FORMER schools, Portora Royal and Collegiate Grammar, have been listed in The Sunday Times Parent Power top ten schools of the year.
Out of the 2,000 state and independent schools listed in the definitive guide at the weekend, Portora was identified as the eighth best performing school, while Collegiate made tenth place.


Both schools were discontinued in August this year to facilitate the opening of the new co-educational and non-denominational Enniskillen Royal grammar School on split sites.


The former principal of Collegiate Grammar and head of the new academically selective voluntary grammar school, Elizabeth Armstrong, says Enniskillen Royal will “continue to build on these very significant strengths”.


It is very pleasing to see that two Fermanagh schools featured in the Sunday Times top ten state schools in Northern Ireland. This is a tribute to the calibre of our young people, to the hard work and dedication of our teaching and support staff and to the fine support of our parents which are the hallmarks of our community,” she said.
“Going forward it is our aim and determination to continue to build on these very significant strengths in Enniskillen Royal Grammar School as we build our new school community with the support of our wider community. 


“This academic success comes on the back of recent sporting success for Enniskillen Royal Grammar School at Northern Ireland level.
“We are also very proud of our Year 9 boys football team who are Northern Ireland champions, of our Senior Girls’ Contact 7’s team who are Ulster champions and of our swimmers who had an excellent level of success at the Ulster Grammar Schools’ competition on Saturday last with Kealan McShea and  Ellie McCartney securing gold medals in the 50m backcrawl and breaststroke respectively.”


As well as assessment of all academic results on a school-by-school basis, Parent Power enables parents to compare the performance of a given school with other schools in the same town, local authority or nationally. There are also live links to school websites and schools’ most recent inspection reports. Now in its 24th year of publication, Parent Power is acknowledged as the most authoritative survey of the country’s best schools. The rankings in the secondary school league tables are determined by the percentage of examination entries gaining A* to B grades at A-level this summer (which is given double weighting) and the percentage of entries returning A* and A grades at GCSE.