Great Britian

The Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) is the premier association of prestigious private & independent secondary schools in the United Kingdom. It is widely accepted that membership of the HMC is the best means of determining what constitutes a “Public School” in the English tradition. The HMC was established in 1869 when Edward Thring, then head of Uppingham School, invited the heads of a number of peer schools from across the United Kingdom to come together to discuss a number of shared issues and common concerns. The inaugural HMC event was conceived as a direct response to the proposals brought forward following the Clarendon Commission report into public schools – a Royal Commission whose purpose was to explore the status and financing of such schools at a time when much of the public discourse focussed on the future of secondary education and, ultimately, the role of the state in it’s provision.