RECORD GCSE results today will show that boys are finally beginning to close the gap on girls.

Thousands of youngsters across the region will learn the results of their exams after two years hard work.

And it is hoped the results will mark an end to the anti-school "lad culture" which has been blamed for the increasing gender gap.

Keith Cotgrave, headteacher of Bishop Barrington School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, said: "As far as the gender gap goes, I think we've been bucking the trend for three-to-four years.

"We probably know more about the intelligence of the children and what they're capable of doing nowadays."

He added: "You can't say the exams are better or worse, just different, but I do know that children work a lot harder now than they did when my generation took them."

This year the volume of entries hit a new record at 6.192 million, up from 5.66 million. The overall A-C pass rate was up 0.5 per cent to 57.1 per cent while the total number of passes remained at 97.9 per cent.

While the gender gulf at the top remained unchanged, with girls gaining 5.3 per cent more A grades, the boys narrowed the gap on the A-C grade level, cutting it by 0.3 per cent to 8.9 per cent. In physics they opened up a lead of 0.8 per cent at A-C.

Terry Bladen, a teacher at Eastbourne Comprehensive in Darlington and junior vice-president of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, said: "Teachers have been putting a lot of effort in to encourage boys to reach their true potential."

He also insisted that the record results did not warrant slurs on exam standards. "The exams are different but they are not getting any easier."

l Among students collecting their results today will be Adele Waterfall-Brown, who has coped with a severe sight problem to sit nine GCSEs.

The 16-year-old, who can see only one metre out of one eye and three metres out of her other, is the first pupil with severe visual impairment to go through mainstream education in Darlington.

Breaking down the barriers - Page 12