Girls who attend single-sex state schools in England are more likely to perform well on their GCSEs than those who go to mixed schools, according to new research. 

The education data analysts SchoolDash said that this is particularly prevalent as a factor among poorer students, with girls from these backgrounds far more likely to see strong performance in their exams than those who have attended a mainstream state school. 

And the fact that girls perform better even persists when other factors are brought into the equation, researchers said, with things like selective intake also not changing the fact that girls perform better in single-sex state schools. 

However, the same advantage does not extend to male pupils, with those boys who attended single-sex schools having no real advantage over their counterparts in mixed classes.

Overall, the performance in single-sex schools was far better than in mixed schools. The data shows that across England, mixed-sex schools saw 55 per cent of pupils on average achieve A* to C grades in their five key GCSEs. This was compared to the 75 per cent of students who achieved the same grades when attending a single-sex state school. 

However, the majority of these better grades were among girls, with the study finding that there was little difference in success levels when boys were taught alongside other boys exclusively. 

Caroline Jordan, president of the Girls' School Association, said the performance showed that when girls are taught alone, lessons can be tailored to their needs far better, and teachers can take into account how girls like to learn rather than having to settle for something that suits everyone. 

"Girls are more collaborative, they like lessons to be more discussion-based," said Ms Jordan. "Girls can be more confident in themselves, they don't have to become a particular type of girl, they're able to relax more," she added, saying that one of the main advantages is that girls in single-sex schools don't feel the need to conform as they perhaps do in mixed schools. 

This can mean greater numbers of female students applying themselves more when it comes to things such as sciences, which allows them to achieve better grades than they would perhaps be able to achieve in a mixed school. 

This theory was backed up by Alice Sullivan, director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, at the UCL Institute of Education, in London, who 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.

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