Rugby Group

Last updated

The Rugby Group is a group of 18 British public schools. The group was formed in the 1960s as an association of major boarding schools within the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. As with the Eton Group, which was formed a few years later, headmasters and heads of the academic departments meet annually in rotation to discuss matters of common interest. [1]

The schools in the group are:

Five of the Rugby Group, Charterhouse School, Harrow School, Winchester College, Rugby School and Shrewsbury School, were part of the group of nine schools investigated by the Clarendon Commission of 1864 and were subsequently reformed by the Public Schools Act 1868 (together with Eton College and Westminster School). The other Clarendon schools (Eton College, St Paul's School, Merchant Taylors' School and Westminster School) have other affiliations.

In 2003, as part of a wider investigation into alleged fee fixing at UK independent schools, the Office of Fair Trading published an e-mail exchange between the bursars of Rugby Group schools containing detailed information about planned fee levels at each of the schools. [2] [3] The case was settled in 2006, with 50 schools admitting that such exchange of information "involved a distortion of competition and infringed competition law", but not admitting to any effect on fees. The schools each paid a £10,000 penalty, and agreed to make ex gratia payments totalling £3 million to a trust to benefit pupils attending the schools in the relevant years. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby School</span> Private school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England

Rugby School is a public school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester College</span> Public school in Winchester, England

Winchester College is a public school with some provision for day pupils, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 for New College, Oxford, and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the nine schools considered by the Clarendon Commission. The school has begun the transition to become co-educational and has accepted day pupils from September 2022, having previously been a boys' boarding school for over 600 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westminster School</span> Public school in Westminster, England

Westminster School is a public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as documented by the Croyland Chronicle and a charter of King Offa. Continuous existence is clear from the early 14th century. Its academic results place it among the top schools nationally; about half its students go to Oxbridge, giving it the highest national Oxbridge acceptance rate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charterhouse School</span> Public school in Godalming, Surrey, England

Charterhouse is a public school in Godalming, Surrey, England. Originally founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London, it educates over 800 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years. Charterhouse is one of the 'great' nine English public schools reported upon by the Clarendon Commission in 1864 and is a member of the Rugby Group schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Schools Act 1868</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Public Schools Act 1868 was enacted by the British Parliament to reform and regulate seven leading English boys' boarding schools, most of which had grown out of ancient charity schools for the education of a certain number of poor scholars, but were by then, as they are today, also educating many sons of the English upper and upper-middle classes on a fee-paying basis. The preamble describes "An Act to make further Provision for the good Government and Extension of certain Public Schools in England." The concept of a public school therefore predates this Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radley College</span> Public school in Radley, England

Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley or even the College of St. Peter at Radley, is a public school near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers 800 acres including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, and farmland. Before the counties of England were re-organised, the school was in Berkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradfield College</span> Public school in Bradfield, Berkshire, England

Bradfield College, formally St Andrew's College, Bradfield, is a public school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. It is noted for producing plays in Ancient Greek and its open-air amphitheatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference</span> Association of independent school head teachers

The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools and day schools), some traditionally described as public schools. 302 members are based in the United Kingdom, Crown dependencies and the Republic of Ireland. There are 49 international members (mostly from the Commonwealth) and also 28 associate or affiliate members who are head teachers of state schools or other influential individuals in the world of education, who endorse and support the work of HMC.

The Eton Group is an association of 12 English public schools within the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The Eton Group schools often cooperate with each other, organising events and school matches. For example, the Heads of academic departments meet to discuss curriculum matters of common interest. The Headteachers and the Bursars also meet from time to time. Unlike the older Rugby Group, which contains only boarding schools, the Eton Group includes both boarding schools outside of London and London schools taking day pupils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preparatory school (United Kingdom)</span> In the UK, school preparing children for secondary level

A preparatory school in the United Kingdom is a fee-charging private primary school that caters for children up to approximately the age of 13. The term "preparatory school" is used as it prepares the children for the Common Entrance Examination in order to secure a place at an independent secondary school, typically one of the English public schools. They are also preferred by some parents in the hope of getting their child into a state selective grammar school. Most prep schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which is overseen by Ofsted on behalf of the Department for Education.

Sunningdale School is a family-run boys' preparatory independent boarding school of around 100 pupils, situated in Sunningdale in Berkshire, close to London, England.

In September 2005, fifty prominent private schools in the United Kingdom were found guilty of operating a fee-fixing cartel by the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT found that the schools had exchanged details of their planned fee increases over three academic years 2001–02, 2002-03 and 2003–04, in breach of the Competition Act 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Competition Act 1998</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Competition Act 1998 is the current major source of competition law in the United Kingdom, along with the Enterprise Act 2002. The act provides an updated framework for identifying and dealing with restrictive business practices and abuse of a dominant market position.

During the early modern era pupils, former pupils and teachers at English public schools developed and wrote down the first codes of football, most notably the Eton College (1815) and Aldenham school (1825) football rules. The best-known of these is rugby football (1845). British public schools football also directly influenced the rules of association football.

The Clarendon Commission was a royal commission established in 1861 to investigate the state of nine leading schools in England, in the wake of complaints about the finances, buildings, and management of Eton College. It was chaired by George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon. The commission sat until 1864, when its report was published with general recommendations on questions of curriculum and governance. The Clarendon Report gives a detailed picture of life in the nine schools. As a consequence of its publication, the Public Schools Act was passed in 1868.

Cricket, and hence English amateur cricket, probably began in England during the medieval period but the earliest known reference concerns the game being played c.1550 by children on a plot of land at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, Surrey. It is generally believed that cricket was originally a children's game as it is not until the beginning of the 17th century that reports can be found of adult participation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Schools Club</span> Former London gentlemens club

The Public Schools Club is a former London gentlemen's club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public school (United Kingdom)</span> Fee-charging schools in England and Wales

In England and Wales, a public school is a type of fee-charging private school originally for older boys. They are "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession. In Scotland, a public school is synonymous with a state school in England and Wales. Fee-charging schools are typically referred to as private or independent schools.

Milbourne Lodge School is a co-educational pre-prep and preparatory school for children aged four to thirteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1797 Rugby School rebellion</span> Mutiny of the boys at Rugby school

The 1797 Rugby School Rebellion was a mutiny of the boys at Rugby School after the headmaster, Dr Henry Ingles, demanded that boys from the fifth and sixth forms should pay for the repair of a local tradesman's windows after they had been smashed by the school's pupils. The rebellion saw many of the school windows broken and its furniture burnt before the boys withdrew to an island on the school grounds. A local justice of the peace read the Riot Act, while soldiers crossed the island's moat from the rear and took the boys prisoner.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Walford, Geoffrey (1986). Life in Public Schools. Methuen. pp. 10–11. ISBN   978-0-416-37170-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Syal, Rajeev (14 September 2003). "Price-fixing inquiry spreads to 700 private schools". The Telegraph.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Halpin, Tony; Coates, Sam; Owen, Glen (13 September 2003). "E-mails tell story of record rise in fees". The Times.
  4. "Independent schools agree settlement" (Press release). Office of Fair Trading. 19 May 2006. Archived from the original on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  1. "OFT issues statement of objections against 50 independent schools". The Office of Fair Trading. 9 March 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2019.