Boys outperforming girls at Maths in Year 2

[melpomene]

I recently received dd1's school report (Year 2). It was accompanied by a comparative breakdown of results for her year group, illustrating results by gender. When looking at the maths results I was somewhat disturbed to notice that there were nearly twice as many boys as girls at the high-performing grade 3 level (41 boys v 21 girls). At the lower levels there were more girls, eg 10 girls v zero boys at grade 2c.

I'm not sure how typical this is, or whether it's a fluke of my dd1's year group. Has anyone else noted similar gender disparities at their school?

And if it's not just a fluke, why is it happening? Are boys intrinsically 'better' / faster developers at maths? Are teachers more likely to perceive boys as being good at maths, and reinforce this? Are there cultural / social pressures creating the expectation that boys will be good at maths and girls won't be good at it, even at age 7?

Any thoughts?

Could be a one off. You would have to look at the data over the last three years to establish if there was a trend, and if there is then Ofsted will be all over it.

All of the above really. How did literacy compare. I am going gender and equity in the early years curriculum for my dissertation next year at uni. It's a fascinating and frustrating subject.

Girls performed a bit better than boys at Writing, and Speaking & Listening; but the difference in maths was much greater. Performance for reading was almost equal for boys and girls.

I mentioned it the comments section of the report form which I returned to the school, and asked what they think the reasons are for the difference. I only handed it in today so haven't had a reply yet.

My dc's school don't break it down by gender so I can't give you any figures for comparison. It will be interesting to hear your school's response.

My DS is in a Y1/2 split (he's Y1). Just had his report and he has 2a's in everything except Maths 2b. He sits on the top table in his class for Maths with all Y2 girls.

So not the case apparently in my DS's class/school. Just one tiny example tho.....

HI, yes similar here. No boys got 2cs and had more 3s than girls in maths . Girls did better in writing, and in speaking and listening but the latter I put down to the differing maturity/willingness to please I see in girls and boys at this age.