PQE0119
Written evidence submitted by the Cultural Learning Alliance
About the Cultural Learning Alliance
- The Cultural Learning Alliance is a collective voice working to ensure that all children and young people are able to have an active engagement with the creation and enjoyment of our arts and heritage.
- The Alliance includes a range of organisations working across the cultural and educational sectors, including non-departmental public bodies, philanthropists, umbrella organisations, cultural partners, education specialists, schools and universities, artists and teachers. It is supported by a wider membership of over 10,000 individuals and organisations.
- The Cultural Learning Alliance is chaired by Lord Puttnam. A Steering Group meets quarterly to oversee the work and direction of the Alliance, and an Advisory Panel offers expertise and strategic support to all aspects of the CLA activities
- Over the last six years there has been unprecedented reform of the Education system by the Coalition Government and the subsequent Conservative Government. The Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) has prepared detailed responses throughout this reform period: to the Henley Review of Cultural Education, to the Review of the National Curriculum, to the Wolf Review, the Review of GCSEs and qualifications and to many consultations on assessment, teacher training, accountability and the English Baccalaureate.
- We have worked extensively through our Steering Group and expert Advisory Panel to ensure that we are listening closely to the teachers, artists and policy makers that make up the CLA, and to ensure that our submissions are aligned to and supportive of the Specialist Subject Associations and partner bodies working in this area. We have convened a large number of Roundtables with Department of Education colleagues and our members, and have debated the issues with Ministers and their advisors. This response to the Education Select Committee’s request for evidence is drawn from the headlines of this larger body of work. We would be very happy to provide further detail, data or evidence on request.
- The CLA believes that cultural learning is absolutely central and integral to all education from early years to higher and further education. This submission is therefore primarily concerned with the ways that the arts and heritage contribute to the purpose and quality of education in England.
- This submission to the Education Select Committee should be read alongside our central publication: Imagine Nation, The Case for Cultural Learning.
- Cultural learning is an active engagement with the creation of our arts and heritage.
- ‘The arts’ is a broad term that includes a wide range of disciplines from theatre, dance, literature, storytelling, music, craft and visual arts to film, spoken word, digital media, photography and beyond.
- The term ‘heritage’ encompasses an individual’s understanding of themselves, their material culture and the world around them.
- Cultural organisations and specialists such as museums, libraries, archives, archaeological sites, historic houses and other built environment institutions safeguard and contribute towards this knowledge and understanding.
- Culture, in all its richness and diversity, can be experienced as listening, playing, seeing, watching and interacting, performing, devising, designing and composing, making, writing and doing. Arts and cultural subjects in schools include English, Drama, Art and Design, Music, Dance, History and Performing Arts. Good cultural learning takes place across all subjects, including science and the humanities, and through digital means. Cultural learning involves both learning through culture, and learning about culture, and involves critical thinking, creativity and the development of original ideas and action.
- The CLA uses the term ‘children and young people’ to mean individuals from 0-19 years of age. It also includes young people from 19-25 who do not have the opportunity to access cultural learning independently. Equality of access to cultural learning does not involve every child accessing the same thing: it involves every child experiencing a parity of access to regular, on-going opportunities for meaningful engagement.
- Young people, teachers, families and communities can create, participate in – or be audiences for – culture: they are its makers and consumers. Cultural learning leaders practice at all levels in organisations and communities. They innovate and drive cultural learning. They can include young people, parents, professionals and practitioners.
- The term ‘cultural learning settings’ encompasses a wide range of provision, including: formal and informal youth and early years settings and services; local authority provision; voluntary, community and private sector provision; services for vulnerable young people, disabled young people, looked-after children and those at risk; cultural organisations and their initiatives; children’s centres, education settings; Further Education provision, universities and schools.
- The Committee has invited written evidence on the following points:
- What the purpose of education for children of all ages in England should be
- What measures should be used to evaluate the quality of education against this purpose
- How well the current education system performs against these measures
- Education is fundamentally concerned with the generation, exploration and communication of ideas, skills and knowledge, and with the development of human potential.
It should enable each and every pupil to create and express their understanding of the world and introduce them to a range of extraordinary and excellent tools, techniques, concepts, frameworks, works and resources, helping them to comprehend and challenge existing ideas, and to generate their own.
- The CLA believes that cultural learning is absolutely central and integral to all education from early years to higher and further education.
- We want an education system that ensures that young people have the skills, knowledge and understanding that our employers need, and which we need as a nation: we want resilient, creative, empathetic, entrepreneurial young people who can engage with our major global challenges, such as the environment, community cohesion, and ethics, and who will build a stronger society. We want education to be intrinsically concerned with the wellbeing and needs of each individual child.
- Rigour and depth
Arts and cultural subjects taught in schools and other settings as part of the curriculum have critical rigour, intellectual depth and established breadth of learning, skills and understanding as challenging as any other school subject area. They are of equal weight, status, value and importance within the curriculum as other subjects, and require equal resource and provision.
