The Creative Education Coalition responds to the Curriculum and Assessment review final report

"Creative Education fuels the economy - and the nation's cultural life."

Responding to the release of the Curriculum and Assessment review final report on Wednesday 5 November, the Creative Education Coalition said: 

"The Curriculum and Assessment Review has provided a powerful opportunity to assert the vital importance of creative and arts subjects in schools and demand their revaluation within the curriculum.

After decades of gradual erosion of creative subjects and “mickey mouse” rhetoric, it’s an immense relief and moment of celebration to see creative education take such prevalence in the final report.

Perhaps the most powerful proposal in achieving this is the scrapping of the EBacc, finally awarding creative subjects parity with others in the curriculum. The related renaming of this ‘bucket’ within Progress 8 to Academic Breadth is a movement in the right direction – we will continue to champion creative and arts subjects as key indicators of this necessary ‘breadth’. 

These subjects are crucial feeders to creative careers – it is no secret that the creative industries offer huge contributions to the UK economy: in 2023 they were responsible for £124bn in gross value added (GVA).

And yet the recruitment pipeline is diminishing and severely lacking in diversity. The creative industries face one of the largest skills gaps in the economy which the DfE itself has evidenced in the report. The journey to plugging this gap begins at school – without creative and arts subjects, the industry would fail. If students can see that creative careers are viable and worthwhile for everyone, the talent pipeline is sure to fill up once again. 

Creativity is not just a skill to be harnessed for the economy, however; it’s essential for curiosity, expression, wellbeing and connection. A creative education prepares students for life, not just work. These elements are as valuable to the education system as practical skills that will lead to success in the world of employment across a plethora of careers both in the creative industry and outside. 

There are also causes for concern within the review that will mean any efforts to cement the importance of creative and arts education are at risk of failing. Though the shift towards recognising the value of arts is extremely positive, students and teachers need to be assured that they will see benefits from these proposals in practice. 

Present and future students deserve stability and assurances as they move through the education system – we cannot keep changing the instruments through which they access their future. We therefore urge government to enshrine the commitment to a 10- year curriculum review cycle into legislation, to allow changes to come at predictable junctures for teachers and schools to prepare for.  

The continued over-reliance on exam-style assessments are a concern for creative and arts subjects too. The review offered an opportunity to embed truly innovative and inclusive assessment styles that demonstrate genuine engagement and understanding of course material from students – but instead have stuck to learning by rote and memorisation as assessment. This preference for exams lacks inclusivity for diverse learning styles and is sure to drain creativity and love of learning from the classroom from GCSE onwards.  

The cutting of the teacher training bursary for art and design is a decision which will severely hamper the provision of creative arts subjects, the results of which will have a similar effect to historic devaluing of the subjects.  If there are fewer teachers enabled into those specialisms, provision will inevitably worsen. Government needs to urgently rethink how to incentivise teacher training in these areas – otherwise many of the positive changes in the review will be moot."