This month we bring you news of the removal of ITT bursaries for arts subjects; Centre for Cultural Value’s conference; Place2Be’s wellbeing CPD; Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund; more evidence on the value of studying music; key findings on remote CPD and learning from the Education Endowment Foundation; emergency funding from the Culture Recovery Fund and the Clore Duffield Foundation; and Creative Generation Young & Emerging Leaders Forum.

Department for Education figures published in September 2020 show that in the last two years the number of arts teachers fell by -4%, and the number of hours the arts were taught fell by -3%. The number of children in England’s secondary schools went up by +5% over the same period.

The CLA is looking to appoint a freelancer to provide admin support to the two Co-Directors.

This month we bring you news of two new reports on the attainment gap; £1 billion of catch-up support from the DfE; free internet and mobile data for pupils experiencing disadvantage; a report on class and jobs in the creative industries; £1.57 billion of support for the cultural sector; the launch of Covid-secure guidance for learning teams in cultural organisations; updated guidance from DCMS on Arts Sector Reopening and the #HereForCulture campaign from DCMS.

On 28 August the Department for Education updated its Guidance for full opening: schools. It includes guidance on how schools are expected to operate, including how to deliver arts lessons, the expectations around curriculum, and how assessment, accountability and inspection will work this autumn term.

2020 is an extraordinary year; the exam series was cancelled in March and a U-turn on how grades have been awarded took place four days after A Level grades were announced, and three days before GCSE grades were announced. However, the data from 2020 still enables us to monitor results in terms of arts entries.

-37% decline in arts GCSE entries 2010 to 2020
+1% increase in arts GCSE entries 2019 to 2020, +3.1% increase in GCSE Cohort number
-30% decline in arts A Level entries 2010 to 2020, -2% decline 2019-2020

As part of our series of blogs this summer on the pressing questions facing arts education, CLA Advisory Panel member Greg Klerkx, co-founder of arts company Nimble Fish writes about the arts and wellbeing.

As part of our series of blogs this summer about the pressing questions facing the arts education sector Basheba ‘Bashiie’ Baptiste (writer and producer), Belmiro Matos da Costa (activist and organiser) and Christy Ku (poet and performer), part of Sour Lemon’s creative  leadership programme, write about their experiences of facilitating roundtables for leaders in the UK creative and cultural sector.

A large amount of guidance on reopening educational settings in England has been provided by the government over the past months. The Department for Education has been releasing information to schools, often with little notice, throughout the pandemic which has been criticised by school leaders.

On Sunday 5 July an emergency financial package for the arts and culture of £1.57 billion was announced by the Treasury. Government announced that this was the single largest, one-off investment that has ever been made into culture in the UK.