More or less boys than girls in the top maths set in your dc's school?

[BraveMerida]

It's an interesting observation that in dc's year 4 top maths set, only 8 out of 22 are girls. I'm now wondering what the girl: boy ratio is in other primary schools and into secondary school. I know that, for whatever the reasons may be, by the time they get to the end of secondary it is very unbalanced, but I was surprised to see such imbalance so early on in primary school.

What are you observations wrt maths and the gender gap, what do you think?

[mercibucket]

pretty much all boys in the top sets for everything at our primary

which is weird as the national stats are not like that at all

[Bunbaker]

DD is in year 9 and there are more boys in her maths set than girls.

[BitOutOfPractice]

And I'd hardly call asking the question as making a fuss but any fuss I am making is about confidentiality!!

[BitOutOfPractice]

There's a list of who gets free school meals pinned to the wall?!?! Now I really am aghast!

I've never seen it and I think it's totally wrong!

[lottysmum]

DD Year 7 - 18 girls 10 boys in top Maths set...this set is also the same for Science and ICT which are grouped together ... My DD loves ICT and did a G & T Course during the summer holidays - 50% of the children were girls on the course!

[Talkinpeace]

it was pinned to the wall, just next to the list of who got free school lunch and the emergency procedures for a specific child
perfectly normal
look around most classrooms at KS2 - you'll see it
DH goes to loads of schools, he sees the lists a lot
the kids all know anyway so what's the fuss

[BitOutOfPractice]

Talkinpeace, presumably not for parents to read though? I'd be pretty cross about that tbh

[Taffeta]

In my DSs Y5 class, half the top Maths set are boys (3/6) But, overall, it's a split year. 15 Y5, 15 Y6, streamed on ability.

Of the 15 Y5's, only 4 are boys.

[Talkinpeace]

bitoutofpractice
at DCs school it was on the wall by the teachers desk

[hellsbells99]

My DD is in year 12. There is 1 top set for maths with 10 boys and 8 girls. Not sure what the ratio is in the other 2 classes. Physics has 2 classes with 3 girls in each I think. Biology has a lot more girls than boys. I think chemistry is similar to maths. Only 1 girl is taking further maths though.

[BitOutOfPractice]

I'm fascinated to know how parents of primary school kids know with such certainty not only what level their own DC are working to, but evenly other child in the class. "Yes the second group down from my dc is working to level 5, middle to lower". How on gods green earth do you know that?

Dc1 is in year 9 and in top maths there is 27 boys and 3 girls

[BraveMerida]

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10489916/OECD-education-report-boys-pulling-ahead-of-girls-in-maths-tests.html

[BraveMerida]

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10489916/OECD-education-report-boys-pulling-ahead-of-girls-in-maths-tests.html

This is a timely article.

[BackforGood]

In Primary schools, all mine were fairly even in numbers as far as I'm aware although I've never counted them nor asked any of my dc to count them.
My dc all go to single se x schools so can't comment there.
My niece was one of 3 girls in a class of 13 for maths and physics A-level if that helps at all.
When my Mum did A-level maths, in the 1940s, she was the only girl doing maths in the 6th form - just thought you'd like to know

[Tigerblue]

My daughter in Year 8 says she it is roughly equal in both English and Maths.

[BraveMerida]

Yes, I 'm seriously considering all girls secondary school for dd.

[Cerisier]

My A level further maths class has 13 boys and 2 girls. Last year I had 2 girls and 11 boys.

[Theas18]

Single sex schools here lol!

Big numbers in both doing maths at AS/A2

[AnAdventureInCakeAndWine]

Talkinpeace, it's good that you think that the trends in your area are all positive. But overall today we are in a position where the proportion of computing A-levels taken by girls is going down significantly, half of the UK’s co-educational state schools send no girls at all to sit A-level physics and, between 2001 and 2011, the percentage of technology jobs held by women declined from 22% to 17%. It's far from clear that following a "don't worry about it and just keep doing what we're doing for another five years" approach is a good plan in general.

[AnAdventureInCakeAndWine]

I have no idea; whenever I've tried to find out from Y4 DS who is in his maths set (e.g. when he's left homework behind and I want to check details with other parents) he only comes up with a handful of names, then claims he can't remember. In fact I've only ever known who a couple of the other children in any of my DCs' sets for anything are; I'm surprised that others have much more forthcoming DCs.

[lljkk]

It seems to me that top set English heavily dominated by girls and top set maths slightly dominated by girls.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Another crystallographer...one of the first two women FRSs was one, so was the last woman to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. (That link is another good place to look if you want to find a woman in a particular branch of science)

[Lonecatwithkitten]

For those who are searching for some inspiration on women in Science Nature magazine ran a special feature on this in February. There were some amazing women featured really inspirational and the editor who put it together is a woman with a degree in Maths and a Masters in X-ray crystallography.

[Xochiquetzal]

DS is year 5 and there are more girls in top set for maths than boys, my brothers in year 6 and there are more girls in top set in his year as well, there are more girls in top set for English in both years too.

[spanieleyes]

This year my top set are all girls, last year they were all boys!