They've always been sugar and spice and everything nice - now girls are officially brainy too, writes GILL SMITH.

The latest results published by Oxfordshire County Council reveal girls are beating boys hollow in GCSE results.

And despite efforts by some schools to address the gender gap, the margin has widened this year.

Across state schools in the county, 53 per cent of girls gained five GCSEs at grade A to C, compared with just over 40 per cent of boys.

That's an increase on last year, when the gap stood at 11 per cent.

While a handful of schools bucked the trend, in others, twice as many girls gained five high-grade GCSEs as boys.

Michael Dennison, deputy principal adviser for the county's education department, said there were various theories why girls performed better. These included the fact that GCSE syllabuses consisted of a large amount of project work and assignments, which appeared to favour girls. Asked if a "laddish" culture among teenagers could be one of the factors, he said: "That does come through, but the gap seems to start at the age of five, when we're already getting a disparity between boys and girls.

"The gap is narrower at A-level, but how long that will last we don't know. It is a national worry."

He added a number of schools were experimenting with a range of techniques aimed at helping boys realise their full potential, including having single-sex classes for some subjects.

BRIDGING THE GAP

Every assembly over the last few weeks has been on the subject of the difference between the sexes. So says the recently appointed headteacher of Icknield Community College in Watlington.

It's not surprising it is a subject that concerns Paula Taylor-Moore. In last term's GCSE results, the difference in performance between boys and girls was staggering.

The proportion of girls gaining five GCSEs at grade A to C stood at 50 per cent. The boys managed just 21 per cent. Mrs Taylor-Moore said: "Our boys' results are dreadful. We have to do something about it and we have to do something about it before it's too late.

"I think schools are very much girl institutions. They rely on pupils pleasing teachers and playing the examination game."

Not surprisingly, the school is ploughing an enormous amount of its time and energy into strategies to help boys reach their full potential.

All GCSE pupils considered to be under-achieving have been put into one of four categories - those who are not putting in the time and effort, those who need extra help, those who have lost motivation and those who are over-confident about their abilities.

A handful of girls also fall into these categories, although the last group - the "I know everything, you can't teach me anything" group - is made up entirely of boys.

Pupils in the four categories are given weekly tutorials with senior members of staff, geared to addressing their needs. Another initiative is to pair up boys and girls with similar abilities to help each other study.

It is hoped boys will pick up organisational skills and the tricks of the exam trade, but girls too could learn from the partnership, said Mrs Taylor-Moore.

"Boys are good at getting to the point of a question. They can see a question, answer it and summarise it," she said.

Next summer, she hopes, the situation will be different.

"There's no reason why this particular group of boys cannot perform well. If they don't, I shall want to know why."

BOYS MAKE THE MOST OF THEIR EXAM POTENTIAL

It's not just girls that are the bright sparks at one Oxfordshire school.

At Bartholomew School in Eynsham, the gender gap is non-existent and girls and boys were neck-and-neck in last term's exam results. A total of 63 per cent of boys gained five high-grade GCSEs, compared with 62 per cent of girls.

The school admits the data could be affected by individual personalities in the year group - but it may also have something to do with staff putting a great deal of effort into ensuring boys realise their full potential.

In recent years, the school has looked at the issue of boys' performance and advised staff on how lessons should include boys' preferred learning styles.

The suggestions include building short topics into the curriculum with fast changes, and allowing pupils to tackle bite-size chunks. Increasing the use of templates and models and encouraging oral work were also advised.

Last year the school also introduced a mentor system, which involves each pupil meeting their form tutor to monitor progress and set clear targets. Headteacher Bill Berry said: "We felt it had a significant effect on our overall results.

"We had a year group we knew were sensible hard-workers, but we did not think they would achieve the high results that they did."

Although the mentor system was for all pupils, it may well have been particularly helpful for boys.

Mr Berry said: "Boys need to be organised better. Girls manage to set their own targets.

"Girls are better organised in terms of what they want to do and what they want to achieve.

"Through the mentor system, pupils feel they have a clear personal focus, and giving them short-term targets is really helping."

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