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.
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.