What is your view on single schools as opposed to mixed?

Without reading the whole article, I'm not usually a big fan of the Daily Mail, I have been thinking there could be advantages in single schools for a while, I'd say between the ages of 9 - 16. All my three children went to mixed comprehensives and I can't see that they gained a lot by it, all the pupils seem to have formed themselves into single cliques of friends anyway. Possibly single schools can develop more creatively along the lines of their pupils' needs, girls' schools can foster more of a sense of trust and caring, and boys' schools can encourage a healthy competitiveness a bit more, and could help discourage gang culture. I think girls in mixed schools feel forced to develop a toughness and a sort of bravado, and boys feel demoralised by the greater maturity of the girls but also infuriated by an anti-intellectualism that girls seem to develop quite early in a lot of cases. More single schools might also encourage more teachers to enter the profession, because some would-be good teachers might simply be more comfortable teaching single cles, but I think the teachers need to asked about this one. I'm sure single sex schools don't do any harm and I would say go for one if you can. I think though that the sixth form should be mixed from 16 and that gives ample chance for the pupils to get used to being in cles with the opposite sex again before they go on to Uni or some other sort of higher education or work. I went to a single sex school myself, which I appreciated up till about 16, but I would really have liked a mixed sixth form college as I then found it a bit socially difficult when I went on to Uni.