History of Public Schools Timeline

In 1801 William Vincent, headmaster of Westminster, published A Defence of Public Education, an early articulation of the value of the public schools.

Image source: William Vincent (priest)

In 1816 Rudolph Ackermann published The History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, and Westminster; with the Charter-House, the Schools of St Paul's and Merchant Taylors', using the term 'History of the Public Schools' for the principal schools of England.

Image source: Rudolph Ackermann

Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days, published in 1857, was set at Rugby School and became the seminal school story, though as many as 90 earlier novels set in British boarding schools had appeared since Sarah Fielding's 1749 The Governess.

Image source: Tom Brown's School Days

Howard Staunton's book of 1865 entitled The Great Schools of England considered the term 'public school' to mean the nine Clarendon Commission schools plus Cheltenham College, Christ's Hospital, and Dulwich College.

Image source: Howard Staunton

The Public Schools Yearbook was published for the first time in 1889, listing 30 schools, mostly boarding schools. By 1895 there were entries for 64 schools, with 'modern' subjects such as mathematics and science featuring in many listings.

Image source: Public school (United Kingdom)

In 1893 Edward Arnold published a book entitled Great Public Schools, with a chapter on each of Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse, Cheltenham, Rugby, Clifton, Westminster, Marlborough, Haileybury, and Winchester.

Arthur Leach stated in his 1899 History of Winchester College: 'The only working definition of a Public School...', contributing to ongoing debates about what constituted a public school.

Image source: Arthur Leach

Corporal punishment was abolished in state schools in 1986, and had been abandoned in most public schools by the time it was formally banned in independent schools in 1999 in England and Wales, 2000 in Scotland and 2003 in Northern Ireland.

Image source: School corporal punishment

In September 2005 the UK Office of Fair Trading found that 50 prominent public schools were in breach of the Competition Act 1998 through their exchange of details of planned fee increases over three academic years from 2001–02 to 2003–04.

A 2012 Sutton Trust study noted that 44% of 7,637 individuals named in the birthday lists of major UK newspapers during 2011 were educated at private schools. A similar 2014 Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission study found 71% of senior judges attended fee-charging schools.

Image source: Sutton Trust

Thomas Arnold became headmaster of Rugby School in 1828, and the reforming actions he took during his fourteen years of tenure established a new model for the nineteenth and early twentieth century public school.

Image source: Thomas Arnold

The almost exclusive teaching of grammar (Latin and ancient Greek) prevailed until well into the 19th century. As a response to the perceived need to modernise such a curriculum in line with commercial needs, the Grammar School Act 1840 was passed.

Image source: Grammar school

A royal commission, the Clarendon Commission (1861–1864), investigated nine of the more established schools, including seven boarding schools (Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster and Winchester) and two day schools (St Paul's and Merchant Taylors').

The Taunton Commission was appointed in 1864 to examine the remaining 782 endowed grammar schools, and in 1868 produced recommendations to restructure their endowments; these were included, in modified form, in the Endowed Schools Act 1869.

Image source: Endowed Schools Act 1869

The Public Schools Act 1868 formalised the usage of the term 'public school' and put into law most recommendations of the 1864 Clarendon Report. It regulated and reformed the seven boarding schools investigated by Clarendon, establishing autonomous governing bodies and releasing them from obligations to educate scholarship boys on the Foundation.

In 1869 Edward Thring, headmaster of Uppingham School, wrote to 37 fellow headmasters of leading boys' schools not covered by the Public Schools Act 1868, inviting them to meet annually. The Headmasters' Conference has grown steadily and by 2021 had 298 British and Irish schools as members.

Image source: Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference

The Bryce Report of 1895 (Report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education) described the schools reformed by the Public Schools Act 1868 as the seven 'great endowed schools'.

Image source: Committee on Alleged German Outrages

Frederick William Sanderson, Headmaster of Oundle School, initiated educational reforms at the turn of the century, modernising the curriculum with an emphasis on science and engineering.

Image source: Frederick William Sanderson

Mack defined a public school in 1938 as 'a non-local endowed boarding school for the upper classes', one of several attempts to pin down the term's meaning.

Image source: Public school (United Kingdom)

In 1942 the President of the Board of Education Rab Butler appointed a Committee on Public Schools under the leadership of David Fleming. The Fleming Report (1944) defined a public school as a member of the Governing Bodies Association or the Headmasters' Conference.

Based on the recommendations of the Fleming Report, the Education Act 1944, also known as the Butler Act, established an enhanced status for endowed grammar schools receiving a grant from central government. The Conservative government elected in 1951 did not adopt the proposal for integrating public schools.

Image source: Education Act 1944

The Labour government in 1965 made major changes to state maintained schools, issuing Circular 10/65 which directed local authorities to phase out selection at eleven years of age. That November the UK Cabinet considered a definition for use by the newly created Public Schools Commission.

Image source: Circular 10/65

The report presented by John Newsom in 1968, The Public Schools Commission: First Report, was supportive of boarding school education and made 52 recommendations, including state funding of up to 45,000 places.

The report presented by David Donnison in 1970, The Public Schools Commission: Second Report, made 25 recommendations for England and Wales and 22 for Scotland covering day schools, direct grant and maintained grammar schools. No action was taken by the incoming Conservative government.

The direct grant scheme was abolished in 1975 and the HMC schools within the scheme became fully independent. Between 1975 and 1983 funding was also withdrawn from 11 voluntary-aided grammar schools, which became independent schools and full members of the HMC.

Image source: Direct grant grammar school

State funding was revived between 1981 and 1997 with the introduction of the Assisted Places Scheme, which provided support for 80,000 pupils attending schools not part of the state maintained sector.

Keir Starmer in 2021 pledged to remove charitable status for fee-charging schools, echoing Harold Wilson's 1974 manifesto policy. In September 2023 Labour announced it planned instead to allow public schools to retain charitable status but charge VAT on fees and remove business rates concessions. In support of the status quo, the Independent Schools Council reported in 2022 that the sector contributed £16.5 billion to the UK economy in 2021.

Image source: Labour Party (UK)