Schoolboys in Oxfordshire are closing the gap with girls in English studies.

National Curriculum test results for 11-year-olds show that boys improved more than girls since last year.

This bucks the trend in recent years when the gap between boys and girls in Oxfordshire has been wider than the national average.

Boys' English results have leapt from 59 per cent, reaching the Government target of level four or above last year, to 69 per cent achieving that goal this year.

Girls achieved 74 per cent last year and 80 per cent this year in English.

Michael Dennison, deputy principal adviser at the county council's inspection and advisory service, said: "This is a year in which we introduced the Literacy Strategy.

"Research shows that boys respond well to this more structured approach to teaching."

The chairman of Oxfordshire County Council's education committee, Cllr Janet Morgan, was confident the county will achieve the Government's target set last year, to get 80 per cent of 11 year-olds to achieve level four or above in English and 75 per cent in maths by 2002.

But she added that having targets for English and maths distorted the rest of the curriculum.

She said: "Literacy and numeracy are important but they are not the whole of education - you have got to have a balance. Also there is a tendency, if you have targets, to concentrate on the middle achievers at the expense of the higher and lower achievers."

Story date: Monday 11 October

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