Educational Inequality: Primary School Results

Boys are nearly twice as likely to leave primary school without reaching the expected level of attainment in English, Reading and Writing.

Boys account for about two thirds of children not reaching level 4 in English (62%), Reading (60%) and Writing (63%)

The proportion of 11 year old boys not reaching the expected level of attainment is:

• One in four boys don't reach the expected level in English (23% compared with 14% of girls)
• One in five boys don't reach the expected level in Reading (20% compared with 13% of girls)
• One in three boys don't reach the expected level in Writing (32% compared 19% of girls) 
• One in five boys don't reach the expected level in Maths (20%, the same as girls) 

11 year old Boys are are also 75% more likely to be below level 2 for English, which is the standard expected for 7 year olds (7% of boys compared with 4% of girls)

SOURCE: Guardian Data Blog, SATs, Key Stage 2, 2011

See Also: Sats 2011: all the KS2 results listed and mapped (Guardian)

Educational Inequality: Boys Writing Ability

Five year old boys are more than twice as likely to be unable to write their name as girls (15.1% of boys compared to 6.9% of girls)

Boys were also nearly twice as likely to struggle forming simple words such as 'cat', 'dog' or 'mum', with 19% of boy struggling compared to 10% of girls 

And Boys are twice as likely to be unable to write a simple shoping list or letter to Santa (4 in 10 boys compared with a fifth of girls) 

Source: Department of Education figures based on teachers’ observations of hundreds of thousands of five-year-olds.

See Also: Boys Falling Behind Girls - Daily Telegraph