Top sets- girl or boy heavy?

I teach at a secondary in a town with a boys grammar and a girls grammer, so the best of both genders have been creamed off effectively. My school has worked hard over the last few years to stop being boy biased which is working so most years are evenly split now.
For last year our top sets in Maths were
Yr 11 53% boys, Yr 10 47% boys, Year 9 53% boys, Year 8 38% boys, Year 7 59% boys.

Year 8 and Year 7 are now set differently to the other year groups and the year 8 one looks a bit of an annomally.

My Grandparents who clocked up more than 80 years teaching experience between them, always used to say that boys were spread throughout the ability spectrum , whereas the girls distribution tends to more bunched around teh middle.

DD at non selective independent (small) just done gcses. Pretty small year but even girls/boys. I have just asked her, and the maths and science top sets were very very boy top heavy. Weirdly this year they set English as two parallel boys and girls sets, with a third (lower) mixed set. Boys and girls achieve well at this school. It is not uncool to do well academically. I noticed at prize giving in July a pretty even boy girl mix. Doesn't add much to your debate OP but interesting!

dd says English is very girl heavy, French reflects the balance in her year (slightly girl heavy). Maths and science slightly boy heavy.
Comprehensive.

Historically boys do better in exams whilst girls excell at coursework.

That's simply not true.

Girls have only not done well in exams when they have not been allowed to study certain subjects.

Surely the top sets in a secondary modern are presumably more or less (because in a grammar/secondary modern system there isn't much flexibility) the same children who would be in middle sets in a comprehensive.

My state school was single sex, so I'm no use. Interesting theory though.

I will ask dd when she gets home later.

I have top set year 10 next year for Science, massively girl heavy, 2nd set about 65%girls, and the boys kick in from set 3

That doesn't apply in our area- the number of places is, once again, theoretically 50:50.

Which means the girls need a higher score to go because girls do better in tests/exams.

If you had a true, 'pass this test and you go to this school' it would be a 60/40 girl/boy ratio.

Sorry to skew your stats but DD1 is at - and DD2 is about to start at - an all-girl comp (bizarrely there are a few single-sex comps round here. It wasn't a deliberate choice).

Packed with geeky bright girls, btw.

My DC are at a mixed comp that streams from the start. Top streams are about 50:50 afaik. Once they set for GCSE, I think maths slightly boy heavy, vv for English.

My DD's at a comp, but as she's not in top sets, I can't add any data!

Clavinova
"I think peer pressure is the reason - boys can be "too cool for school"."

nice generalisation.

I think you are right op - this report from 2003 concludes that comprehensive schools and secondary moderns are better for girls;
www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2003/wp63.pdf
Measuring Pupil Attainment in English Secondary Schools Atkinson and Wilson 2003.
I think peer pressure is the reason - boys can be "too cool for school".

I don't know any because we live in the comp part of the county - I travelled to work in a grammar. If I was still there I could have grilled the kids who had siblings at the sec mods!

I would also like to know if in less sought-after comps, those in less desirable areas, those with poor discipline or anti-bullying measures, boys still feature less heavily in top sets.

I suspect so. But have no evidence.

Sorry totally wrong to say "unfounded ". I don't know if clever boys are picked on in the sec mod that paired up with this grammar.

I meant more understandable.

Just lost a really long post, which basically said:

In the grammar area, parents of clever and/or geeky boys were a lot more concerned about their sons getting in than the clever girls' parents. I'm not sure if that was to do with the worry that the boys needed the grammar environment to do well or, more likely, their concerns about bullying and being picked on for being clever at the sec moderns. As the parent of an uber geek myself, I do think social worries for clever boy children are not unfounded. Clever boys tend to be MORE geeky than clever girls. And they read a lot more too!

Comprehensive Hak ... but it has its own challenges. Area of high deprivation and the majoirty of pupils come from a racial/cultural background that has traditionally not valued education for its girls.

So it may not be very indicative of what it happening countrywide IYSWIM ...

DD's school has around 20 boys and 10 girls in each class. The top sets for maths, science and English are all split in this ratio. I guess the results are skewed though because of the higher percentage of boys.

Im in a state school by the way! and yes the bottom sets are also mostly boy heavy.