A roughly equal number of the scores of year six girls and boys was analysed in the PILNA 2021 writing assessment: 9,905 year six girls’ scores and 9,688 year six boys’ scores.

Figure RWF6.2 shows the average writing performance of year six students by gender over time. On average, the year six girls (491.92, SD = 47.30) scored higher in writing performance than did the year six boys (476.54, SD = 49.81). Year six girls also scored higher, on average, than year six boys in writing performance in 2015 and 2018.