GRAMMAR schools in Northern Ireland celebrated their students' exam success yesterday, but many children at secondary schools also had much to cheer about.
At Sacred Heart Grammar School in Newry 19 of the General Certificate of Secondary Education candidates got nine grade As or better and 14 Advanced Level students picked up three top grades.
"The results were very pleasing right across the board. You could see it in the students' faces as well as in the figures," said the vice principal, Mr Hugh McShane.
Further west at Omagh Academy, the principal, Mr James McBain, was pleased with this year's outcomes, particularly at A level. Modern language scores were especially high.
"We have ways to measure value added now, and I attach more importance to that than to what jumps off the page. We are particularly pleased with the value added this year given the nature of the entry to A level courses two years ago," he said. Value added is a system widely used in Britain which measures a pupil's progress and acts as an indicator of teaching quality within a school and/or in a particular subject.
In a system which divides pupils sharply at the age of 11, able grammar pupils inevitably steal the headlines with top results.
At St Brigid's High School in Derry, not one of the 200 pupils taking GCSE this year passed the 11 plus. Despite this, 34 per cent of entries gained grades A to C, 78 per cent got at least grade E and 100 per cent passed the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ).
Mr Frank Dunne, the principal, believes a voluntary study club, which has been running three or four nights a week for the last two years, has helped.
Glengormley High School had one of its better years at A level and expects many students to go on to higher education, including some of the two dozen who succeeded in GNVQ Advanced.