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OK, ignorant Yank over here has a question .

I understand that what we call private schools you call public schools (the ones that are privately owned/operated, but any member of the public may pay for their student to attend). What are the government-run schools called? Over here they're public schools (presumably because they're supported by public tax monies), but I've never heard what they're called across the Atlantic, and my mother's curious (it came up in conversation).

Simple answer: "State schools"

More complex (and this is off the top of my head, I may be mistaken):

We do in fact have what we call "private schools" (eg Islamic schools). The "public schools" are a subset of private schools, so called because (IIRC) the headteachers all attend a public meeting.

We call 'em State Schools usually, these are then divided into comprehensive schools and grammar schools though as I went to a public school I've no idea what the difference is between them.

Ah. Here, "state school" generally implies a public (state-operated) university, like Florida State University or University of Georgia, as opposed to a private university, like Harvard or Yale (just to name more famous ones...even small schools like Nova Southeastern are private universities or private colleges, depending on the proprtion of majors within the liberal arts).