Schools where GCSE Boys achievement is better than girls

[OdinsLoveChild]

Ive been having a very loud conversation argument about boys achieving better GCSE's than girls in some state schools.

I have been told that there are no state high schools anywhere in the UK where boys do better than girls, I think there must be somewhere but I cant find any with my quick google search.

Can someone point me in the right direction I don't want to be proved wrong ? Some high school boys must do equally as well or better than girls surely? I'm not on about the odd boy here and there I mean the entire GCSE year that overwhelmingly has boys getting better overall GCSE grades than girls.

I would be surprised of there were. It's easier to look for subjects that boys tend to do better than girls in rather than results across the entire school.

You could try making an FOI request to the D of E. The data is there but whether its possible to make that extrapolation from it I don't know, unless you want to spend a year looking at each individual school.

This might help (or hinder!):
www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/events/gender-differences-conference-2015/

There's a pdf report at the bottom of the page but I haven't got time to read it. Results might be different in a few years time as GCSE exams become linear - girls tend to do better at controlled assessments and coursework.

Henry Beaufort in Winchester

There's none - well apart from Boys schools

But latest results mean they are catching up. Gap is narrower than before.

Thanks. I will go and read that link from clavinova

The two single sex grammars in our area do not help your cause OP, the girls outdo the boys at GCSE and then at A Level the boys (with the help of some of the girls who move to the boys' school) take the lead.

I did take a look at the report Clavinova mentions and it states things like "The only subjects in 2014 where there was a higher percentage of boys than girls at both grade C and grade A* were ‘Applications of Mathematics’ and Arabic".

If you download the full DfE Performance tables, you could insert a column that compares boys results with girls and find the school

I doubt that you will though

Henry Beaufort does not always have bright boys ...

Does Henry Beaufort in Winchester usually have boys attainment on a par with girls? I've had a look on their website and theres nothing to suggest they do.
I'm going to have to go and hang my head in shame and admit I was wrong that I may not have all the evidence to back up my claim.

It would be interesting to know what the achievement gap between male and female school pupils is like in other countries. In the past boys had more spent on their education than girls. It was easier for boys to get a grammar school place.

Boys through puberty at a later age than girls. I think my son is likely to balls up his GCSEs as he is unbelievably immature. Many boys like my son DESERVE to fail.

Really
I believe - from what I've read - that where girls and boys have hte same academic opportunities, the girls are steadily overhauling the boys at every level in every country

ReallyTired I always believed probably made it up myself that up until the late 80's/early 90's boys generally did better at school than girls then girls took over and have held fairly steady ever since although I have been lead to believe that several schools in the UK have been rapidly increasing boys attainment and overtaking girls recently. I just wanted to find real proof of this to shove up my husbands nose but I haven't been able to find anything at all in print.

I do have a DS in Australia and his local school is more equal between the sexes than here. He certainly thinks that its closer to a 50/50 split in attainment but he says theres a huge difference between ethnic races attainment and whites whereas we are closing that gap rapidly.

Its a very sad situation really that we are faced with. My oldest DS got really good grades A's and B's without too much trouble whereas my youngest DS although he seems to be as intelligent (probably more so in many ways) he just seems to be lacking in inspiration to achieve at school. I have thought several times that perhaps its an issue with primary school and that by the time their at high school its too late to fix?

I'm determined to find some evidence though, I refuse to admit I'm wrong defeat in finding evidence. I will post back if I find anything as someone else may find it useful.

Pettswood - assuming you are talking about St Olave's / Newstead, the A/A measure at GCSE was 85.5% last year at St Olave's and 81% at Newstead. So the boys outstripped the girls both at GCSE and A Level. (A level 80% at Newstead and 94% A-B).

St Olave's has a reputation of being the highest attaining state school in the area. Therefore girls at grammars aspire to go there and also boys' schools attract girls for sixth forms, but girls' schools have difficulty attracting boys.

Can't swear to it but have look at King Edwards Five Ways Birmingham (state co-ed Grammar)

Hi Herds yes you are right about that but I believe 100% of the girls got passes and one or two rogue poorer scores pushed St O to 99% so it depend which measure you use. 1% is a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things and thanks for the clarification which with your data may even help the OP in her argument.

But the data masks many trends. The figures are skewed by the greater number of (white, working class) boys at the bottom. This 'underclass' doesn't mean that all boys do worse than all girls just that there's a particularly problematic group. I also understand that boys are overrepresented at the very top. The fact that there are more girls in the middle and fewer at the extremes hides the fact that many girls also underperform, yet the money and concern tends to be thrown at the boys. This is in spite of the fact that the male sex as a whole is not held back by this difference in educational attainment in the long-term in relation to earnings, positions in authority etc etc in comparison to females.

Doesn't have QE Barnet, have exceptionally high attaining boys, its single sex all through, but it outperforms lots of girls schools? Or is that not what we're comparing

Odins - they certainly do for the most recent year (2015). You can check on the school performance table website (and I also talked to the head about it so it's not an error!).

All selective schools have distorted results - you would need to compare boys and girls on a whole LEA level, or regional, or national
as a selective school that excludes all the lazy boys is not going to be dealing with the issues of the weaker boys, it just palms them off onto another school.

Comps have to deal with them ...

Boys don't tend to care until about the April of their GCSES, by which point it's late. I know lots of boys who don't really too much about achieving because "I've got an apprenticeship with me dad's mate when I leave". It's about April of their GCSES that they suddenly realise that a. Dad's mate didn't meN it and b.real apprenticeship s require c grades......

A friend's DS who went to St O's says that her son thrived at the school as he wasn't picked on for being clever and was in an environment where he could soar without criticism from those who were more interested in other pursuits. At the Comp I attended the boys in the sixth form blossomed and finally became these confident young men rather than ones who were previously hiding their academic ability.

pettswood
Whereas at the comp my kids attended bright kids were rightly celebrated and there was no issue of bullying
and at the comps their friends attended

comparing what happened when we were at school has no validity.

Boys have historically been able to get away with succeeding while working less hard than girls.
That has changed.
The boys have not yet changed.

I agree that times change and comps are a lot better but a past experience does have validity as however much one might try to be rational about distancing a very personal experience from the present - it can flavour decisions in the here and now.

I went to a private school staffed by a fair number of now convicted sex offenders
shall I base my views of private schools today on those times ?