THE highest achieving boy at a Kidderminster school has conceded defeat to the highest scoring girl after a closely fought GCSE battle of the sexes.

King Charles I School pupils Kim Esquivel and James Martindale, both 16, spoke of their shock at gaining higher-than expected grades and being told they were the highest achieving of each gender at the school.

Kim achieved 10 A*s and one A while James gained nine A*s and one A.

The gender grade gap has widened this year nationally, with 24.8 per cent of exams sat by girls graded A* or A, compared with just 17.6 per cent for boys.

For girls, 72.3 per cent received grades A* to C but 63.7 per cent of boys managed the same. The disparities were the highest for a decade.

Kim said: “I feel so happy, I did not expect it, James is always number one [in the school].

“I am really, really happy, all the hard work and effort has paid off. I created my own timetable and stuck with the revision. I want to thank the teachers who are really good and give good support.”

She will go on to study chemistry, biology, maths and psychology at King Edward VI College, Stourbridge.

James will also attend the same sixth form college where he will do maths, further maths, physics and chemistry.

He said: “I was really surprised, I did not expect to do this well, all the hard work and effort has paid off. I am really happy about it, really pleased, and my parents and teachers are all happy about it as well.

“It is going to be hard work studying A-levels. I’m not sure what I want to do after that yet, I hope to keep doing the things that interest me.”

King Charles I headteacher Tim Gulliver described his pupils’ achievements as “an outstanding string of results”.

He added: “We do have a large comprehensive year group, so such high levels of achievement at the upper end are particularly pleasing.”