Methody scores top exam marks

Methodist College came top of the class

A Belfast grammar school has come top in a national newspaper survey of Northern Ireland exam results.

Methodist College in Belfast reached the top of the Sunday Times league table this year, rising from fourth place last year.

However, the survey of GCSE and A-Level results only took into account voluntary grammar schools and compared them with independent schools in England and Wales.

Methodist College had the highest score for GCSE results, but was not the highest for A-Levels.

That honour went to St Patrick's Girls' Academy in Dungannon, County Tyrone, where 77% of the grades were A or B.

In fact, in the top 10 Northern Ireland schools, eight were girls' only schools.

Comparing performances

The newspaper analysis admitted to only covering those schools which agreed to reveal their results and it also omitted Northern Ireland's 18 controlled grammar schools.

They were included in last week's coverage of state schools where two more girls schools came top - Coleraine High in County Londonderry and the Enniskillen Collegiate in County Fermanagh.

Since the government stopped publishing results there has been no official way of comparing performances.

The last copy of the Department of Education's Performance Tables for 1998/99 was issued in February 2000.

After that, former Stormont Education Minister Martin McGuinness abandoned the publication of the book of results.