Girls outshine boys in the top grade of tough new GCSES

GIRLS are steaming ahead of boys in the new tougher GCSES, with two thirds of grade 9s awarded to them.

The reformed GCSES, marked in numerical grades rather than A* to G, are designed to separate the very highest achievers, with roughly half as many 9s awarded as A*s.

Almost 51,000 grade 9s were given out across the three reformed subjects, English literature, English language, and maths.

Of these, around 30,000 went to girls. Just over 2,000 students in England were awarded a clean sweep of straight 9s, which is less than a third of the 6,500 straight A* candidates from last year, according to Datalab.

This is more than predicted by Sally Collier, the head of Ofqual, who said that only a “few hundred” students would achieve straight 9s.

Overall, UK GCSE pass rates fell. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said: “The fruits of these reforms will be seen in the years to come, but already pupils and teachers are rising to the challenge.”

Among 16-year-olds in England, almost 20,000 maths entries scored a 9, while more than 31,000 achieved the top mark in the two English GCSES combined. In English literature, more than double the number of grade 9s were awarded to girls than boys, with 4.5 per cent awarded to girls compared to 1.9 per cent to boys.

In English language, almost treble the number of grade 9s went to girls – 3.3 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent.

Boys were awarded more grade 9s in maths than girls, achieving 4 per cent of the top grade compared to 2.9 per cent for girls.

Today’s figures show that across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the proportion of entries scoring at least an A grade – or a 7 under the new system – has fallen by 0.5 percentage points to 20 per cent compared to last summer. Meanwhile, the percentage gaining a C or above – or a 4 under the new system – is down 0.6 percentage points to 66.3 per cent.

♦the number of students taking modern languages has plummeted as children have become reliant on translation tools such as Google Translate, academics warned after figures published by the Joint Qualifications Council show that the number of GCSE entries for languages has fallen by more than 7 per cent.