Closing the ‘enrichment gap’

With the publication of the Cultural Learning Alliance’s (CLA) first annual Report Card last month, we now have a clear picture of exactly what has been happening to the arts in schools since the introduction of the EBacc in 2010. It is a stark picture of erosion and decline. 

Since 2010, there has been an overall decline of 42% in arts GCSE entries and a 21% decrease in arts entries at A-Level. We reveal that more than 40% of schools no longer enter any pupils for music GCSE (42%) or drama (41%), and 84% of schools no longer enter pupils for dance. 

The number of hours spent teaching arts subjects has decreased by 21%, in comparison to the number of hours spent teaching core and EBacc subjects, which has increased significantly over the last decade. 

This erosion of in-school opportunities for art and design, dance, drama and music – collectively known as the Expressive Arts – has created a crisis in arts teaching. There are 15,030 fewer full or part-time teachers of arts subjects in English schools than in 2010. Arts teacher recruitment in music has fallen by 56%, and the number of unfilled teaching vacancies in Expressive Arts subjects has steadily increased over the last 14 years.

More than just a curriculum review

Compiling this report, we found the systemic de-prioritisation of Expressive Arts subjects has created an ‘enrichment gap’, with young people from wealthier backgrounds having much greater participation in the arts – in and out of school – compared to their peers from lower-income backgrounds, something which has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.

This is what happens when a government determines that Expressive Arts are strategically unimportant. The arts are cast out of the mainframe of the school day; GCSE and A-Level take-up withers; and you turn around years later and realise that the workforce to teach the subjects has dried up. And that in the creative industries there is over-representation of former independent school pupils whose schools knew precisely the value of Expressive Arts subjects for their students’ wellbeing, confidence, oracy and creativity. 

The new government elected on 4 July has to turn this round, and through more than just a curriculum review. This is about asking fundamental questions about the purposes of schooling – what it’s actually for – and how it can provide a high-quality, future-facing and well-rounded experience for all children and young people. Wales has asked exactly this question. Since 2022 it has had four clear purposes for schooling, onto which it has mapped six areas of learner experience, including the Expressive Arts. We need the same for England.

Developing an evidence-based value narrative

Studying Expressive Arts subjects provides many evidenced personal benefits, including for wellbeing, but as the OECD asserts, they are also one of our best weapons in countering hate. They form the subject area that allows you stand in another’s shoes and through which empathy, compassion and co-operation can be explored. They are the subject area that enables young people to explore their identities, express themselves, flex their imaginations, develop agency, and build their critical thinking skills. 

Why would we not want them front and centre in our education system at a time when one in four children is living in poverty; when one in five has a mental health problem; when we are living in a climate emergency and there is active conflict in the Middle East and within Europe? The personal, social and creative benefits of Expressive Arts subjects have never been more important. 

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Production of Hamlet, performed by the RSC Next Generation Act Company. Photo: Sara Beaumont © RSC

CLA now has an Evidence and Value Narrative Working Group chaired by the RSC’s Director of Learning, Jacqui O’Hanlon, and guided by Professor Pat Thomson of Nottingham University. The group is advising on, overseeing and commissioning CLA’s evidence gathering and analysis, with a particular focus on social impact. Working with the RSC and supported by Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership we have commissioned Rapid Evidence Reviews (RERs) across dance, drama and music in schools, and a refresh of the existing RER for art and design. 

We are also developing an accessible, evidence-based value narrative to support better understanding of the importance of an arts-rich education for all children and young people, and to support advocacy in our field. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the RSC and CLA are also actively exploring the creation of a cultural learning evidence hub to support the work of all those fighting to deliver an arts-rich education for all children and young people. Importantly, this will help to ensure that the arts education decline of the past 14 years is never again repeated. 

No quick fix

There are many problems ahead, including a crisis in arts teacher recruitment and retention, and there is no quick fix. It will take a decade to set a course correction to rebuild a more equitable and inclusive arts-rich education, and our new manifesto asks set out the blueprint for this to happen. 

We are calling for a minimum four-hour arts entitlement within the school week to the end of Key Stage 3; complete reform of the school accountability system and changes to student assessment (in line with Rethinking Assessment); and a new entitlement to arts teacher training and teacher development. 

We also are calling for a new emphasis on a rounded learning experience for the personal development and wellbeing of the ‘whole child’; a focus on representation, breadth and relevance across the Expressive Arts curriculum; and a commitment to ensuring that the cultural sector can respond strategically to support the needs of young people in schools and communities. 

We are not alone in calling for education reform. In recent years education has been shaped by school performance tables and assessment, and by a strategic prioritisation of non-arts subjects. As the National Society for Education in Art and Design has stated, “an education without any of these arts subjects is no education at all”.

We want to ensure that schools are supported in their ambition to provide a future-focused educational experience for all students, and can give their pupils access to the arts-rich education that we know can empower them with skills for life and skills for work in order that they can flourish and thrive. Only then will we be providing all our young people with the arts opportunities and the educational experience that they need and deserve. 

Sally Bacon OBE is Co-Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance.
 culturallearningalliance.org.uk/
@CultureLearning 
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