Public school (UK)
A public school, in common British and Irish usage, is a school which is usually prestigious and historic, which is open to the public and which charges fees and is financed by bodies other than the state, commonly as a private charitable trust. (For the US usage of the term, see public school.)The term public school is not and cannot be applied to most of the several thousand independent schools in the UK. Many of them are not open to all members of the public. Most of them do not use that term to refer to themselves. Whilst some schools openly declare themselves to be public schools, (possibly to attract foreign students), others prefer to be called independent schools.
The term 'public' (first adopted by Eton) refers to the fact that the school is open to the paying public, as opposed to, for example, a religious school open only to members of a certain church, and in contrast to private education at home (usually only practical for the very wealthy who could afford tutors).
Prior to the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission that investigated the public school system in England between 1861 and 1864, there was no clear definition of a public school. The 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). A report published by the commission formed the basis of the 1868 Public Schools Act.
The Public Schools Yearbook, published in 1889, named the following 25 boarding schools:
- Bedford School
- Bradfield School
- Brighton School
- Charterhouse School
- Cheltenham School
- Clifton College
- Dover College
- Dulwich College
- Eton College
- Haileybury College
- Harrow School
- Lancing College
- Malvern School
- Marlborough School
- Radley College
- Repton School
- Rossall School
- Rugby School
- Sherborne School
- Shrewsbury School
- Tonbridge School
- Uppingham School
- Westminster School
- Wellington College
- Winchester College
Amongst the oldest independent schools in the UK are (chronologically):
- The King's School (597)
- St Albans School (948)
- Westminster (1179)
- High School of Dundee (1239)
- Winchester (1382)
- Eton (1440)
- Magdalen College School, Oxford (1480)
- St Paul's (1509)
- Wolverhampton Grammar School (1512)
- The Manchester Grammar School (1515)
- Stamford (1532)
- Bradford (1548)
- Sherborne (1550)
- Shrewsbury (1552)
- Christ's Hospital (1553)
- Tonbridge (1553)
- Repton (1557)
- Merchant Taylors' (1561)
- Felsted School (1564)
- Rugby (1567)
- Harrow (1572)
- Charterhouse (1611)
In British usage, a government-run school (which would be called a 'public school' in other areas, such as the United States) is called a state school.
| Term | Meaning | Specificity
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| ABROAD | Out of the sick room. | Winchester
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| BAD EGG | A nasty and unpleasant person. | -
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| BEDDER | A bedmaker and cleaner. | Also used in Cambridge University
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| BRUSHING | Flogging. | Christ's Hospital
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| EXECUTION | Flogging by the Head Master with a birchrod. | Eton
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| FAG | A servant for a prefect. | -
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| GOD | A prefect. | Eton
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| GOOD EGG | A trustworthy or reliable person (later inversion of BAD EGG). | -
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| MAJOR | Such as Smith Major, the elder brother. | -
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| MAXIMUS | Such as Smith Maximus, the eldest brother (of three or more). | -
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| MINIMUS | Such as Smith Minimus, the youngest brother (of three or more). | -
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| MINOR | Such as Smith Minor, the younger brother. | -
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| NEWBIE | New boy; now a general term. | -
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| RAG | RAG WEEK where sponsored 'misdemeanours' are common. | Also used at some universities
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| TITCHING | caning | Christ's Hospital
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