Public school

The term public school is commonly used in the United Kingdom (with the exception of Scotland) to refer to a group of about 10% of the independent schools in the country, which are in general older, more expensive, more exclusive and members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.^[1][2][3]

Amongst the most famous public schools in Britain are the 'Clarendon Schools' which were the subject of the Clarendon Commission of 1861 to 1864: Charterhouse School, Eton College, Harrow School, Merchant Taylors' School, Rugby School, Shrewsbury School, St Paul's School, Westminster School and Winchester College.^[4]

History and definition

A bird's eye view of Eton College by David Loggan, published in his Cantabrigia Illustrata of 1690

Until the late medieval period most schools were controlled by the church and had specific entrance criteria; others were restricted to the sons of members of guilds, trades or livery companies. The need for professional trades in an increasingly secularised society, particularly from advancements in philosophy, medicine and law, required schools for the sons of the gentry which were independent from ecclesiastical authority and open to all. From the 16th century onward, boys' boarding schools were founded or endowed for public use.^[5]

The term "public school" began to be used in the early 19th century to describe a number of more prominent grammar schools, but prior to the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission that investigated the public school system in the United Kingdom between 1861 and 1864, there was no clear definition.^[6] The Clarendon Commission investigated nine of the more established schools: the day schools St Paul's and the Merchant Taylors', and seven boarding schools: Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster and Winchester.^[7]

A report published by the commission formed the basis of the Public Schools Act 1868. In the Act a public school was defined as one open to the paying public from anywhere in the country, as opposed to, for example, a local school only open for local residents, or a religious school open only to those part of a certain church, or private education at home (usually only practical for the very wealthy, such as the nobility, who could afford tutors).^[8] The Act formally recognised the public school status of the nine Clarendon schools, but did not stipulate that only these schools were to be regarded as such.^[9]

Since the late-19th century the term "public school" has been extended to include those schools whose headmasters qualified for membership of the Headmasters' Conference (now the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference).^[10] The use of the term in this wider sense was establised by the Public Schools Yearbook, published for the first time in 1889.^[11]

Public Schools Yearbook

The Public Schools Yearbook, published in 1889, named the following 25 boarding schools:

Associations with the ruling class

British Prime Minister David Cameron (left), former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne (centre) and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (centre right) all attended English public schools.

The role of public schools in preparing pupils for the gentlemanly elite in the period before World War II meant that such education, particularly in its classical focus and social mannerism, became a mark of the ruling class. For three hundred years, the officers and senior administrators of the British Empire invariably sent their sons back home to boarding schools for education as gentlemen, often for uninterrupted periods of a year or more at a time.

The 19th century public school ethos promoted ideas of service to Crown and Empire, understood by the broader public in familiar sentiments such as "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" and "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton". Ex-pupils often had a nostalgic affection for their old schools and a public school tie could be useful in a career, so an "old boy network" of former pupils became important.

The English and Welsh public school model influenced the nineteenth century development of Scottish private schools, but a tradition of the gentry sharing primary education with their tenants kept Scotland comparatively egalitarian.

Acceptance of social elitism was reduced by the two World Wars, but despite portrayals of the products of public schools as "silly asses" and "toffs" the old "system" at its most pervasive continued well into the 1960s, reflected in contemporary popular fiction such as Len Deighton's The IPCRESS File, with its sub-text of supposed tension between the grammar school educated protagonist and the public school background of his more senior but inept colleague. Postwar social change has however gradually been reflected across Britain's educational system, while at the same time fears of problems with state education have pushed some parents who can afford the fees or qualify for bursaries towards public schools.

As of 2012 the current Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party (David Cameron), Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats (Nick Clegg) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (George Osborne) are all public school educated.^[12][13] However every British Prime Minister in office between 1964 and 1997 was educated at a state grammar school.^[13]

Slang

The following list includes some commonly used slang terms used at public schools in the UK:

See also

• Education in the United Kingdom
• Schools Class locomotives for a class of Southern Railway locomotives that were named after Public Schools in the early 1930s

Notes