If you are preparing a son for the 11+, there is a reasonable chance you have already noticed something. The maths practice goes well. The non-verbal reasoning clicks fairly quickly. But the English work — and especially anything involving writing — produces a different kind of resistance. Longer pauses. Shorter answers. A general sense that this is someone else's territory.

That pattern is not imaginary, not a parenting failure, and not specific to your child. It is one of the most consistently documented findings in UK primary education, and it is worth understanding clearly — because understanding it is the first step to doing something about it.

The attainment picture at Key Stage 2

The gender gap in primary education is real and consistent. At the end of Key Stage 2 — the cohort that sits the 11+ — the House of Commons Library reports that 63% of girls met the expected standard in all of English reading, writing, and maths combined, compared to 56% of boys (House of Commons Library, 2024). That is a seven percentage point gap across the board.

The picture is more nuanced subject by subject. In maths alone, boys actually hold a slender advantage: 73% met the expected standard compared to 72% of girls. In writing, the gap reverses sharply and consistently favours girls, year after year (Department for Education, 2025).

At GCSE level, where the trajectory becomes clearer, the gender gap in English stands at 10.4 percentage points in favour of girls. Boys have made modest gains in maths — now ahead of girls by 1.7 percentage points — a shift that began in 2023 (CPRMB, 2026).

What this means for the 11+ specifically

The 11+ tests four main areas: maths, English comprehension, verbal reasoning, and non-verbal reasoning. The gender gap does not affect all four equally.

Maths and NVR are typically the areas where boys are strongest, or at least close to parity. Boys who have solid arithmetic foundations and good spatial reasoning often find maths and non-verbal reasoning sections of the 11+ more accessible.

Verbal reasoning introduces an element that is harder to predict. VR tests language-based pattern recognition — synonyms, antonyms, analogies, letter sequences. Boys with strong vocabularies do well. Those with narrower reading habits — which the National Literacy Trust's data suggests is more common among boys — may find verbal reasoning more challenging (National Literacy Trust, 2024).

English comprehension and creative writing are where the gender gap shows up most clearly in 11+ preparation. Comprehension requires sustained attention to a passage and the ability to extract meaning and inference — skills that develop slightly earlier in many girls. Creative writing, where it forms part of the exam (as it does in most GL Assessment English papers), is the area where the gap is widest and the preparation often least consistent.

Why boys struggle with 11+ creative writing covers this territory in detail — including what the evidence shows about why boys find writing hard, and what parents and children can do about it. If English is a concern for your son, that article is worth reading alongside this one.

What helps

The gender gap is documented and consistent — but it is not fixed. Boys who receive well-targeted support in the areas where the gap is widest make meaningful progress, and the 11+ timeline gives enough time to close gaps that might feel significant at the start of preparation.

A few things that the evidence points to:

Reading breadth matters more than reading volume. Boys who read widely across genres — including non-fiction, which many boys find more engaging than fiction — develop the vocabulary and comprehension skills that carry directly into verbal reasoning and English comprehension. The goal is not to read more of the same; it is to read differently.

Short, specific writing practice beats long sessions. The National Literacy Trust's data shows that writing enjoyment among boys is at its lowest level since records began (National Literacy Trust, 2024). Forcing long writing sessions tends to deepen the resistance. Short prompts — 15 to 20 minutes of focused writing with specific, positive feedback — are more effective than extended sessions that end with exhaustion and resentment.

Feedback framing matters. Research from the University of Liverpool found that boys' writing is often evaluated more critically than girls' writing of equivalent quality — and that boys know it, which affects their willingness to try (University of Liverpool, 2025). Feedback that identifies specific strengths — not just errors — helps boys build a more accurate sense of their own ability.

Maths confidence is a genuine asset. If your son is strong in maths, that is worth building on. In an exam where every mark counts, a child who consistently maximises their maths score is in a stronger position than one who is spread thinly across all four subjects. Don't neglect English — but don't undervalue the areas of strength either.

The English practice section of 11Plus Tips includes a creative writing simulator with real-time AI marking — built specifically to give boys the kind of calm, specific, non-judgmental feedback that the research suggests they respond to best. When you start preparation is a separate question — but for boys with English as a gap area, earlier is consistently better.

A note on individual variation

The gender gap describes a population-level pattern. It does not describe any individual child. There are boys who are exceptional writers and girls who struggle with verbal reasoning. The data above is useful context for thinking about where to direct attention in preparation — it is not a verdict on your son's abilities.

The most important thing you can know is not what boys do on average. It is what your son specifically finds easy, and where the real gaps are. Diagnostic practice — the kind that maps performance by topic rather than just overall score — is far more useful than any general guide, because it tells you where to concentrate effort rather than suggesting you need to work on everything at once.

References

CPRMB (2026) 'GCSE results show small overall progress for boys over the past decade'. Available at: https://menandboys.org.uk/gcse25 (Accessed: 26 June 2026).

Department for Education (2025) Key Stage 2 Attainment: Academic Year 2024/25. Available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-2-attainment (Accessed: 26 June 2026).

House of Commons Library (2024) Educational Attainment of Boys. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2024-0043/ (Accessed: 26 June 2026).

National Literacy Trust (2024) Children and Young People's Writing in 2024. Available at: https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-writing-in-2024/ (Accessed: 26 June 2026).

University of Liverpool (2025) 'Research Challenging the Gender Gap in Writing Performance for Children Used for Teacher Training'. Available at: https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/01/27/research-challenging-the-gender-gap-in-writing-performance-for-children-used-for-teacher-training/ (Accessed: 26 June 2026).