An
independent school in the
United Kingdom is a school that is not financed by taxpayers or through the taxation system by local or national government, and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so not subject to the conditions of "maintained status" imposed by accepting state financing.
In England and Wales but not Scotland, some well-established independent schools, especially boys' boarding schools, are often referred to as "public schools", derived from the few schools reformed by the Public Schools Acts, but the term is also used for independent schools that are normally members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
There are now more than 2,500 independent schools in the UK, educating some 615,000 children,[1] or some 7% of children throughout the country.[2]
Most of the larger independent schools are either full or partial boarding schools, although many are now predominantly day schools; by contrast there are only a few dozen state boarding schools. Boarding-school traditions generally give a distinctive character to most UK independent education, even in the case of day-pupils.
