IT’S a well-known fact that girls outperform boys at school.

Every year when GCSE and A-level results are published, there is a clear disparity between the achievement of the two sexes.

At GCSE level last year, 62 per cent of girls in Essex got five A* to C grades, compared to 59 per cent of boys.

The Essex figures compare favourably with national figures where there is a 10 per cent difference between girls and boys getting top grades.

The question is why do girls consistently outstrip boys when it comes to academic performance?

Essex County Council has set up an inquiry into what can be done to narrow the academic gap.

Terry Reynolds, director for learning at the county council, explained it was a national problem, which the council wanted to get a grip on.

Mr Reynolds said: “It is not more of a problem in Essex than the rest of the country.

“Boys’ attainment here is not significantly worse than elsewhere.

“But, it has been a concern nationally and it remains a concern. If we look right across the system, more first-class honours are achieved by women at university and women are improving in A-level results, where boys have traditionally performed better.

Key stage two tests, taken at the end of primary school, show girls are doing better at English, but boys are nudging ahead with maths. Boys’ writing skills fall noticeably behind girls’ by the time they reach key stage three exams, at 14.

Mr Reynolds said the council’s education psychology unit would “trawl” through national research to tap into ideas for a solution.

Karen Kerridge, headteacher at the Appleton School in Benfleet, said all schools were mindul of the academic differences between boys and girls.

She insisted her school was now bucking the trend.

“All results show that boys and girls both perform really well at this school and grades are higher than the national average,” she said. “In fact, the boys are slightly above the girls.

“We’ve got an outstanding curriculum, which meets the needs of all the different learners, and it looks at the best learning styles for boys and girls.

“Traditionally, boys do better in exam-based subjects whereas girls perform better in coursework subjects, although this is a generalisation. So we are able to offer a range of courses which focus on exams or coursework, or a mixture of both.

“Most schools across the county are looking to provide a good curriculum which offers the best for both boys and girls.”

Russell Sullivan, headteacher at Castle View School on Canvey, also said his staff worked hard to tailor the curriculum to pupils’ needs.

He said: “It’s not a noticeable issue for us in most subjects but there are a few areas where boys do better than girls.

“We do monitor it very carefully and try to teach in a way which appeals to both boys and girls.”

The county council’s children and young people policy and scrutiny committee will hear the report’s findings in September.

Wendy Missons, headteacher of Furtherwick Park School on Canvey, said the problem was recognised nationally, but at her school results tended to level out.

She said: “Strategies to deal with the problem and combat it are very embedded in schools.

“Boys tend to learn in different ways to girls – they prefer short tasks and clear goals.

“They are quite goal-orientated so open-ended projects, such as coursework, are more geared towards girls’ learning skills.

“It’s about carefully selecting the exams and constant monitoring of the results.”