As they spill down the front steps of an old house-turned-school in downtown Toronto, these girls don't have the stereotypical private-school look about them. No tartan skirts, knee socks or blazers here. Instead, there's a rainbow of yoga pants, rolled-up jeans and T-shirts — minus brand logos, something these students don't tolerate.

Kate Holden-Boyd, left, and Ainsley Ma relish the atmosphere at Vancouver’s Crofton House School.

Kate Holden-Boyd, left, and Ainsley Ma relish the atmosphere at Vancouver’s Crofton House School.

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The Linden School's no-logo policy (peace symbols excepted) is one of the ways the all-girls school reflects a mission emphasizing empowerment, equality and social justice.

"At Linden we're encouraged to question, to challenge — things that are seen as misbehaviour at other schools," says Grade 10 student Alex Haberfellner. "Our teachers don't treat us as an annoyance and the all-girls environment is supportive and competitive in a way that doesn't discourage anyone.

"We don't have tryouts for sports teams," the 15-year-old adds. "I never knew I enjoyed sports until I came to Linden."

The school, which opened in 1993, is a relatively new kid on the block in Canada in terms of gender-based private schools. The same-sex school landscape in this country is primarily one of older institutions founded near the start of the last century, rooted in traditions that are often aimed at turning boys into leaders and girls into young ladies.

Today's same-sex schools are creating new traditions based on modern realities of equality and opportunity, and burgeoning research into neurocognitive development. As parents learn more about how brain development differs in their sons and daughters, it is fuelling a heightened interest in same-sex education.

"Outside of smaller faith-based schools, we haven't seen much growth in terms of new schools, but in the last 10 years there's been a real resurgence of interest in gender and upward enrolment, especially in girls schools," says Jim Christopher, executive director of the Canadian Association of Independent Schools.

His organization's 79 members include 18 all-girls and seven all-boys schools, representing more than 13,000 students, which Mr. Christopher estimates reflects 85 per cent of the same-sex private school population in Canada, excluding religious schools.

The Linden School is relatively small — about 140 girls in all grades — but it's stretched to capacity. Tuition is about $14,000 a year, and administrators say there is much interest from families looking for girl-centred education.

While all-girls schools flourished in recent decades, driven by research showing how girls were often at a disadvantage in education, some all-boys schools faced a decline in the 1990s and turned to co-education as a way to survive.

That's wasn't the case with Toronto's all-boys Upper Canada College, however. Founded in 1829, it has 1,120 students from kindergarten to university entrance (including an International Baccalaureate program) and a thriving all-boys environment.

Grade 12 student Marco Cianflone, head of the student government, left a co-ed Montreal school last year to attend UCC, where non-boarding tuition is about $25,000 a year.

"I find it easier to concentrate on the task at hand," the 18-year-old says, explaining that he's "more focused in class" without the presence of girls. "You can truly be yourself. It's more accepting here."

Mary Gauthier, director of UCC's centre for learning, says her role in helping boys succeed is rooted in research that maps the brain development of boys, how it differs from that of girls, and what that means in terms of education.

"In the past, there has been a tendency to define boys as 'deficient girls,'ƒ|" Ms. Gauthier notes. "I would never say that an all-boys environment would be the right choice for all boys, but for many it offers programs that are organized in appropriate ways for boys.

"That means lots of movement, and encouragement to participate in a broader range of activities such as art and drama," she says. She helps students learn organizational skills, which she calls the "learning to learn" skills.

"Boys are quite concrete in their approach. They are highly visual, wanting to know what something looks like," Ms. Gauthier says. "So in their agendas we provide places to draw, not just write, about a topic. Boys are more reluctant to ask for help until they have established a relationship, so I go into the classrooms to work with them."

Building student confidence in a nurturing environment is also the focus of Crofton House School in Vancouver, an independent all-girls school. Founded in 1898, the 696-student campus is near the University of British Columbia on four hectares that includes heritage buildings, state-of-the-art facilities and its own forest.

Monique Badun, a Crofton alumna, didn't consider any other school for her 12-year-old daughter Audrey, who is in Grade 7 at the school, where tuition is about $14,000 a year.

"The benefits I see for her," Ms. Badun says, "are the great opportunities within the school for leadership, Crofton's mission of educating the whole child, and the strong sense of self-respect she's developed." Equally important, is that Audrey has "learned how to learn — and that it's cool to do well at school."

Kate Holden-Boyd, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Crofton, says one benefit of attending an all-girls school is the "fun and the friendship" among students. "I think girls in a girls-only environment feel much freer to be themselves. They don't hold back the way they might if boys were around."

Some critics of same-sex schools say segregation from the opposite sex doesn't prepare students for the wider world. Proponents, however, say that's not the case.

"I love it here and can't imagine being anywhere else. I don't think it's limiting not having boys because I have a brother at home and I see boys every weekend at church," says Ainsley Ma, a 14-year-old Grade 9 student at Crofton.

Ms. Badun says when she left Vancouver to attend a large university in Ontario, not only did she attend co-ed classes and live in a co-ed residence, "I lived on a co-ed floor. It didn't bother me in the least."

As for Ms. Holden-Boyd, she says that "any anxiety I feel about leaving high school and entering university has nothing to do with anxiety about entering a co-ed environment."

Priti Kawale, who has three sons in Grades 3, 7 and 9 at Upper Canada College, says they aren't hampered by attending an all-boys school. "My boys have lots of opportunities to connect with girls. ¡K They have cousins, they play with girls in the neighbourhood and connect socially."

Like many same-sex schools, UCC offers not only traditional co-ed social activities, such as dances in upper grades, but also co-ed intellectual pursuits with students from other schools, including model parliaments and debating teams.

Special to The Globe and Mail