- Access
All children and young people should have access to high-quality arts and cultural learning experiences regardless of class, gender, ability and geographical location. We know that some children are supported in engaging with and learning
through the arts and culture outside of school. Quality principles should enable a baseline entitlement for those without this support, as well as enriching and developing the experiences of those who have it.
- Qualified teachers and professionals
Each arts and cultural subject needs to be taught by committed and qualified specialists and given the necessary time and resources. It is vital that these teachers are offered a dedicated programme of continuous professional development in this subject for it to be taught effectively.
- Coherence, collaboration and STEAM
The National Curriculum should promote cohesive teaching and learning in and between subjects, collaboration and a range of ways of teaching and learning, and end duplication of content as pupils move through their school education. Different subjects should be structured to complement one another and should be inter-operable. The programmes of study and schemes of work for each arts and cultural subject should make explicit reference to this.
- A quality education is one where the principles of STEAM are practiced (a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths + Arts). STEAM is about making real-world, creative connections between subjects in schools. Teachers need support to develop collaborative practice across the STEAM subjects. In combination, the STEAM subjects will help to develop job-ready, creative, analytical and inventive problem-solvers.
- Early Years
The National Curriculum should link explicitly to, and build on the Early Years Foundation Stage. The Arts and cultural subjects should make particular reference to the three prime areas of learning; communication and language; physical development; and personal, social and emotional development. They should also build on the descriptions ‘Understanding the world’ and ‘Expressive arts and design’.
- Partnership
Arts and cultural subjects are delivered most effectively by schools and teachers working in authentic partnership with local, regional and national cultural providers and professionals, from libraries, cinemas and theatres to musicians, artists, writers and dancers.
- Progression
It is vital that the National Curriculum continues to provide and enable continuity, progression of learning and a strong tradition of progressive engagement for all our children and young people. This needs to be provided in ways that enable children and young people to become the creators, consumers, audiences, artists and participants of the future as well as supporting progression into the cultural and creative industries.
- Children and young people develop at different rates and the organisation of cultural learning in the school curriculum and beyond needs to allow children to develop at their own pace. Similarly, those with additional needs will also need a more personalised route through their cultural education and the curriculum should be designed to reflect this.
- Arts and cultural subjects should be structured to ensure that every child is exposed to a wide variety of excellent cultural learning opportunities; is encouraged to explore, make choices, and develop their own artistic voice and self expression, and is given the opportunity to accredit their learning.
- Creativity and innovation
Quality principles should support schools to improve teaching for and with creativity, and should enable innovation and excitement to flourish. Teachers should be enabled to respond to changing contextual circumstances and principles should focus on key concepts, dimensions (knowledge, skills and understanding), positive dispositions for learning in the early years, progression and high-level expectations of outcomes at each stage of learning.
- What education is not
In the current National Curriculum documentation the government states:
- ‘The national curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said, and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.’
- This definition is much too narrow and reductive. It fails to acknowledge the place of skills and understanding and describes education as a passive act – where pupils learn to ‘appreciate’ but are not supported to create or contribute.
- As the Committee is aware, the practice of education in England is extremely complex and there are a large number of interlinked elements that are currently assessed and evaluated as part of the system. They include, but are not limited to:
- the content of what is taught in schools and settings
- the wider offer and relationship of education providers to young people and their communities
- the training and on-going professional development of teachers
- These are enshrined within the National Curriculum and measured through a range of different frameworks such as:
- Pupil test and exam results,
- School and setting accountability and league-tables
- Destination data for pupils – to further learning or employment,
- Self-evaluation and parent and student feedback.
- In general, the CLA would support a range of different measures being used to measure the quality and purpose of education, but this must be done sensitively and with a light touch, as too much emphasis on any one of the above can lead to some subjects or approaches becoming valued or prioritised to the detriment of others.
- We believe that there are several measures that schools and settings could introduce that would act as suitable proxies alongside other indicators for quality arts and cultural learning as part of a broad and balanced education. They include:
- Every education setting to appoint a Cultural Learning Governor
- Every education setting to appoint an Arts & Culture Champion: an existing member of teaching staff in every school should be given responsibility for partnerships with local cultural organisations and artists, and reporting to governors on the quality of their school’s arts and heritage provision (including within afterschool clubs).
- The following comments are on ways that current measures and systems could be modified to become more effective than at present
- The current evaluation and accountability system is confusing to parents and pupils and is not streamlined: different elements duplicate one-another needlessly. For example, in the English Baccalaureate accountability proposals currently under consultation The DfE proposes to judge secondary schools as many as six times on the same EBacc measure (Progress 8, Attainment 8, EBacc numbers, EBacc achievement, Ofsted, EBacc average point score). This cannot be efficient or effective.
We have summarised our arguments on secondary school accountability here.
Recommendations
- The Cultural Learning Alliance would like to see Ofsted reformed to work more closely with schools to help them to identify improvements and innovative practice. We would like to like to see the place of Cultural Learning significantly strengthened within Ofsted frameworks.
