Boys have widened their lead over girls in achieving A* and A grades at A-level.

Male students outperformed girls for the second year in a row, after trailing for several years, and now lead by a wider gap than ever.

They were ahead by 0.9 percentage points in this year’s results, with 28.9 per cent of boys’ entries awarded A or A* compared with 28 per cent for girls’. Their previous record high lead over girls was 0.5 percentage points in 2017.