Latest News December 2024 – Cultural Learning Alliance Updates
As we approach the close of 2024, the Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) has numerous updates to share from the dynamic world of arts, culture, and education. From policy shifts that will shape the future of learning, to groundbreaking research unveiling inequities, and the rapid rise of generative AI – there is much to unpack. Let’s dive in.
Curriculum and Assessment Review: A Shift in the Weather for Schools
The CLA was pleased to submit a detailed response to the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review call for evidence last month. We hope many of you were able to leverage our evidence and add your own vital perspective. We eagerly await the panel’s interim report early next year, which will undoubtedly set the tone for the coming years.
During the final consultation roadshow event, panel Chair Professor Becky Francis and panel member Dr Vanessa Ogden emphasized the need to apply a social justice lens, establish clear purposes for schooling, and develop a cohesive vision. Encouragingly, the panel acknowledged the strong feedback they’ve received about the importance of arts and cultural experiences, with the term “expressive arts subjects” being prominently referenced.
Other key priorities that emerged include calls for less curriculum content, greater representation, and a stronger focus on social-emotional learning, wellbeing, and self-awareness. These priorities align closely with CLA’s own Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education and our evolving Capabilities Framework – details we look forward to sharing more of soon.
As education expert Tim Brighouse once asked, what sort of “weather” do we want for teachers to cultivate the “competence, learning and horizons of all their students“? This review signals a clear shift in the meteorological patterns for schools and learners – one that we hope will usher in a renewed appreciation for the arts and cultural learning in 2025.
The End of the National Citizenship Service: Towards a New Youth Strategy
In a significant policy shift, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has announced that the National Citizenship Service (NCS) will come to an end in 2025. This marks the first step in the development of a new National Youth Strategy.
Nandy acknowledged that while over a million young people have participated in NCS since 2011, the program is “no longer relevant.” She expressed shock at the lack of a central strategy for young people, stating that “While talent is everywhere, opportunity is not.” The new Strategy will prioritize better-coordinated youth services and policy at local, regional, and national levels, empowering young people and their communities.
To kickstart the process, the government will invite young people to share their perspectives and aspirations through a “Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Nation” conversation. A youth advisory board will work alongside the government throughout the strategy’s development, along with in-depth engagement with youth organizations, industry leaders, and academic experts.
Crucially, the Strategy will allocate over £85 million to improve youth facilities, including £26 million for youth clubs to upgrade equipment and undertake renovations. An additional £100 million from dormant assets funding will support youth services, facilities, and opportunities nationwide between 2024 and 2028.
The CLA welcomes this renewed commitment to youth provision and hopes that the expressive arts will be fully embraced within this vision. As we outlined in our Blueprint, we believe that all national/government-funded youth programs should incorporate a range of high-quality expressive arts activities as a key enrichment strand. By building partnerships with the cultural sector and fostering opportunities for progression, this strategy can truly transform the landscape of creative opportunities for young people.
Parity in GCSE Results, but Creativity Still Lags in State Schools
A recent study from University College London reveals a remarkable finding: pupils in England who attend fee-paying schools no longer outperform their state school peers in core GCSE subjects once results are adjusted for socioeconomic background. This suggests that state school students are making strong progress in subjects like science, maths, and English, reflecting the curriculum priorities of recent years.
However, the research also indicates that state school students still lag behind their private school counterparts when it comes to the creative arts, including music, drama, and art. Even after accounting for socioeconomic factors, private school pupils achieve better GCSE results in these subjects.
The researchers suggest this disparity could have significant implications for parents deciding on the best educational path for their child. It also raises important questions about the relative strength of creative education in state-funded schools and the long-term effects of this imbalance.
As highlighted in CLA’s 2024 Report Card, the education accountability measures introduced in 2010 have prioritized core subjects at the expense of arts subjects, leading to an “enrichment gap” – where young people from wealthier backgrounds have far greater access to arts provision and opportunities compared to their peers from lower-income backgrounds.
To address this inequality, CLA has called for the creation of a national arts entitlement, which would help to rebalance the curriculum and ensure all students have access to high-quality expressive arts education. We eagerly await the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, hoping to see policy changes in 2025 that re-prioritize the arts within the schooling system.
Stark Class Inequalities in Access to the Creative Industries
Building on the findings around GCSE results, new research from the Sutton Trust has revealed the stark class inequalities that continue to plague the creative industries. The creative sector remains an elitist profession, with significant overrepresentation of those from the most affluent backgrounds and those who were privately educated.
The “Class Act” report highlights several alarming statistics:
- Amongst those aged 35 and under, there are around four times as many individuals from middle-class backgrounds as working-class backgrounds in creative occupations.
- BAFTA-nominated actors are five times more likely to have attended a private school, at 35% compared to the national average of just 7%.
- In classical music, a staggering 43% of top musicians have attended an independent school (over 6 times higher than the national average).
- At the most prestigious institutions, such as Oxford, Cambridge, King’s College London, and Bath, more than half of students on creative courses come from the most elite “upper-middle-class” backgrounds.
To address this inequality, the Sutton Trust is calling for measures like introducing an “arts premium” to fund arts opportunities in schools, banning conservatoires and creative arts institutions from charging for auditions, and making socio-economic inclusion a condition of receiving arts funding.
