Girl power has been given a boost from an unlikely source - the Office for Standards in Education.

The head of research for the government watchdog announced at a conference that girls schools perform better than boys schools in almost every way.

The revelation has re-opened old wounds in the debate between single sex and co-education.

Many people harbour the suspicion that girls do better in an all-girls environment but boys learn more when rubbing shoulders with girls.

The answer in this case would seem to about squaring the circle.

Alan Hall, the head of Belle Vue Girls School, is a recent convert to single-sex education having taught in a co-ed school until five years ago when he arrived at the doors of the Thorne Lane school.

"I am bound to say that since I have been here I have been very surprised by the way in which they girls will work together and move forward," said Mr Hall.

"Before I came here I had not thought about it, in fact I assumed that mixed sex schools were the norm.

"Then I came here and saw how they can work."

Mr Hall has a son, but if he had a daughter just going into school, he would consider single sex education, he says, in the light of the lesson he has learned at Belle Vue.

Over the road at Belle Vue for Boys, Deputy Head Graham Turner agrees that girls do seem to flourish at school away from boys.

"Girls think the work ethic is OK and it's OK to come to school, work hard and receive praise."

Boys, he feels, are more circumspect: "With boys there is still a bit of a kickback. They don't like to be overtly praised or seen to be a 'swot'."

He agrees educating girls and boys separately is not the natural state of things when the two sexes must mix in the big, wide world, but says parental choice is the issue.

"It is horses for courses and it is about parental choice. "We have to keep single-sex schools unless there is overwhelming evidence that the system is failing.

"Parents should have that range of options before them."

Lynda Warrington, headteacher of the fee-paying Bradford Girls Grammar School, is firmly for girls-only education.

She says girls achieve more in a single-sex school and come out at the end confident, well-rounded individuals.

The statistics would seem to bear out her argument as the girls schools have dominated the GCSE exam tables, holding nine out of the top ten places since 1994.

The bottom line is that girls and boys are different - not better or worse - and the method in which they are educated should reflect that, said Mrs Warrington.

Stephen Davidson is headmaster of Bradford Grammar School, an independent school with a handful of girls in the sixth form which has recently announced an intention to go fully co-ed'.

It is a question of moving with the times and creating equal opportunities, he says.

He is a member of the Headmasters Conference which counts 250 private schools in its ranks.

It started as an all-boys school club, but now only around 50 of its members hail from a single-sex school.

"It is about providing a range of options," said Mr Davidson.

"We feel it is right for us to go co-ed, but there are still parents who can choose to send their sons to an all-boys school or their daughters to an all-girls school.

"It is about life choices."

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