Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019 Page 23
QQQ‘
TOUGHER
’
GCSES
VICTORIA Chung led the GCSE roll of
honour with 12 top grades.
The 15-year-old flew over from
her home in Hong Kong to collect
her results at £22,245-a-year Roe-
dean School in Brighton.
It was certainly worth the trip as
she achieved grade 9s in art and
design, biology, business studies,
chemistry, Chinese, English lan-guage, English Literature, maths,
further maths, German, history
and physics. The teenager said she
studied hard and her results were
‘beyond’ her hopes.
‘I’m really happy because there
was a lot of pressure, but I man-
aged to do well in all 12 subjects,
which is amazing. I’m looking for-
ward to coming back next term.’GIRLS are making headway in tradition-
ally male-dominated subjects, including
maths, physics and computing.
A large rise in entries to computer science by
females has been revealed by GCSE data,
despite the subject usually being favoured
among male pupils.
The number of female entrants has increased
this year by 14 per cent, and girls continue to
outperform boys in the subject, with 24.9 per
cent achieving grade 7 or higher compared with
20.8 per cent of boys.
However, the number of males studying com-
puting still significantly exceeds the number of
females, with boys making up 78.6 per cent.
Girls are also catching up in terms of attain-
ment when it comes to maths and physics, with
the gender gap narrowing in both of these sub-
jects since last year.
While boys still achieve better grades in
maths, the proportion achieving at least a grade
7 – formerly an A – dropped from 16.8 per cent
to 16.7 per cent since last year. In comparison,
the proportion of girls achieving the same rose
from 14.9 per cent to 15.5 per cent. It meant the
gender gap reduced by percentage points, from
1.9 percentage points in 2018 to 1.2 in 2019.
In physics, the proportion of female entrants
achieving a grade 7 or higher rose from 39.9 per
cent to 42 per cent. The number of boys getting
the top grades climbed to a much lesser extent,
from 45.5 per cent to 45.9 per cent.
As a result, the physics gender gap now sits at
3.9 percentage points, compared with 5.6 per-
centage points in 2018.
Geoff Barton of the school leaders’ union
ASCL, said yesterday: ‘The encouraging part of
that is that females are thinking, “This is as
much a part of my world as it is my brother’s”,
so I think that’s a really good thing.’
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, of girls’ science
organisation Stemmettes, added: ‘We can’t wait
to see what this generation achieves in terms of
innovation and solving the world’s problems
with their knowledge, without the weight of
outdated stereotypes and sexist biases.’By Elliot MulliganA TEENAGER who
shares a two-bedroom
council flat with his
parents and two broth-
ers has scored the
GCSE grades needed
to take up his £76,000
Eton scholarship.
Hasan Patel, 16, of
Leyton, east London,
was offered a place at
the school, which
Princes William and
Harry attended, after a
three-day assessment.
He had to score grades
7 and above in his
GCSEs. The George
Mitchell School pupil
got three 9s, three 8s
and three 7s.
Headteacher Saeed
Hussain said: ‘He is a
shining example... with
the right support, there
are no limitations.’High-flyer leads the way
with TWELVE top grades
ELIZABETH Ormston became one of the
youngest pilots in Britain to earn her solo
wings – just two hours after sitting her GCSE
English literature exam.
The 16-year-old, who hopes to become a
commercial pilot, flew an Icarus C42 solo
from Popham airfield, near Basingstoke,
Hampshire after taking the two-and-a-half
hour paper. She was watched by her par-
ents, Lisa, 47, and Andy, 43, of Basingstoke.
The teenager yesterday discovered that
English literature was her highest scoring
GCSE – a 7. Elizabeth, a pupil at Kings’ School
in Winchester also achieved a 7 in English
language and photography, as well as grade
6s in maths, French, geography and physics
and 5s in psychology and biology.
She will now study for A-levels at Peter
Symonds College in Winchester, before mov-
ing on to flight school to become a com-
mercial pilot. Elizabeth said: ‘I’m over-
whelmed, it hasn’t really sunk in just yet.
‘I’m really surprised with my French
result... it’s good to have that skill for
when I fly over to France one day.’Gifted: Hasan PatelSky’s the limit
for young pilot
At the controls: Elizabeth OrmstonCouncil estate
boy wins £76k
place at Eton
Hard work
pays off:
Victoria
Chung
celebrates
her resultsGirls close
gap with
boys in
maths and
science
GCSE pupils only had to get just over half the
marks in some papers to score a top grade,
exam board documents reveal.
Grade boundary documents online reveal that
for the AQA maths higher tier, only 18 per cent
was needed for a grade 4 – equivalent to the old
C and seen as a ‘standard pass’. In the AQA
biology higher paper, 54 per cent was needed
for a 7 – equivalent to the old A.
University of Buckingham education professor
Alan Smithers said: ‘Ofqual, the regulator, must
think again.’ But exam boards said the grade
boundaries were set at broadly similar marks to
last year and were in the ‘right place’.Exam where 18%
secures a pass