The CLA’s 2024 Report Card highlighted the root causes of this situation, revealing how arts subjects have been systematically devalued in state schools through government policies over the past 15 years. In contrast, the independent sector continues to prioritize and reap the benefits of arts and cultural education.
Our Blueprint for an Arts-Rich Education outlines the key policy levers needed to revalue the arts within the schooling system, including changes to accountability measures and the creation of a new Expressive Arts curriculum area. We remain hopeful that the Curriculum and Assessment Review will signal a meaningful shift in this direction.
Autumn Budget 2024: Investments in Education and Youth
On 30 October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled the government’s Autumn Budget, the first delivered by a Labour administration in 14 years. While positioned as “fixing the foundations to deliver change,” the announcements included several noteworthy investments in education, early years, and support for young people.
Key education-related commitments include:
- £6.7 billion capital investment for the education system in England for 2025-2026, supporting initiatives like school capital funding and the expansion of school breakfast clubs.
- £1.8 billion allocated for the expansion of government-funded childcare entitlement, to fund the September 2025 rollout of 30 hours of free childcare.
- £15 million to the School-Based Nurseries Capital Grant, enabling primary schools to apply for £150,000 grants to support the implementation of on-site nurseries.
The budget also included:
- £44 million to help kinship and foster carers, an increase in carer allowance, and a new fair repayment rate for Universal Credit.
- £2.3 billion funding settlement for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (an increase of 2.6%), alongside £3 million for the expansion of the Creative Careers Programme.
Overall, this budget paints a picture of considered support for schools, families, and the creative sector within a challenging economic context. The CLA was pleased to see a focus on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and hopes the school rebuilding/refurbishment program will incorporate high-quality performance and art spaces.
Alarming Suspension and Exclusion Data
Department for Education data published in November revealed a worrying trend: one in five disadvantaged pupils have been suspended in the 2023/24 academic year, with the majority occurring in years 8, 9, and 10.
The data shows a sharp increase in both suspensions and permanent exclusions compared to previous autumn terms. In the 2023/24 autumn term, there were 346,300 suspensions – a 98,900 increase from the previous year. The permanent exclusion rate also rose, from 3,100 in 2022/23 to 4,200 in 2023/24.
The most common reason cited for both suspensions and permanent exclusions was persistent disruptive behavior.
The CLA views this data as a potential indicator of a curriculum and pedagogical problem. While the arts may not be a panacea, we believe they could be part of the solution by making school a more engaging and rewarding experience for many of these children and young people.
As we reported earlier this year, research has suggested that improved access to extracurricular arts activities could be crucial in addressing persistent pupil absence. Within the curriculum, the CLA’s Capabilities Framework highlights the role of expressive arts subjects in cultivating agency and wellbeing – two of the key personal and societal benefits of arts education.
We hope that the Curriculum and Assessment Review will consider these insights and explore how a renewed emphasis on the arts could help transform the educational experiences of vulnerable students.
Children’s Use of Generative AI
Ofcom’s 2024 annual report on internet use included a fascinating look at how children and young people are engaging with generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The survey revealed that more than half (54%) of British online 8-15-year-olds said they had used a generative AI tool in the past year, with ChatGPT being the most popular at 37%. The most common uses were finding information/content (31%) and helping with schoolwork (53%).
Interestingly, a third of child users expressed confidence in the reliability of generative AI, and boys were more likely than girls to use it for exploration or creative writing. However, older teenagers (13-15) were also more likely to say they were not interested in using generative AI, citing concerns about trust and reliability.
In our May 2024 newsletter, CLA Policy Associate Baz Ramaiah explored the implications of AI’s rapid expansion for arts education. He argued that the greater role of AI in civic and economic life poses both challenges and opportunities for the expressive arts in schools.
Baz highlighted three key reasons why the arts must be given renewed prominence in education: the need to cultivate authentic human creativity; the role of the arts in fostering a lifelong learning mindset; and the potential for young people to develop skills in “prompt engineering” to harness AI for creative purposes.
As the use of generative AI continues to evolve, the CLA will keep a close eye on the interplay between these technologies and the future of arts and cultural learning. We believe that a strong grounding in the expressive arts can help young people navigate this rapidly changing landscape with confidence and creativity.
Conclusion
The closing months of 2024 have seen a flurry of activity and crucial developments within the cultural education landscape. From the ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review to the end of the National Citizenship Service, sweeping policy changes are set to reshape the experiences of young people across England.
Alongside these shifts, the stubborn inequalities in access to the creative industries and the concerning data on student suspensions and exclusions underscore the need for a renewed commitment to arts and cultural learning. The CLA remains steadfast in our belief that the expressive arts must be revalued and restored to their rightful place within the education system.
As we look ahead to 2025, the CLA is cautiously optimistic that the government’s review process and the new National Youth Strategy will signal a true “shift in the weather” – one that prioritizes the arts, empowers young people, and delivers on the promise of an inclusive, creative education for all. We stand ready to support this transformation every step of the way.
To stay up-to-date on the latest news and insights from the Cultural Learning Alliance, be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter at Reluctant Renovator. Together, we can champion the vital role of arts and culture in the lives of young people, both now and in the future.
