Actually, this is merely a question about British terminology.
I became confused by this story in the Guardian:
The row over universities’ alleged discrimination against middle-class students intensified yesterday as private schools announced a boycott of Bristol University amid signs of growing disagreement among ministers about their own higher education policies.
The way we’ve always heard it over here, what Americans call “private schools,” the Brits call “public schools.” So what are the “private schools” mentioned in this story?
Strangely enough, I believe they are what we call public schools. Approximately.
Judging from this State vs Private Education page and also British Schools in the UK and Abroad, private schools are exactly what the name would say. So-called “Public schools” are apparently also private schools–specific ones, I suspect, although I’m not sure. (Somewhere I read that what we call “public schools”, the British call “comprehensives”, but I don’t know if that’s right or not.)
The use of ‘private schools’ in the article is an attempt to avoid this kind of confusion. Schools funded by the government are state schools, while ones which are privately-owned are, logically enough, private schools, and are also referred to as independent schools. There are a relatively small number of famous public schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Westminster, Rugby (home of the eponymous sport) and St. Paul’s, many of which were founded long before the advent of state (or public to you folks) schools in the nineteenth century.
So a conversion table between American and British terminology would go something like this:
American……………………British
public school……………….state school
elementary school……………primary school
high school…………………secondary school
private school………………independent school
prep school…………………public school
grade………………………year
(I haven’t got time to prettify the table, apologies)
I was told by Brits I worked with that Eton et al are called “public schools” because anyone can go there (ha!). As opposed to state schools which you are assigned to by what district you live in.
These guys also thought it was amazing that American BA degrees take 4 years and that you’re expected to take all kinds of general knowledge classes. They had gone to Cambridge and to a state university in the North whose name I forget, and studied nothing but computers for 3 years. And their degrees were more like a masters degree here.
I really wish that we wouldn’t have to pay for private schools! They are very expensive and some aren’t even worthy of the large sum of money!May-be the government should pay for them. Why not?
Just a note to further clarify the points made above. Privately-educated children in the UK attend various private “junior” schools until they are about eight or nine years old before going to “prep(aratory) school”. At about thirteen they take “Common Entrance” – an exam that takes them to their senior school where they will normally be educated until they are eighteen.
Although no longer necessary, in general a child educated in this way would be a “boarder” – in other words they live and sleep at the school during term term with the headmaster (or housemaster) acting “in loco parentis”. Any child whose education takes this route (about 7% of British children) is said to be a “public school boy” (or girl – although the latter phrase is not particularly common).
However, the question as to what a “public school” is, is all down to snobbery. There are supposedly NINE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS although there are arguments as to exactly which schools they are. Lord Clarendon’s Commission, in 1862, named them as Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, Shrewsbury, St. Paul’s and Merchant Taylors’. St. Paul’s and Merchant Taylors’ are day-schools (as opposed to boarding schools) based in London. This list does not seem to have any bearing on the year the school was founded and several famous and historic schools have been omitted.
Supposedly, then, these nine schools are public schools and the remainder are (technically) private schools. The word “public” generally has an historic link to the original foundation of the schools which may originally have had a charitable purpose which evolved into a fee-paying scheme.
In conclusion then, purists would say that there are only nine public schools in the UK but I think the term has fallen into common usage to refer to any private senior school. Furthermore, it should be noted that many “great” public schools now take girls. There are many historic and famous girls-only private schools which are not generally regarded as “public schools” since the term used to apply only to boys’ boarding schools.
Richard and Nik. Your comments are about as funny as the Queen’s speech. Grow up.
Can you please help me with a debate project i need to find out should we pay for public school’s like others do for public school’s. I need to beable to argue that. So if you could kindly please help me.
I began my senior year at a prep school in DC and it was the worst experience I’ve ever had. Some prep school are better than others and now I go to another private school that is awesome. So, I guess you have to pick and choose.
A public School in the UK has always been a school which is a member of the Headmasters Conference set up in 1862. There are hundreds of these schools today.
Public Schools are independent, however, the original schools were open up to the ‘public’ to attend’ and not just to aristocratic or children of royal status. It is confusing today because we think in terms of money. The word public was used in a different text.
It simple. Every one here has got it completetly wrong. Tom especially – some of the country’s top ‘public schools’ are day schools it has nothing to do with this.
Okay, here is one straight forward reason why the government does NOT pay for private schools: they are private. I attend a well known private school in Canada and find that our learning and technology are greatly impacted and improved by the fact that we must pay a substancial fee to enter. If the government paid, the schools would be public, and therefore, there would be no reason to have private schools.
Well u see, over here our education system is messed up. Originally there were only private schools and then they bulit the state system to replace them.
Just to say that public and independant schools are the same except now we say that you shouldn’t call hem public coz u have to take an exam and be clever enough to go.
I go to private school simply because the state education in my area is rubbish but i still have to travel for 1 1/2 hours to get there.
public schoold r way better private r for losers no affence
The UK phrase ‘public school’ originates from the time when they became open for enrolment to the sons of the aristocracy (before that, they were exclusively for the clergy). We are going back a very long way – the oldest pubic school in the UK is the Kings School, Canterbury (founded in 597, as a teaching institution by St. Augustine – within a couple of years of his arrival in around 595 AD.
PRIVATE ROCKS
PUBLIC SUCKS
If you go to public you are a LOSERR!
Private: better edu, better teachers, better everything.
PUBLIC: Nasty food, disgusting lunch ladies, filthy people, no edu!
I have a serious question to ask and it is not meant to be insulting. I was recently in an online debate about legalizing homosexual marriage. One debater made mention of the all-boys public schools in the UK being notorious for the “experimentation” that goes on during the school year. Can anyone confirm or deny that this is true and what the opinion of your society is of these activities. Can anyone elaborate why this happens and what impact it has on the children who engage in these activities. I appreciate any information. Thank you.
PUBLIC SCHOOL STINKS PRIVATE RULES
But seriously — who can rebut that sort of impassioned yet finely argued analysis of public versus private schools? Especially when it speaks so eloquently to the topic of the posting?
The confusion here is understandable as the system here in the UK is a bit complicated.
The Nine Great Public Schools were called that well before the Headmasters’ Conference was established. However in 1868 the Public Schools Act set those nine apart from other schools as being the nine public schools of England, following the Clarendon Commission.
Since then membership of the HMC has indeed increased, but most of those schools would be referred to as independent or private.
There are schools, not included in the nine, who call themselves public schools, but they tend to be older schools. Few schools founded after 1700 would have the nerve to call themselves “public schools”.
Much of it is snobbery, but having attended one of the ‘nine’ myself, there is not much emphasis on the status of public/independent. The real difference is independent vs. state.
well everyone i am upset is anyone thinkng that the years we spend in high school are some of the most precious of our lives?? FUN.
Private schools rock!!!!!
And that’s the kind of post that really supports the theory of private school superiority!