are likely to underachieve relative to their peers in non-selective systems.”

Her QUB paper last month argued that NI grammars "cream off more highly-performing pupils" which it said is "depriving non-grammar schools of positive peer role models".

However DUP MLA Diane Dodds noted that NI is "clearly punching above its weight" in the top 50 list.

While acknowledging "there will always be areas where improvement can be sought" she added that "for some, no solution is ever offered to any problem beyond closing down grammar schools”.

She added that it was "most striking" that the UK top 50 is dominated by expensive fee paying schools.