Curriculum change and progress incentives for arts subjects

A document setting out the government's ambitions for cultural education in England and summarising “opportunities open to schools and teachers” has been published in place of the promised National Plan for Cultural Education, which was due to progress the vision outlined in the Henley Review of Cultural Education, published in February 2012.

At the time of the Review, commentators warned that the Henley had not recommended the inclusion of arts subjects in the English Baccalaureate, but the new report states that “reforms to the accountability system for secondary schools will include a new measure that encompasses qualifications in the arts so that there are no incentives for schools to focus only on core subjects.”

The new progress measure will be based on average points scored across a suite of eight qualifications, which is designed to recognise the achievements of the most and the least able students and “will enable the arts subjects to receive full recognition in secondary school.”

Curriculum change is also on its way, with proposals for national examinations in England to focus on “excellence”.  Also, “the programmes of study of art and design, music, design and technology and PE have all been significantly slimmed down so that unnecessary prescription about how to teach has been removed” with a view to teachers being better able to “use their new freedoms to design and adapt their provision to match the needs and interests of their pupils.”

Reforms to vocational post-16 education mean courses related to the creative industries will aim to link learning to “clear paths in education and employment” while  a network of ‘teaching schools’ aim to help teachers of all subjects, including the arts, access professional development.

Many of the other initiatives mentioned in the report are those that Henley proposed last year and on which progress has already been made, including a National Youth Dance company , a raft of new materials of help teachers introduce pupils to Shakespeare, and the introduction of automatic library membership for children. A cultural passport scheme has been designed to help children record cultural activity in and out of school online, and to encourage parents to get involved with their children’s arts education.

To improve collaboration between cultural organisations and schools, a more systematic effort is being made to “develop a coherent and educationally sound cultural offer for young people.” Representatives from Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the British Film Institute and English Heritage have formed the Cultural Education Partnership Group in a combined effort to see some of the recommendations of the Henley Review implemented and to ensure that the different elements of cultural education are “more than the sum of their parts”.

One early outcome of this is that film and heritage opportunities are being made available to young people as part of the Artsmark programme. A shared approach with “greater alignment of activities and resources” is currently being tested in the City of Bristol; Barking and Dagenham; and Great Yarmouth.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210952/Cultural-Education.pdf