Merici College year 12 students on the co-education vs single-sex school debate

The decades-old argument flared up again this week, when Canberra Grammar announced it would end 83 years of boys-only education and start to enrol girls next year.

"I went to a co-ed school from year 7, 8 and 9, and coming to a single-sex school, I just love the environment, it was so much easier to concentrate on school work and my grades have improved," Merici College school captain Grace Cooper, 18, said.

For SRC captain Tahlia Low, 18, it was how senior students acted as role models and "big sisters" that contributed to her choice to attend a girls-only school.

"We did definitely consider co-ed schools," she said. "[But] it's the atmosphere here, everyone is so supportive.

"I feel that would happen [in a co-ed school] but at Merici, definitely, I feel it's much more supportive having the other girls around you."

Ms Low, Ms Cooper and the school's vice-captain, Rose Mackay, each chose, and would choose again to study at a girls-only school. But they concede that for others the better decision may lay in a co-ed school.

"It's definitely a big thing, to have that choice. Because some people function better in an all-girls environment or an all-boys environment or a co-ed environment. It's a matter of how you work with others," Ms Mackay, 18, said.

And there is evidence to support both stances in the debate over which is more beneficial to the student.

In a note to parents on Friday, principal Loretta Wholley wrote that girls performed better in a girls-only environment while teachers could teach without boys dominating their attention.

Next year, Ms Cooper wants to study medicine and surgery, Ms Low has lined up an internship at an accounting firm with plans to study part time and Ms Mackay is aiming for a combined degree of architecture and engineering.

The school will introduce engineering subjects in 2016.