BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Public School

**Posted by Wholocked** October 10, 2012 7:59 am

I've been reading a lot of Sherlock fanfic or Benedict articles lately that make reference to being a "public school" stereotype. What I read into that sounds a lot more like private schools in Aus, and since Benedict attended schools that sound very private school, I am wondering if one of you Brits could please explain this to me?

**Posted by besleybean** October 10, 2012 8:05 am

Yes, they are either independent or private schools.
The original schools in the UK were only ones that people could pay for, so they were in fact the only ' public' schools- hence their name.
The old title has persisted, but private(or independent) is much more accurate,.
Mind you, at least we don't(ahem) call college or university ' school'!

**Posted by Wholocked** October 10, 2012 8:36 am

So what is your equivalent of government funded schools? The ones with no/minimal fees?

**Posted by besleybean** October 10, 2012 8:39 am

Oh sorry.
Normal schools are local authority/state schools.
I understand, ' public' would be a good name!

**Posted by Wholocked** October 10, 2012 9:21 am

How intriguing!

**Posted by besleybean** October 10, 2012 10:13 am

These days we have academies and free schools, too...
The academies are like specialist schools in the arts or science/tech or sport etc.
Free schools are often church schools etc.
The ' free' meaning' they are out of local authority control, as well as not being fee paying!

**Posted by Davina** October 10, 2012 12:28 pm

A bit more on the differences between Public Schools and Independent/private schools and State Schools.

A Public School is not administered or financed by the state. It is funded by endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions. Public Schools are members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. You will see that Benedict's old school, Harrow, is listed as a Public School. For more detail on their history etc. There is a separate link within this link to click on:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school

Independent schools, also often referred to as Private Schools are funded in a similar manner to Public Schools but are not members of the Conference. For more details:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_school

There are also Church schools which are funded by the church (various denominations) and are referred to as Voluntary Aided (or Controlled, there is a subtle difference) Schools.

That's in addition to what Besleybean has listed above.

Bet you are even more confused now! Lol

Last edited by Davina (October 10, 2012 12:29 pm)

**Posted by besleybean** October 10, 2012 12:30 pm

We also, in this country,have state funded church schools.

Last edited by besleybean (October 10, 2012 12:30 pm)

**Posted by Wholocked** October 10, 2012 1:49 pm

Yeah okay definitely more confused now! Here we have public schools (those run & funded by the state) and private schools (which receive some government funding but mostly are funded the way Davina described public schools). These can be denominational or non-denominational but they all pretty muc fall under the one category. Your system sounds unnecessarily complex lol

**Posted by besleybean** October 10, 2012 1:54 pm

Welcome to our world!
I have to say it's a tad more simple in Scotland, in that we don't have academies/free schools and the only state church schools you get are Catholic ones.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** October 22, 2012 12:29 pm

Yeah, it makes no sense that a "public" school is actually a private school ie. one that you have to pay for.

State schools are the free ones.

**Posted by Davina** October 23, 2012 7:40 am

A couple of YouTube offerings from Harrow School to give you an idea of what it is like there.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YrucMzd_Bg

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=mhee&v=E6jql1SWvNk

Last edited by Davina (October 23, 2012 7:45 am)

**Posted by besleybean** October 23, 2012 3:55 pm

For anybody abroad, the basic answer is POSH: one of England's top boys boarding schools.