Boys close GCSE gender gap with bumper grades

ANXIOUS TEENS GET THEIR EXAM RESULTS

- By Eleanor Busby

THE number of top GCSE grades rose again this year while the gap between boys and girls closed to its narrowest level on record.

Some 21.9% of entries were awarded a grade 7/A or above, up slightly from 21.8% last year and higher than the 20.8% recorded in 2019 — the last pre-pandemic year.

Almost a quarter (24.5%) of girls’ entries got at least a level 7 (equivalent to an old A grade) compared with almost a fifth of boys’ (19.4%).

The 5.1 percentage point difference is the smallest since at least 2000, the earliest year for which comparable data is available.

But the overall “standard pass” rate — at least a 4 (equivalent to an old C grade) - dropped slightly from 67.6% in 2024 to 67.4%.

In England, GCSEs are scored on a 9 to 1 scale, where 9 is the highest. Wales and Northern Ireland have stuck with the A* to G system.

Crisis

Overall, the rate for 1/G or above was 97.9% — the same as 2024 but down on the 98.3% of 2019.

And 70.5% of girls’ entries achieved a 4/C compared with 64.3% of boys’.

The figures published by the Joint Council for Qualifications also showed that 1,302 pupils in England who took at least seven GCSEs achieved a grade 9 in all their subjects, up from 1,272 last year.

At Putney High School in West London, 16-year-old Nathalie Endemann, got 14 grade 9s while Isla Knowles had 11.

But overall the proportion of entries for English language and maths securing at least a grade 4 fell. For maths, it was 58.2%, which was down from 59.6%. For English it was 59.7% compared with 61.6%.