Girls have out performed boys in the battle of the sexes in secondary schools across Kent and Medway, according to the latest performance league tables.

The government has introduced a new measure - Progress 8 - to replace the previous indicator of the number of youngsters achieving five or more GCSEs at grade A to C.

Kent was marginally below the national average, with a score of minus 0.04 compared to the national score of 0.03.

The tables published today were first disclosed in October but include more data and revisions to the figures for some individual schools.

In Medway, secondary schools exceeded the national average by 0.5.

Schools with scores higher than 0.00 reflect better attainment than had been expected.

The Department for Education data for 2015-16 also includes for the first time a related measure called Attainment 8.

This measures the achievement of a pupil across eight qualifications: maths (double weighted), English (double weighted), three English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects and three other subjects.

In Kent’s case, this was 50.3 which was above the national average of 49.8.

When it came to the performance of girls and boys, girls appeared to fare slightly better. On average in Kent, the Progress 8 measure saw girls (0.10) above the average but boys slightly behind (minus 0.18).

There was a similar pattern in Medway, with girls above the average on 0.14 and boys on 0.04.

What is Progress 8?

The government introduced the new measure as a way of giving a more accurate picture of schools’ achievements.

It replaces the previous indicator of ranking schools on the basis of the percentage of pupils passing five or more GCSEs at grades A to C.

Effectively, it seeks to reflect how well children have progressed from the time they left primary school to the time they reach Key Stage 4. It is a type of “value added” measure.

Pupils' results are compared to the achievements of other pupils who have the same prior attainment with their performance in a specified mixture of eight subjects at the end of secondary school measured.

The greater the Progress 8 score, the greater the progress made by the pupil.