Girls and Maths at Secondary School

[Daogroupie]

On the DAO working day tours last September we were taken into the year 11 top maths set and were told that everyone in the room was expected to get an A*. There were 22 boys and 8 girls in the room. I was dismayed by this as the top maths set was always gender matched all the way through our primary school. The Y8 maths sets have just been announced for current year 7 and I am dismayed again because the ratio of boys to girls for the top set is two to one as it was for year 11. Is this just normal for secondary school? DG

[HR]

No idea what the 'norm' is but my DD's in the current yr 8 at DAO and is in the top maths set which is pretty much 50:50, girls v boys....

[hermanmunster]

not sure .... have kids at single gender schools so haven't come across this before. Is there a selective girls school locally?

[Ally]

What's the boy:girl ratio for the current Y7 at DAO. I'm bet it's not 50:50, but will vary each year. I'll ask DS what the ratio is for his form and Maths set. I think his Y7 is more boys than girls.

[workhard]

Hi DG!

Do you have the figures for the last five years, or at least some idea, both for Y.8 Maths and for the gender split for Year 7 overall?

I have noticed the following in general:

Girls tend to be ahead in English and boys tend to be ahead in Maths by the end of Y.6.

Girls are more likely to focus on Maths/Science in girls schools, and so more likely to achieve more, both at A level and at Uni in these subjects.

South and East Asian girls are more likely to focus on Maths/Science.

In addition, my subjective experience is that, for example, of the local State school entrance exams, Latymer Maths is the most demanding whilst HBS English is the most demanding. I have heard that DAO English is more demanding than DAO Maths.

All such factors may well come into play. What do you reckon?

WH

[pabrighton0]

Hi DG!
I have noticed the following in general:

Girls tend to be ahead in English and boys tend to be ahead in Maths by the end of Y.6.

Girls are more likely to focus on Maths/Science in girls schools, and so more likely to achieve more, both at A level and at Uni in these subjects.

South and East Asian girls are more likely to focus on Maths/Science.

WH

My experience confirms this, my DD is the only girl in 4 in the top Maths set. In English, I think she has a few more girls than boys in the top set.

[herty]

This is one of the reasons I've chosen to send my dd to an all-girls' school - the tendency for girls to underperform in traditional 'boys' subjects is well known.

That said, my dd is 1 of 6 girls in the top maths set at her primary. There are no boys. So whilst these things may apply generally, they need not define the child - over half my dd's form are boys; just none in the top maths set.

[2Girlsmum]

Same here: DD1 was top in her year at maths and 17% of the class were level 6 (no thanks to the school - all applied to selectives and were trained at home in SAS fashion!). All were girls:)

[herty]

How did you get them assessed at Level 6? My dd was assessed as 5a in Sept of year 6 but when we asked we were told it was no longer possible for yr 6 pupils to be assessed any higher. So no-one (incl my dd) was allowed to go any higher than 5a - despite having a whole year to do it in.

[2Girlsmum]

Their teacher stll had level 6 papers and she gave them to the most able children as an extra test the following week. Really proud of her as she scored 100% in her KS2 maths:) Not so in English, but that's another story!