17. Britain's Dependent Territories.

The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction.^[1] They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories. The name "British Overseas Territory" was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, and replaced the name British Dependent Territory, which was introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Before 1981, the territories were known as Crown colonies.

Apart from the British Antarctic Territory, which contains only research stations, and the Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus and the British Indian Ocean Territory, which are military bases, the overseas territories all have permanent populations. Collectively they encompass an approximate land area of 667,018 square miles (1,727,570 km²) (of which the vast majority, 660,000 square miles, is British Antarctic Territory) and a population of approximately 260,000 people.^[2][3] The British Antarctic Territory is part of a mutual recognition agreement with 4 other sovereign nations and their Antarctic territories. The UK is a participant in the Antarctic Treaty System.^[4]

The territories of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, though also under the sovereignty of the British Crown, have a different constitutional relationship with the United Kingdom, and are classed as Crown Dependencies.^[5][6][7] The British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are distinct from theCommonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of countries which mostly have historic links to the British Empire.

Britain’s Overseas Territories are:

• Anguilla

• Bermuda

• British Virgin Islands

• Cayman Islands

• Falkland Islands

• Gibraltar

• Montserrat

• Pitcairn Islands (Ducie, Henderson and Oeno)

• St. Helena and its dependencies, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

• Turks and Caicos Islands

There are also three territories with no indigenous population:

• British Antarctic Territory

• British Indian Ocean Territory

• South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands

18. Secondary Education in Britain Today (independent schools). In the United Kingdom, an independent school (also referred to as a private school, and in certain cases a public school) is a school which is funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and is not subject to the conditions imposed by accepting state financing. There are around 2,500 independent schools in the UK, which educate around 615,000 children (just over 7% of all British children, rising to around 18% of pupils aged over 16).

A select group of about 10% of the independent schools in the UK which are in general older, traditional and are members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference,^[1] are known as "public schools".

As of 2011 there were more than 2,600 independent schools in the UK educating some 628,000 children, comprising over 6.5% of UK children, and more than 18% of pupils over the age of 16.^[3][4]

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 give a distinctive character to British independent education, even in the case of day-pupils.

Most independent schools, particularly the larger and older institutions, have charitable status. The Independent Schools Council say that UK independent schools receive approximately £100m tax relief due to charitable status whilst returning £300m of fee assistance in public benefit and relieving the maintained sector (state schools) of £2bn of costs.^[5] The Charity Commission is currently formulating tests of public benefit for charitable schools as required by the Charities Act 2006.