英国“文法学校”卷土重来，掀起浪潮还是沦为炮灰？｜英语每天学教育頭條網

上海图书馆每天为头条号的读者提供优质的英语阅读

导读

最近，英国新首相特蕾莎·梅 “建立更多文法学校(grammar schools)”的教育改革提案引起轩然大波。她主张开办更多成绩优良的公立中学，将良好的公立学校资源覆盖到每个地区。其中文法学校属于公立学校范畴，代表着公立学校的最高水平，所以扩张和建立新的文法学校是提案内容的重中之重。此言论一出，立马引起英国政府和民间一片哗然。

那么，文法学校究竟是“何方神圣”？又有哪些“过人之处”呢？为何文法学校在英国历史上反复成为众矢之的，现又欲去而复返？

#Why is Theresa May setting new conditions for new and expanding grammar schools?#

For any new wave of grammar schools to be palatable to a broad section of MPs and peers, Mrs May has to tackle head-on claims that they have become the preserve of pushy, middle-class families. They need to become the engines of social mobility that they were once seen as.

Following the ban on new grammar schools in 1998, the fight for places, especially in areas where there are just one or two schools, has become more

intense. And this has led to wealthier families with the ability to pay for tutoring and preparation for the 11-plus exam -- a set of tests very different from the usual ones taken by primary pupils in England. Research suggests grammar schools have just 3% of pupils from very poor backgrounds -- those on the pupil premium who are basically from families in receipt of certain benefits or earning less than £16,000 a year. Nationally, 14% of pupils are in this category.

Even the chairman of the National Grammar Schools Association, Robert McCartney, says: "They will have to introduce some conditions that will prevent these schools being swamped or swapped by families with money." Hence the new requirement for any new selective grammar school to take a proportion of disadvantaged pupils, establish a "high quality, non-selective free school", set up or sponsor a primary feeder school in a deprived area or sponsor an underperforming academy.

How are grammars currently trying to broaden their intake?

Grammar school heads have been talking to the Department for Education for some years about the ways in which they might do this. Of the 163 grammar schools in England, more than 70 are planning to give some form of priority to disadvantaged pupils from next year, says Jim Skinner of the Grammar School Heads Association. This year, it is about 30 schools. This is most likely to be through a quota system based on recent new rules allowing schools to give priority in admissions to children on the pupil premium.

The Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, a chain of five schools, has led the way, having just admitted its second cohort of pupils with a quota for children on the pupil premium.