The Cultural Learning Alliance is a collective voice working to ensure that all children and young people have meaningful access to culture
“Working class” kids have been stripped of the traditional places where they once developed cultural capital: the youth club, town hall, local library, or children’s centre. In the
Dr Lee Elliot Major Chief Executive, Sutton Trust
US, the richest families now spend seven times more on out of school enrichment than the poorest families, a much bigger gap than 40 years ago. All the data points to a similar gap in the UK. Given this, the role of schools as places of cultural and social as well as academic learning has become even more critical.
On 10 April Nick Gibb, Minster of State for School Standards, announced that there is now funding to the tune of £496 million for arts in schools. The Department for Education (DfE) news story stated:
‘Music, art and design, drama and dance are included in the national curriculum and compulsory in all maintained schools from the age of 5 to 14. The additional £96m takes the total level of support for music and arts programmes to £496 million since 2016.’
Given all this you would be forgiven for thinking the crisis in the arts in schools than much has been written on recently (see BBC, Daily Mail, Economist, Evening Standard and Guardian articles) has been averted. This is not the case.
Growing up North, a new report from the Children’s Commissioner published on 26 March, looks at the experiences of children in the North of England. It calls for the poorest children to be put at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse plans, with a similar focus on children’s outcomes that is given to economic regeneration.
We are pleased this month to have published the second in our series of CLA Briefing Papers: Employability and Enterprise, in partnership with the Edge Foundation. We have also published two Key Research Findings posters.