- We call on Government to scrap current plans for further reforming secondary school accountability. We recommend ‘Progress 8 and Attainment 8’ are given space and time to bed into the system and that they remain as the ‘floor standard’, without any further measures.
- The National Curriculum must be cutting-edge, stretching, innovative and ambitious. It must be future-facing. In its present form, there is very little emphasis on the contemporary, and only the Design and Technology specification makes any link to the Cultural or Creative Industries, an omission that is particularly glaring in Art and Design, English and Music. Digital texts and media are not mentioned, despite their central place in young people’s lives and in shaping their engagement with one another and society.
- The subjects of Dance, Drama and Film have not been meaningfully included within the framework:
- Dance is not described at all beyond ‘movement’ or a ‘physical activity’; there has been no recognition that as a distinct artform it involves the interconnected study of performance, creation and appreciation.
- Drama is mentioned a few times in terms of guidance on the English Curriculum, but it is never recognised as a discipline in its own right, only as a tool to discuss language and meaning, or to develop writing.
- Film is absent from the draft – with no recognition of digital text or influence beyond the disciplines of Design and Technology and Computing.
Recommendation
- Dance, Drama, Media and Film are all rigorous disciplines as well as artforms. They involve the essential core knowledge and skills that every child needs to succeed in their lives. A clear framework to help young people progress in these disciples should be included in the Curriculum
- We believe that ITT for arts and cultural subjects needs to be improved and increased at Primary level and promoted at Secondary level.
- All Primary Schools benefit from having Specialist Arts Teachers on staff to support their colleagues and to act in a leadership capacity for the school and wider community. It is critical that teachers begin their careers in Primary Schools feeling confident in their ability to teach arts subjects (Dance, Drama, Art, Music) and to teach through and about Film and Media.
- At both Primary and Secondary level it is critical that teachers are equipped with the skills and knowledge to:
- work collaboratively with specialist supporting agencies (such as Music Education Hubs , Bridge Organisations and Specialist Subject Associations);
- make relevant links with the arts, cultural and creative industries;
- find the wealth of good quality resources that exist to support good teaching and learning.
- There is concern about the quality and depth of Arts subject training at Primary level. For example, the recent Paul Hamlyn Report, Inspiring Music for All, flags up that ‘the lack of time for music in primary initial teacher education was a serious concern for all interviewees’.
- Although the Government offers bursaries to new teachers training in all EBacc subjects, it does not offer any financial incentive for Art, Dance or Drama teachers.
Initial Teacher Training providers
- During our recent research into GCSE delivery our experts touched on the issues of teacher recruitment and specialism. It was felt that, in some cases, Arts Teachers have specialisms in just one area e.g. photography or fine art. In these cases, school-based teacher training can expose the initial teacher trainees only to the specialisms of teachers in that school, which limits the practice of these individuals. University-based ITT courses have the ability to expose students to a broader range of specialisms.
- Primary Initial Teacher Training add-on modules should be developed and rolled-out for all arts subjects.
- All ITT providers of Primary Training and of Secondary Teacher Training in Arts disciplines should be required to publish a list of their arts and cultural sector partners.
- All Primary ITT Providers, Teaching Schools and equivalent early years training settings should offer comprehensive training in using the arts and culture across the curriculum, in addition to tailored and excellent training for specialist arts teachers.
- A number of Teaching Schools and equivalent early years training settings should be designated as specialist Cultural Learning Teaching Schools. These should be charged with developing innovative partnerships with specialist HE partners and the culture and creative industries, and with developing and disseminating new models of training.
- A number of Teaching Schools and equivalent early years training settings should be designated as specialist STEAM Teaching Schools and pioneer the training of their teachers in a STEAM approach.
- Teachers of Arts Subjects should be given further support in delivering appropriate, up-to-date careers advice as part of their ITT.
- Government to offer bursaries and scholarships to students studying to be arts teachers, equivalent to those offered to other subjects.
- There is some excellent practice in the current education system, with some schools and settings providing outstanding arts and cultural learning to children and young people and their wider communities. In particular there are a number of innovative programmes across the country where Arts Champions have been developed in schools (notably by Arts Council Bridge Organisations). We can provide details of these projects on request.
- However, there also is a range of evidence that shows a significant decline in arts in schools:
- Since the introduction of the EBacc we have seen a 14% reduction in uptake of arts subjects at GCSE in secondary schools. See our briefing for further information as to how have calculated these figures and why we disagree with the DfE’s presentation of them.
- Department for Education figures published in July 2015 show that between 2010 and 2014 the number of hours the arts were taught in secondary schools fell by 10% and the number of arts teachers fell by 11%.
- The emphasis that Government has placed on GCSE attainment through their accountability reforms has led many schools to teach the Key Stage 4 (GCSE) material over three years. This robs students of a year of their Key Stage 3 Curriculum (where the arts are statutory), further eroding the talent pipeline into the arts, meaning that vital skills, knowledge and understanding are untaught, and limiting pupils’ ability to progress.
January 2016