The Public Schools

The term public school is used here because it was the name given to much of the private sector of schooling during the period under discussion. Hence although in the minds of most people the kind of school usually covered by the term would be one which was a member of the Headmasters’ Conference it was not always a distinction made when discussions about ‘public schools’ arose. It was also the term used by the Fleming Committee which reported in 1944. ¹ Most people in the country had no direct experience of public schools and knew little of direct grant grammar schools or how the latter differed from county grammar schools. As the majority of the population had received only elementary education, 88 per cent of 5 to 14 year olds in 1938, it was access to ‘secondary education’ through county grammar schools that was held out as a difficult but attractive prize offering the prospect of social mobility through improved employment opportunities. Even here a considerable number of places had been taken by pupils who had parents able to pay the fees required although the number of free places had been steadily increasing throughout the inter-war period.