Public school (United Kingdom)
In England and Wales, a public school is a type of fee-charging private school[1] 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.
This article is about a number of older, fee-charging schools in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. For other fee-charging schools, see Private schools in the United Kingdom. For publicly funded schools, see State school.
Although the term "public school" has been in use since at least the 18th century,[2] its usage was formalised by the Public Schools Act 1868,[a][3] 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.[4][5]
Public schools are elite institutions and are associated with the ruling class.[6][7][8] Historically, public schools produced many of the military officers and administrators of the British Empire.[9][10] In 2019, two-thirds of cabinet ministers of the United Kingdom had been educated at such fee-charging schools.[11]
In Scotland, a public school has a different significance; there the term is typically synonymous with state school in England and Wales. Fee-charging schools are referred to as private or independent schools.[12]
Definition[edit]
There is no single or absolute definition of 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).[2]
In England and Wales schools that are called public schools are not funded from public taxation.[13]
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. The characteristic features of these schools are, their antiquity, the numbers, and the ages of the young people who are educated at them ...".[14]
Arthur Leach, in his History of Winchester College (1899), stated: "The only working definition of a Public School...is that it is an aristocratic or plutocratic school which is wholly or almost wholly a Boarding School, is under some form of more or less public control, and is ... non-local".[15]
Edward C. Mack in 1938 proposed the simple definition of "a non-local endowed boarding school for the upper classes".[16]
Vivian Ogilvie in The English Public School (1957) suggests five "characteristics commonly associated with a public school" (while allowing that these are not absolute or definitive): "it is a class school, catering for a well-to-do clientèle; it is expensive; it is non-local; it is a predominantly boarding school; it is independent of the State and of local government, yet it is not privately owned or run for profit."[17]
Oxford Dictionary of English:
'In England, originally, a grammar-school founded or endowed for use or benefit of the public, either generally, or of a particular locality, and carried on under some kind of public management or control; often contrasted with a "private school" carried on at the risk and for the profit of its master or proprietors.'[18]
In November 1965, the UK Cabinet considered the definition of a public school for the purpose of the Public Schools Commission set up that year. It started with the 1944 Fleming Committee definition of Public Schools, which consisted of schools which were members of the then Headmasters' Conference, the Governing Bodies Association or the Girls' Schools Association.[19] At that time, there were 276 such independent schools (134 boys and 142 girls), which the 1965 Public Schools Commission took in scope of its work and also considered 22 maintained and 152 direct grant grammar schools.[20]
In 2023, using the 1965 Public Schools Commission definition or the 1944 Fleming Committee definition,[21] there are 302 independent secondary schools belonging to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (78% of HMC schools are co-educational, 9% are boys only and 13% are girls only),[22][23] and 152 independent girls' secondary schools belonging to the Girls' Schools Association.[24]
The majority of public schools are affiliated with, or were established by, a Christian denomination, principally the Church of England,[25] but in some cases the Roman Catholic and Methodist churches.[26] A small number are non-denominational or inherently secular, including Oswestry School,[27] Bedales[28] and University College School.[29]
A minor public school is defined in Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable [30] as "a somewhat demeaning term dating from the 1930s for an English public school that is not one of the ancient foundations, such as Eton, Harrow, Rugby or Winchester". Public school rivalry[31] is a factor in the perception of a "great" (or "major") versus "minor" distinction.[32]
The perception of a top tier of public schools is long standing but with some debate on membership.
Howard Staunton's book of 1865 entitled The Great Schools of England considered the nine Clarendon schools plus Cheltenham College, Christ's Hospital, and Dulwich College.[33]
In 1881 C.Kegan Paul & Co published Our Public Schools with chapters on seven schools: Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, Westminster, Marlborough, and Charterhouse.[34]
In 1893 Edward Arnold published a book entitled Great Public Schools with a chapter on each of Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse, Cheltenham, Rugby, Clifton, Westminster, Marlborough, Haileybury, and Winchester.[35]
The Bryce Report of 1895 (Report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education) described the schools reformed by the 1868 Act as the "seven 'great endowed schools'".[36]
Charitable status[edit]
Within English law a charity is defined as an institution established for a charitable purpose and providing a public benefit.[123] The "advancement of education" is a long-standing charitable purpose. The UK's oldest charity is the King's School Canterbury.[124] Charitable status for schools outside of the state maintained sector confers various tax benefits. This means schools are not liable for corporation tax or capital gains tax and receive an 80% reduction in business rates (a local property tax).[125] Donations by individuals to such schools are considered "tax free".[126] Fee-charging schools having the status of charities are not totally tax exempt as they pay some business rates, VAT on procured goods and services and staff pay income tax on earnings.[127] The public benefit that a charity is obliged to provide is not defined in law.[123] Typically schools provide this public benefit by offering bursaries to pupils of families with limited financial means and supporting local state maintained school(s) and institutions, including allowing public access to school facilities.[128]
As of 2020 the nine Clarendon schools had a combined asset value of almost £2bn.[129] Eton College is the school with the largest endowment of over £500m.[130] Charitable status is politically controversial. The UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in 2021 pledged to remove charitable status for fee-charging schools,[131] a policy also of Harold Wilson, stated in the 1974 Labour election manifesto.[132] Removal of charitable status would enable the UK government to levy VAT on school fees, a commitment (re)made in the 1983 Labour Party election manifesto under Neil Kinnock's leadership,[133] and revived in 2017 by Jeremy Corbyn.[134] In support of the case for maintaining the status quo, the Independent Schools Council published in 2022 a report which stated that the independent education sector contributed in 2021 £16.5 billion to the UK economy and generated £5.1 billion of tax revenue.[135][136] The 2019 UK Conservative Party election manifesto made no mention of education outside of the state maintained sector.[137] In September 2023 the UK Labour party announced that, if elected, it planned to allow public schools to retain their charitable status (and some associated tax benefits) but did plan to charge VAT on fees and remove concessions on business rates paid to local authorities.[138]