Public Schools Act 1868

The Public Schools Act 1868 was enacted by the British Parliament to reform and regulate seven of the leading English boys' schools of the time, most of which had grown out of ancient charity schools for the education of a certain number of poor scholars, but were then, as they do today, also educating many sons of the English upper and upper-middle classes on a fee-paying basis.

As is clear from the long title of the Act, An Act to make further Provision for the good Government and Extension of certain Public Schools in England, it was not intended to define which schools were "public schools" but to apply conditions to some of them.

The Act followed the report of the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission on Public Schools which sat from 1861 to 1864 and investigated conditions and abuses which had grown up over the centuries at nine originally charity schools.

The Bill was presented for its first reading in the Lords by Lord Clarendon on 13 March 1865 and for its second reading on 3 April 1865. The Bill was in two parts, the first containing the general provisions of the Bill and the second containing specific proposals for each school.

St Paul's School and Merchant Taylors' School were omitted, as they argued successfully that their constitutions made them legally "private" schools and that their constitutions could not be altered by public legislation, thus the Act concerned itself with the other seven schools investigated by the Clarendon Commission:

The Act removed these schools from any direct jurisdiction or responsibility of the Crown, established church, or government, establishing a board of governors for each school and granting them independence over their administration. The Act led to development of the schools away from the traditional exclusively classics-based curriculum taught by clergymen, to a somewhat broader scope of studies.