Public Schools Guide
What do we mean when we refer to a public school?
The term "public school", first adopted by Eton College, referred to the fact that the school was open to the paying public, as opposed to a religious school, which was normally open only to members of a certain church. It also distinguished it from a private education at home (usually only the choice of the very wealthy who could afford tutors).
Traditionally single-sex boarding schools, many public schools now accept day pupils and are co-educational, or accept girls for sixth form studies. The majority date back to the 18th or 19th centuries, and several are over 400 years old such as Winchester College founded in 1382 and Eton College, founded by Henry VI in 1440.
The head teachers of major British independent schools belong to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), and a common definition of a public school is any school whose head teacher is a member of the HMC.
The HMC was formed in 1869 when Edward Thring of Uppingham School invited thirty seven of his fellow headmasters to attend a meeting to consider forming a “School Society and Annual Conference”. The HMC’s own notes state that twelve heads accepted his invitation and that there have been annual meetings ever since. Although at the beginning the member schools were all “boys only” schools, today the conference members include headmasters and headmistresses of boys’ and co-educational schools or schools where girls are accepted into the sixth form.
However, it is arguable that the current member schools of HMC are not all typical public schools and they are very different from the nine schools listed in the Public Schools Act of 1868 - just one year before Edward Thring issued his famous invitation.
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: two day schools (Merchant Taylors' and St. Paul's) and seven boarding schools (Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster and Winchester). A report published by the commission formed the basis of the Public Schools Act 1868. These nine are sometimes cited as the only public schools, albeit mainly by those who attended them. However, the report omitted Merchant Taylors' and St Paul's day schools. A further omission was the City of London School, another day school, which derived from a medieval foundation of 1442, was reconstituted by a private Act of Parliament in 1835, and was held to be a public school by the Divisional Court in the case of Blake v City of London (1886).
As neither the report nor the original Conference included any girls' schools, and there are no “girls only” schools in the Conference today, there are those who would debate as to whether any all-girls' schools can be considered public schools.