Paul Reeve, CEO of Into Film, a film learning organisation working across all four UK nations and a member of the CLA Advisory Panel, responds to the question: What is Covid-19 teaching us we can do differently in arts and cultural education? 

This month we bring you news that the Welsh Government has extended Creative Learning through the Arts; resources from the EEF and DfE to help education settings; recommendations from the EPI on preventing the disadvantage gap from increasing during and after the Covid-19 pandemic; and the Education select committee Inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 and interviews with the Ofsted Chief Inspector and Minister for Education.

Sally Bacon, Executive Director, Clore Duffield Foundation and founder member of the CLA writes about looking after the corona class of 2020, and why cultural organisations must keep the lights on for learning.

Jacqui O’Hanlon, Director of Education, Royal Shakespeare Company and Chair of the CLA writes about what she thinks the future has in store and how we can respond.

There have been a raft of different support programmes announced specifically for arts and cultural organisations in the past weeks, as well as support individuals working in arts and cultural education can access.

This month we bring you news of how GCSE and A Level grades will be decided this year; the Education Endowment Foundation’s concerns about the impact of school closure on the attainment gap; and advice on how to stay creative and keep your family sane during lockdown – from the world’s best teacher.

On the 25 March the Cultural Learning Alliance gathered a snapshot of how the Covid-19 crisis is affecting cultural education freelancers.

This is a summary of our findings.

We hope you and your families are safe and well as the UK enters at least three weeks of lockdown.

Our social feeds are full of wonderful and creative arts activities that families are doing together at home. Actors are sharing performances online and children are putting up artworks in their windows to cheer up neighbours. 

In the midst of all the uncertainty colleagues have been sharing brilliant free arts resources on many of the networks we are part of and we wanted to signpost to some of these.

Today, Friday 13 March the Drama Theatre and Young People Manifesto has been launched at the National Theatre, London. It calls for every child and young person to have an entitlement to drama and theatre throughout their education.