'Teenage boys hold girls back at school'

Girls suffer when they have to share classrooms with domineering teenage boys, the leader of Britain's all-female schools warned today.

All-girl schools allow girls to develop a "positive image" of themselves at time when they are vulnerable to self-doubt, said Cynthia Hall, president of the Girls' Schools Association.

Mrs Hall told the GSA's annual conference in Alton Towers, Staffs: "These years coincide with the equally important years for boys in which they are testing out their strength, voicing claims they cannot yet deliver, seeing how much they can dominate the world around them."

She continued: "I believe most girls still benefit enormously from being in a single-sex environment during those years, where their needs can be most easily met. And they can be constantly returned a positive image of their capability, their promise and their value to the world."