Girls at single-sex schools achieve better GCSE results, statistics show

According to education data analysts SchoolDash, girls at single-sex state schools in England achieve better GCSE results that those in mixed schools.

The study also revealed that girls from poorer families in single-sex schools received better GCSEs than their counterparts in mixed schools, whilst less of an advantage was identified for boys in single-sex schools.

Figures show 55 per cent of pupils in mixed schools achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths, while single-sex schools maintained a higher proportion with 75 per cent of pupils getting the same results.

However, the analysis outlined underlying factors which should be taken into account when reading the figures, including: grammar schools are more likely to be single-sex; co-educational schools have a higher proportion of poorer pupils; and girls are more likely to get good results.

Caroline Jordan, president of the Girls' School Association, explained: “Girls are more collaborative, they like lessons to be more discussion-based.”

Jordan also claimed that an all-girl environment allowed pupils to ‘escape gender stereotyping’, resulting in more girls pursuing science subjects.

Alice Sullivan, director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, at the UCL Institute of Education, in London, said: “We found that girls from single-sex schools were more likely to take male-dominated subjects such as maths and science at school. Girls who had attended single-sex schools also had slightly higher wages than their co-ed peers in mid-life.”

She argued: ”People often make claims about the consequences of single-sex schooling for relationships between the sexes without referring to any evidence.”

"We found that women who attended single-sex schools were no more or less likely to marry than those in co-educational schools."