I can still remember being in Grade 4 at school. Yes, an all boys' school where we ate rugby for breakfast, lunch and dinner; where dessert was a small spoonful of ice cream topped off by a massive dollop of rugby; where the cricket season in the summer was spent thinking about... yes, rugby: boys' stuff!

I remember our teacher in Year 6, Br John, giving 'six of the best' to every boy, just in case he misbehaved.

I remember being kept in after school until it was dark and being made to walk home late at night in freezing weather.

I remember... yes, it was a great boys' school for those days.

How times have changed and, in many ways, thank goodness! But in many ways too, we need to keep the characteristics of what it means to be a great boys' school where boys do boys' things, uninhibited by girls. Unfortunately, many boys' schools experienced a decline in the 1960s when the move to co-education became the fashion.

They either closed their doors, admitted girls or merged with girls' schools. The 'single sex' schools which survived have done so with a renewed sense of their purpose and with a clear focus on their special niche.

The boys' schools which exist today are proud of the fact that they are boys' schools. Don't ever let it be said that the importance of character building in boys' education is losing its importance or focus.

The boys at our college are growing in confidence, ability and focus. They clearly know what it means to be part of an all boys' school which brings me to my main theme: Boys generally achieve significantly better in an all boys' environment. Some may accuse me of bias when I make this claim but the facts speak for themselves.

The information below has been sourced from Robert Kennedy's studies on single sex education, entitled 'What are the advanctages of single sex education' featured at www.singlesexschools.org/evidence.html.

In May, 2007, , executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education in the USA, led a two-day workshop at the campus of Stetson University in Florida. Researchers at the university had completed a three-year pilot project comparing single-sex classrooms with co-ed classrooms at Woodward Avenue Elementary School, a nearby neighbourhood public school.

For example, Grade 4 students at Woodward were assigned either to single-sex or co-ed classrooms. All relevant parameters were matched: the class sizes were all the same, the demographics were the same, all teachers had the same training in what works and what doesn't work, etc.

The percentage of students scoring proficient in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), were as follows:

In co-ed classes:
Boys 37%
Girls 59%

In single-sex classes:
Boys 86%
Girls 75%

An incredible 49 per cent difference was observed in the boys' performance levels in the co-ed and single-sex classes.

Furthermore, the full report contains many insights from students and teachers. Consider this comment from one of the boys in the single-gender class: "We don't just do war poems and Macbeth, we do Wordsworth too. It's a challenge, in a way, which the teacher sets us to show the girls we're capable of doing it, but I couldn't talk about these things if there were girls."

The researchers conducted extensive interviews with individual students. They were particularly interested in gender-atypical boys: boys who don't care for sports, for example. How do these pupils fare in the all-boys classroom?

Here's another excerpt from the study: 'Interviews with (these) boys suggest that (they) did not feel exposed in single-sex classes. Such boys told us - without exception - that they felt at ease and comfortable, that they did not experience bullying or aggressive behaviour from other boys, and that they were not intimidated by the atmosphere in all-boys' classes.'

I would like to further elaborate on the subject with direct reference to a large Australian study conducted in the year 2000. The Australian Council for Educational Research (Acer) compared performance of students at single-sex and co-educational schools. Their analysis, based on six years of study of over 270,000 students, in 53 academic subjects, demonstrated that both boys and girls who were educated in single-sex classrooms scored on average 15 to 22 percentile ranks higher than did boys and girls in co-educational settings.

The report also documented that "boys and girls in single-sex schools were more likely to be better behaved and to find learning more enjoyable and the curriculum more relevant." The findings of the Australian commission were widely reported and were available on the Acer website www.acer.edu.au.

The conventional thinking 30 years ago was that co-education would break down gender stereotypes. That thinking turned out to be flawed. Boys in co-educational settings are less likely to take courses in the arts or tackle advanced academic subjects simply to avoid being typecast as someone different.

Single sex schools, indeed, have so much to offer. Unfortunately, it seems that co-education has been promoted through flawed thinking and a naïve belief that schools must mirror the gender mix of society. Not so, as research has demonstrated.

I do believe, however, that boys and girls are ready for the challenges of co-education when they reach 6th Form. By then, their sense of maturity and general focus has developed to the extent that the mixed setting can be advantageous, but it must be emphasised that structures and processes must be put into place to maximise opportunities.

In this context, St Edwards' College is a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate and intends offering the IB Diploma (6th Form) commencing September 2009 to local and international students in a co-educational setting.

This article is an excerpt from the headmaster's annual speech at St Edward's College junior and senior school Prize Days in November 2008.

Mr Chittenden is headmaster, St Edward's College, Vittoriosa.