Girls and Catholics doing better at school

The survey shows that at A-Level girls continue to outperform boys in terms of qualifications achieved.

By the time they left school 58.4 per cent of girls achieved at least two A levels or equivalent compared to 42.8 per cent of boys, and 55.6 per cent of girls achieved three or more A levels or equivalent in 2008/09 compared to 40.7 per cent of boys.

The same was true at GCSE level. The proportion of girls leaving school with at least five GCSEs or equivalent at grades A* - C remains higher than the proportion of boys; 75.9 per cent of girls leaving school in 2008/09 achieved at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent compared to 64.4 per cent of boys.

More boys (413) leave school with no GCSEs or equivalent compared to girls (260), this represents 3.6 per cent of boys and 2.2 per cent of girls.

The new survey also shows that Catholic pupils were outperforming Protestant pupils and leaving school with better qualifications.

At A-Level when the religion of pupil was considered, 54.4 per cent of Catholic school leavers left with two or more A levels compared to 46.2 per cent of Protestant school leavers.

At GCSE when religion of the pupil was considered, 59.5 per cent of Catholic school leavers left with at least five GCSEs at grades A* - C or equivalent including English and maths compared to 57.0 per cent of Protestant school leavers.

More girls and Catholics also went on to pursue a qualification at third level.

In total 42.9 per cent of school leavers entered Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). At 48.8 per cent the proportion of girls continuing on to HEIs is higher than for boys at 37.0 per cent.

The proportion of boys entering Training is much greater than that for girls at 18.0 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.

When religion of pupil was considered 38.9 per cent of Protestant school leavers attend Institutions of Higher Education compared with 46.4 per cent of Catholic school leavers.