What is the difference between Public School and Private School?

The real world-Surrey-God help us...

Good summary Plantronic - and your last sentence is spot on.

Of course for those people who live out in the sticks (like Truro...) it's easy to lose touch with the real world..

Private schools = Independent Schools.
Public Schools = the most prestigious private boarding schools based on social cache i.e. snobbery. The refernce to "public" is because when these schools were founded 400-600 yrs ago they were meant to be for the local poor - pretty ironic given they now charge 30k a year.
In the same way that all luxury cars are cars (but the reverse is not true) all "public schools" are private schools but not necessarily vice versa. What is true is many private schools like to describe themselves as public schools as it suggests they are like the schools listed below - i.e. prestigious, beautiful buildings, extensive grounds, social cache - Tom Brown's Schooldays etc; generally being a boarding school is a pre requisite. Historically the snootiest boys public schools were (and probably still are):
Rugby
Eton
Harrow
Winchester
Charterhouse
Westminster (probably most down to earth as predominantly a day school)

Between the six of them their offspring pretty much ran the British Empire and were the template for the whole private and grammar school systems in England.

Others that are also "pukka" are Shrewsbury, Tonbridge, Radley, Stowe, Ampleforth, Oundle, Uppingham, Wellington, Marlborough, Lancing, Hailebury, Clifton, Sherborne and St Pauls. Scotland has its own pecking order.
Sorry dont know wnough about the girls schools to comment.

If you went to any of the above you can safely say you are went to a proper "public school". There are a few oddities like Oakham, Millfield and Gordonstoun which dont really fit the above categories well as they dont really "feel" like stereotypical public schools but are just as successful.

The remaining boarding schools (of which there are many) are really described to the intense irritation of their alumni as minor public schools - generally all are historically copies of Eton or Rugby (this is why most traditional private boarding schools of any note belong to either the "Eton Group" or "Rugby Group". This is all about social pecking order and not academic results - your local grammar probably does as well if not better than many of the schools mentioned above - altho it probably wont have a polo team or beagle pack...

As the above is essentially based on snobbery I tend to avoid the public school term and refer to independent schools. Its also becoming less relevant now as parents are less concerned with "where daddy went" and more interested in league tables - particualrly overseas parents who wont have a clue about the above.

The Govt has no money of its own,it all comes from the public,so I dont see how that definition stacks up,basically if you have to ask if a private, fee paying school is a public school....it isnt...

I thought public schools were so named as they were open to all members of the public rather than being selective by religion? If you could afford, you could go...

I have always thought that Public schools are paid for by member of the public, ie. the parents of the children who go there, and State schools are funded by the government. I think the term 'private' is the modern term for 'public' school.

Im delighted you are happy with your school.
No idea what "one of those parents" means but if it means avoiding first time buyers from Surrey then count me in..

Ah... I see ... you're one of those parents propatria .... yes, glad to be avoiding you in that case, since DS's school is only in the Top 50 (but strangely sent more kids to Oxbridge last year than many of the 'proper' (sic) public schools

Of course they go to a proper public school,if anyone seriously thinks membership of HMC means anything once you are past say 20 or 30 schools then you and those pupils are in for a shock

I thought there were officially 10 public schools (i dont think i can list them though) i think they are mostly in london, all boys schools and not all are boarding - obviously the big 3 are in there - Eton, Harrow, Rugby then there are: Winchester, Charterhouse, Westminster, City of London, St Pauls....thats 8 what are the other 2 anyone???

An American accent.

propatria - 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".

So there's a difference between people's perceptions of public schools and the technical definition.

Do your children go to what you perceive as a 'proper' public school by any chance?

Lets not get carried away by membership of the HMC,I think that body has 250+ members,many of those are not as far as Im concerned public schools.

DH & I had this conversation the other day!

Technically a school can be called a 'public school' if it is a member of the HMC. In reality, many independent schools don't call themselves 'public' as it more associated with the traditional/ older/ boys boarding schools.

We found it amusing to discover that both DH's old school, and DS1's school from Spet are both, technically, 'public schools'.

I hink you'd be hard pushed today to find people referring to 'public schools' - unless they are old, posh people - just a quaint oold term for independent boarding schools.

All public schools are private but not all private schools are public dahling!

Publics are posher!

Thanks, Slipshod. Shrewsbury doesn't fall into a neat geographical category though since it's about as far west as it's possible to go without falling into Wales. History is so untidy.

ps cupofteainpeace, independent means independently managed (free of the state) but independet schools are managed by a governing body while private is a term which can sometimes (not always) refer to schools which are in private ownership and therefore provide profits for the owner. eg GEMS schools and several smaller private schools - often prep - scattered around.

In practice all these terms are mixed up with no harm done.

Yellowstone, no they are not strictly the first nine, though they are among the oldest, which is why I said I think it is a woolly concept. The choice of those 9 seems slightly random except that even then, they were well known names - and concentrated in the South East.

The act was a consequence of a review of the schools due to concerns over abuses and management (Victorian Ofstead?) and a decision to regulate their governance (ie give them an independent governing body to manage them).

I checked and saw these links for those who might need the info for a pub quiz one day!

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Schools_Act_1868

www.publicschools.co.uk/school-guide

So although it sounds grander than simply "independent", the term "public" does not have any special magic in itself except initially for the magical idea that education should be open to all and the formalization of the term in 1868 appears to arise from concerns about management.

slipshod are those the first nine strictly in terms of date of foundation?

Moldova was great.

What about the difference between private and independent schools?

Actually slipshod is right: there are technically only 9 public schools according to the Public Schools Act: Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster, Winchester, Merchant Taylors, St. Paul's. City of London was subsequently added to the list. Interesting stuff.

There are definitely plenty of schools in the HMC that wouldn't be considered public. Probably the "real" public schools are those that are in the Eton Group or the Rugby Group (which are loose associations within the HMC) plus a few others. Of course it hardly matters - as slipshod says it just relates to age, history and the associated prestige that that has for some people.