The ten best secondary schools in Northern Ireland have been revealed.
Parent Power, The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2022, identifies the highest achieving schools throughout the UK ranked on their examination results from 2017-2019.
Parent Power is widely acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the UK's highest-achieving schools.
Lumen Christi College in Derry was named as the best secondary school in Northern Ireland, with an average of 85.9% of pupils achieving A*-B at A Level, and 73.7% achieving A*/A/9/8/7 at GCSE.
The school also ranked 23rd in the schools guide's UK-wide list.
Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Knock, was revealed as the second best secondary school in NI, coming 31st in the UK schools list.
The top 10 secondary schools in Northern Ireland:
- Lumen Christi College, Derry
Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Knock
Friends' School Lisburn
Strathearn School, Belfast
Rathmore Grammar School, Belfast
Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School, Belfast
Rainey Endowed School, Magherafelt
Dalriada School, Ballymoney
Methodist College Belfast
Banbridge Academy
The rankings in the secondary school league tables are determined by the average percentage of examination entries in the three years, 2017-19, gaining A* to B grades at A-level (which is given a double weighting) and the average percentage of entries returning 9-7 or A* and A grades at GCSE.
Alastair McCall, editor of Parent Power, said: “The need for clarity about school examination performance has never been greater after two years of teacher assessed grades, during which for completely understandable reasons, the numbers of top grades increased dramatically.
“We felt it was important to go back to the last sets of moderated public examination outcomes from 2019, 2018 and 2017 to get the most accurate and current view of school academic achievement. By taking a three-year average, we mitigated against relatively poor performance in a one-off year.
“At a time when some schools are making hard to substantiate claims of academic prowess based on outcomes from 2021 and 2020, we believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.”
Full UK-wide rankings can be found by clicking here.
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