What if… we placed greater value on arts education in our schools system?

Arts education, encompassing art, dance, design, drama and music, is widely regarded as vital to a ‘well rounded education’. Alongside the development of particular cognitive skills and aptitudes, studying these subjects has been shown to benefit physical and mental health, the transferable skills that employers increasingly look for, as well as appreciation of difference and diversity. Yet, various data attest to the shrinking space for arts education, particularly the performing arts, within schools in England, from teacher numbers and hours taught, to exam entries. The exam figures are especially stark: between 2010 and 2020 the number of arts GCSE and A-level entries fell by a third. Added to this trend is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on schooling as well as on so many parts of the creative and cultural industries. With schools focused on ‘catch up’, could the arts be further marginalised, and at a time when young people may have greater need for the studied reflection and expression that arts subjects facilitate? We wanted to take a look at the longer-term trends and ask: what developments have done most to erode engagement in the arts in school and what impact can we expect the Covid disruptions to have? Can advocacy of arts education reverse the current direction of travel? And what can we learn from schools that are already countering the wider trends?

Please join us to put your comments and questions to our experts.

This is a virtual event that you can access online via Slido. The recording will be made available on the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) website following the event.

Speakers include:

• Ed Dorrell, Director, Public First
• Emily Gopaul, art education consultant and the author of Teaching Primary Art & Design
• Isobel Traunter, PhD scholar, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy (0-11 years) IOE
• Andria Zafirakou, 2018 Global Teacher Prize Winner and Arts and Textiles teacher at Alperton Community School, London

Chair: Dominic Wyse, Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education, IOE

Access profile

• This event will take place online via Slido.
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• Questions for our speakers will be taken via the Q&A feature on Slido and on Twitter using the hashtag #IOEDebates.
• A subtitled version of this event will be published on the IOE website following the event.

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