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Original poster

Top sets- girl or boy heavy?

41 replies

Hakluyt · 29/07/2014 12:30

I've just been chatting to ds and his friend. The friend goes to a grammar, ds to a high school (aka secondary modern).

Ds says that the top sets in his school are almost all girls- friend says that at the grammar the classes are roughly 50:50.

Which got me thinking. Both schools are roughly 50:50 so does that mean that the "bright children do well wherever they go" applies to girls more than boys? Or what else might it mean?

OP posts:
Emmylou717 · 30/07/2014 08:48

In the top sets I taught last year (Maths) one year 7 was 50:50 the other had an excess of boys. The Year 10 top set had more girls than boys.

Don't forget it will also depend on the make up of the year group. Our new year 7 starting in September has about 60 more boys than girls.

Original poster
Hakluyt · 30/07/2014 08:36

What sort of school, Word? You're not going to sink my emerging theory with inconvenient facts are you?

OP posts:
MumTryingHerBest · 30/07/2014 08:31

Hakluyt this might be of interest to you:
www.education.com/reference/article/gender-academic-achievement/

TheWordFactory · 30/07/2014 08:10

Hak at the school where I'm a governor, our top sets are boy heavy, and conversely so are our bottom sets.

The number of DC with SEN is also boy heavy.

Original poster
Hakluyt · 30/07/2014 08:03

This is interesting. So anecdotally,and based on the tiny sample offered by this thread, grammars,comprehensives and other non selectives fit the profile I would expect- top sets 50:50 generally but in science/maths boy heavy, in arts girl heavy.

In a school where the top 23% has been selected out, top sets in general and in all subjects are girl heavy. I've had a look at the figures for our school and it's not just ds's year, it's across the school (I'm a governor, so I have quite detailed figures at my fingertips!). I wonder why this is? I'd love to know whether it's just our school. I hadn't noticed before, because the group of 4 that ds works and competes with consists of 2 boys and 2 girls. But it turns out that the two boys concerned are the only boys in several of the top groups!

OP posts:
HmmAnOxfordComma · 29/07/2014 23:34

Ds is at a non-selective independent. The top sets are slightly boy heavy, the bottom sets are very boy heavy. The middle sets are nearly all girls...

But if you look at a single cohort's CATS results, boys will almost always take more of the top and bottom slots with the girls clustered around the middle.

I used to work at a state grammar. Top sets equal for maths/English/science but girl heavy for MFL. Bottom set for English varied from year group to year group - one year the bottom yr 8 set was all boys, the next year 50:50.

I now work in a high achieving comp in a comp area and the top sets (and the G & T list) are very mixed, I think, but interestingly, at KS3 prize giving, the number of girls receiving prizes outweighed boys by about 5:1, so I believe that says a lot about the perceived or actual EFFORT made by the sexes.

lljkk · 29/07/2014 20:09

... and I am expecting history & MFL to be girl heavy for GCSE.

lljkk · 29/07/2014 20:09

hmm... DC are at 2 different comps & mostly in top sets. I get the impression that their top set subjects are pretty mixed but when GCSE programme starts a huge gender divide opens; stats, iMedia & CompSci are all boy heavy.

Original poster
Hakluyt · 29/07/2014 14:42

And ds went on a g&t MFL trip recently- 10 girls, 2 boys!

OP posts:
Original poster
Hakluyt · 29/07/2014 14:40

Interesting. Are there any more high school parents on here?

OP posts:
MrsZiegler · 29/07/2014 13:32

dd1 & I were talking about this recently. She's at a comp - top sets - her maths group is 20 boys & 6 girls, in English it is 24 girls & 6 boys. Science & humanities are more even but there are more girls in the top MFL sets.

I can't compare to grammars because all the selective schools locally are single sex. I do know that the school brought in separate achievement awards for girls & boys because the girls were winning most of the academic ones in ks3. I think that by ks4 the difference is less marked though.

DeWee · 29/07/2014 13:17

Dd1 says for maths more boys, for English more girls. (in both top sets, arranges across half the year-big comprehensive)

Although from next year they're trialing teaching them in single sex groups. Which I am not happy about because dd1 had been working in maths separately with 3 boys.
The top boys set now has only boys from the top sets, the girls top set has girls from the third set. On the basis this is meant to be encouraging the top girls I am Hmm

Original poster
Hakluyt · 29/07/2014 13:06

I asked him specifically about maths and science, and he said they were very girl heavy too. And from what I can see, now my eyes are opened to it, it does seem to be the same across the school. More girls than boys getting 5 a*-c, more girls getting academic prizes...........

OP posts:
MumTryingHerBest · 29/07/2014 12:59

Hakluyt Ds says that the top sets in his school are almost all girls is this the same throughout the entire school? The reason I ask this is because my DD has 20 boys and 10 girls in her class (whereas the school overall has a much more equal balance of boys and girls). I would imagine that factor alone would influence the balance.

Is it the same for all lessons? In my DSs class there are more boys in the top group for maths than girls. However, there are more girls in the top group for English.

Original poster
Hakluyt · 29/07/2014 12:39

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

OP posts:
fiftyval · 29/07/2014 12:36

It could be a reflection of fewer grammar places being available for girls as many grammars are single sex and there is a bias towards more boys schools than girls historically.

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