ABSTRACT
Our nomenclature for different types of school is both confused and confusing to the extent that terms such as ‘voluntary’, ‘maintained’, ‘independent’, ‘private’ and ‘public’ have lost their more popularly accepted significance, and have now acquired a specific educational and administrative connotation. The meaning of these terms will be elicited as far as possible as we look at the history of the process, but no one in England, at least, needs to be told that some of the most ‘private’ schools in our society have been for many years those termed ‘public’. Moreover, there are schools, which have been termed ‘grammar’, that today may be state, independent, controlled, voluntary aided, special agreement, public or even private.
