Girls continue to outperform boys in GCSEs in Birmingham – but the gap is closing.

Statistics from last summer’s GCSE exam results show that in Birmingham 57.4 per cent of girls achieved the Government’s benchmark standard of gaining at least five A* to C grades including English and maths.

This compared to 50.3 per cent of boys – a gap of just over seven per cent. In the summer of 2014, 60.7 per cent of girls attained the same benchmark standard compared to 51.1 per cent of boys – a gap of 9.6 per cent.

Girls have done better than boys in GCSEs in England for some years now, with 2015 figures showing girls outperformed boys almost everywhere around the country.

However, the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools are becoming savvier in monitoring boys’ performance which in some areas was helping to bridge the gap.

And the union said government reforms to GCSEs which have seen a break away from coursework to more examinations is suited for boys to perform better.

A spokesman said: “Schools have been working very hard on this for a very long time and one of the things that schools have become very good at is very closely monitoring the progress of every single student.

“You go into a head teacher’s office now and you would almost invariably see an enormous spreadsheet on the wall with every single pupil in there and all their subjects and all their progress.

“They will be saying ‘why is this boy who has been doing very well at the earlier stages not achieving? What do we need to do?’

“Things like the pupil premium and the evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation looking into best practice have helped schools to identify effective strategies to bring the pupils on.”

However, the GCSE results gap between girls and boys in other parts of the West Midlands were among the widest in the country.

There was a 14.8 percentage point gap between the number of girls and boys in Wolverhampton who achieve at least five grades between A* to C, including in English and maths. Some 56 per cent of girls in the city achieved this benchmark result, while only 41.2 per cent of boys managed to do the same. This is the fifth-widest gap in the entire country.

In Solihull 10.1 per cent more girls achieved the benchmark standard than boys, while in Sandwell the gap between the two sexes was 10.8 per cent.

In Dudley the gap between boys and girls was 9.8 per cent and in Walsall it was 8.9 per cent.

Gap between boys and girls getting five A* to C grades, 2014/15 school year

Local Authority % point gap

Wolverhampton 14.8

Sandwell 10.8

Solihull 10.1

Dudley 9.8

Walsall 8.9

Birmingham 7.1