England; puplic elite schools

[TerokNor]

Hi,

am in England now for one week and a half and its beautiful here, however we just had a lesson about the british schools system and I am shocked about the puplic elite schools.
However they seem to be perfect cardassian schools. Can use it for my story. Just wonder, did someone of you went to a puplic elite school and can tell me more about it?

TerokNor

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'public elite school'. I was privately educated in one of the UK's public school but not Harrow or Eton (which are the most famous).

I can tell you a bit about what it was like going there if you like?

 

[Pingfah]

What specifically has shocked you?

And what do you mean by public elite school? Are you talking about private schools, or public schools because they are two different things, and neither is run by the government.

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

Aren't public schools and private schools the same thing? How would you differentiate between them?

 

[Deckerd]

In the USA, if this is where the OP comes from, public schools are what's known as state schools in the UK. Neither public schools nor private schools are state schools, that is, run by local councils, although not for long since the Tory government is about to bugger everything up.

 

[Deckerd]

Aren't public schools and private schools the same thing? How would you differentiate between them?

The number of zeros in the fee.

 

[An Officer]

I guess the OP could be confused because private schools in Britain are sometimes referred to as "public", which makes no sense, but there you go.

 

[Pingfah]

Aren't public schools and private schools the same thing? How would you differentiate between them?

The number of zeros in the fee.

All Public schools and Private schools are independent, but you wouldn't call a Private school a Public school unless the headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' Conference.

 

[Deckerd]

Is there anything you don't know P?

 

[Pingfah]

Of course not, I went to public school

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

Aren't public schools and private schools the same thing? How would you differentiate between them?

The number of zeros in the fee.

I've lurked here for a few years but still can't tell when someone is joking or not. Public school is just the generic term in the UK for any school that runs on private funding (fees from parents, usually).

http://www.publicschools.co.uk/

Well you learn something new everyday. I didn't know about the HMC thing before.

Final edit: Turns out I only went to a 'private school' *sniff*

 

[captcalhoun]

i went to a state grammar school. anyone who went to a private or a public school is a toff.

up the Workers!

 

[Deckerd]

Pffft! I went to a Scottish state Academy. You can't get more proletarian than that, you posh bastard.

 

[Pingfah]

Going to public school does not necessarily mean you are rich or paying fees, my parents did not have to pay for me to go to public school.

 

[Deckerd]

Doesn't matter. You went, Fauntleroy.

 

[Pingfah]

Just correcting a common misconception amongst the... lesser educated.

 

[Deckerd]

Oh I'm over-educated, if you mean me. This means that the chips on my shoulders balance very well.

 

[Pingfah]

No, not you

 

[captcalhoun]

 

[Pingfah]

I'm not sure how useful we are being here. But then, I'm still waiting to find out what shocked the OP so much, and why he considers public schools to be Cardassian