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The term public school is commonly used in the United Kingdom to refer to a select group of about 10% of the independent schools in the country, which are in general older, traditional and members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference

Such schools were originally termed "public" in the sense that they were open to anyone who could pass entrance examinations and afford the fees, without religious or other restrictions. 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, for example the Merchant Taylors' School.

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—schools which were subsequently reformed by the Public Schools Acts.

Amongst the most famous public schools in England are the 'Clarendon Schools' which were the subject of the Public Schools Act 1868: Charterhouse School, Eton College, Harrow School, Merchant Taylors' School, Rugby School, Shrewsbury School, St Paul's School, Westminster School and Winchester College.

Associations with the ruling class

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 "empire upon which the sun never set" (The British Empire) invariably sent their sons back home to boarding schools for education as English 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 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 set back 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, which are now often referred to as independent schools.

Labour Party leaders Clement Attlee, Hugh Gaitskell, Michael Foot and Tony Blair were educated at independent schools, but the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and current Labour party leader Ed Miliband, attended a state school.

Whilst the current Conservative leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron was educated at Eton (and the Conservatives' Chancellor George Osborne attended St Paul's School), all Conservative leaders from 1965 to 2005 were educated at selective state grammar schools, including former prime ministers Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher, and John Major.

With the exception of Charles Kennedy, all other past leaders of the Liberal Democrat party, including David Steel, Paddy Ashdown, and Menzies Campbell, were educated at fee-paying schools. Without precedent, both main candidates in the 2007 election for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats – Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne – were educated at the same independent school, Westminster School.

In 2003, 84% of senior Judges in England and Wales were educated at independent schools, as surveyed in 2003 by law firm SJ Berwin. This is especially significant considering that just 18% of British sixth formers study for their 'A' levels at independent schools.

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

1. Public schools were defined in the report of the Fleming Committee in 1942 as "schools which are in membership of the Governing Bodies' Association or Headmasters' Conference".
2. http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter01.html#04
3. Oxford English Dictionary, June 2010.
4. "Backgrounds of the Senior Judiciary in 2003" (PDF). SJ Berwin LLP. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2005. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 17 October 2005 suggested (help)
5. Pupil Numbrs, Independent Schools Council.
6. Murray-West, Rosie (9 October 2006). "Soaring school fees put private education out of reach for many". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 May 2010.

• Education in the United Kingdom
• Independent schools in the United Kingdom
• School types