After the huge success of our inaugural TCW Debate last summer, where Peter Hitchens and Tim Stanley tussled over the future of Christianity, we are delighted to announce our next contest over grammar schools.
Proposing the motion ‘This House believes that a new generation of globally competitive grammar schools is essential for post-Brexit Britain’ will be Graham Brady MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee and lifelong proponent of selective education.
He argues that bringing back grammar schools will “will restore the ladder that used to take so many of us from modest backgrounds to the best universities and beyond” and that there is an acute need to target “the most deprived communities and give them new grammar schools…If those white working-class boys don’t aspire to academic success, let’s put new beacons of excellence in the heart of the communities where they live.”
Opposing the motion will be Sir Michael Wilshaw, Chief Inspector of Schools from January 2012 to December 2016.
The idea that poor children will benefit from a return of grammar schools is “nonsense”, Sir Michael has said, and will in fact “lower standards for the great majority of children” and deflect focus from where it should be – promoting specialist, technical subjects in schools, and new technology colleges for 14-19-year-olds so “future generations have the skills necessary to drive the post-Brexit economy”.
The debate will be held on Tuesday 14th March at the Centre for Policy Studies, 57 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3QL
Tickets are £14.99 (to include refreshments) and in limited supply, so make sure to reserve yours here.
