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Concept
Public school (United Kingdom)
Summary
In England and Wales, a public school is a type of fee-charging private school originally for older boys. They are "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession, nor are they run for the profit of a private owner.
In Scotland, a public school is not private, it is synonymous with a state school in England and Wales. Fee-charging schools there are typically referred to as private or independent schools.
Although the term "public school" has been in use since at least the 18th century, its usage was formalised by the Public Schools Act 1868, which put into law most recommendations of the 1864 Clarendon Report. Nine prestigious schools were investigated by Clarendon (including two day schools Merchant Taylors' and St Paul's) and seven subsequently reformed by the Act: Eton, Shrewsbury, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, Westminster, and Charterhouse.
Public schools are associated with the ruling class. Historically, public schools produced many of the military officers and administrators of the British Empire. In 2019, two-thirds of cabinet ministers of the United Kingdom had been educated at such fee-charging schools.
There is no single or absolute definition of a public school, and the use of the term has varied over time and according to context. The starting point was the contrast between a public school and private teaching (eg., provided by a hired tutor).
In England and Wales what are called public schools are not funded from public taxation.
Sydney Smith in an 1810 article published in The Edinburgh Review suggested the following. "By a public school, we mean an endowed place of education of old standing, to which the sons of gentlemen resort in considerable numbers, and where they continue to reside, from eight or nine, to eighteen years of age. We do not give this as a definition which would have satisfied Porphyry or Duns-Scotus, but as one sufficiently accurate for our purpose.
Official source
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