Another bumper month for Arts education news, which is starting to become the norm this year! Coverage of the other big news this month – the publication of the interim report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review – is presented an in-depth article in our Latest Thinking section. We’ll report on any relevant government announcements in the March Spring Statement (ahead of the Spending Review in June) in next month’s newsletter.
In education news we cover the important announcement of the creation of a National Centre for Arts and Music Education; an NFER report on challenges in teacher recruitment; new research on the link between enrichment and attendance; the launch of an inquiry into a ‘love of learning’ by the Education All Party Parliamentary Group; the new ‘Child of the North’ report; news about music learning hub hotspots for the North of England; evidence that VAT on independent schools is not driving their pupils into the state sector; government scrutiny of smartphone bans in schools; and news in brief, including that the number of NEETs has hit an 11-year high.
In cultural sector news we cover the important announcement from Arts Council England that it is delaying its next funding round for a further year and that it will no longer be the fundholder for Music Hubs from 2026.
A NATIONAL CENTRE FOR ARTS AND MUSIC EDUCATION
Big news on the same day that the Curriculum and Assessment Review interim report was published (18 March): the DfE announced a new package to support young people to access high-quality Arts education and enrichment activities as well as AI and tech opportunities. Plans announced include:
- The appointment of a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education to support the delivery of high-quality Arts education through a new online training offer for teachers, promoting opportunities for children and young people to pursue their artistic and creative interests in school – including through the government’s network of Music Hubs – and boost partnerships between schools and cultural providers.
- support for schools to offer pupils high-quality creative and other extra-curricular activities, a new Enrichment Framework will be developed in collaboration with a panel of experts. The Framework is expected to cover a wide range of activities which could be anything from sport to gardening, board games to school bands, or debating to volunteering.
- A new Digital, AI and Technology Task and Finish Group made up of sector and digital experts will also be established. The group will advise the government on what changes can be made to improve the AI and digital skills talent pipeline, prepare children and young people for the jobs of the future, and drive better teaching and learning through the use of AI and Technology. The group will report to the Education Secretary before the end of the academic year.
In response to the news, Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy said: “We want every child and young person to have equal opportunities to access a high-quality arts and music education, to ensure creativity can be explored by all and not just the privileged few. The government’s new National Centre for Arts and Music Education will ensure more children and young people’s untapped potential can be unleashed, improving the pipeline of talent for our world class creative industries.”
Darren Henley CBE, CEO of Arts Council England, said that this “bold innovation” would be “levelling the playing field for all young people whatever their background. Subjects like art and design, dance, drama and music are central to every child’s education. They come with the added bonus of equipping young people for life by boosting their creativity, their confidence and their social skills.” You can see some of the media responses to the Review’s interim report here (an op-ed focused on the arts and creativity) and here (a general education op-ed) – the latter making the point that the real hard work lies ahead.
Enrichment Framework
A range of activities including school bands have been mentioned in reference to the Enrichment Framework, so the Arts are included.
As we say in our article on the Curriculum and Assessment Review in Latest Thinking, CLA has always been cautious about attempts to only value Expressive Arts subjects in terms of “enrichment” beyond the curriculum/classroom while Expressive Arts subjects are not firmly anchored within the mainframe of the curriculum and accountability structures in schools. However, the creation of the Centre for Arts and Music Education and the findings of the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s interim report do now suggest a shift in the valuing of the Expressive Arts curriculum area. Whilst we know that extra-curricular work and activities beyond the classroom are extremely valuable for Arts delivery – and can support attainment and achievement – they should only ever be seen as additional: it is important that extra-curricular Arts provision is not seen as a substitute for curriculum Arts delivery but is available for young people to extend their Arts engagement to a deeper level.
Let’s all watch this space on this! The Enrichment Framework will be “developed in collaboration with a panel of experts” so it will be important to see the composition of that panel in terms of sector representation. And meanwhile you can see a news item elsewhere in this newsletter about a new report from the Centre for Young Lives on the connection between enrichment and school attendance.
National Centre for Arts and Music Education
The Centre, set for 2026, is just top level at present – there is no detail yet – but seems to have a three-fold mission:
- promoting Arts education – signalling the importance of Arts subjects and opportunities for children to participate in Arts learning
- developing Arts teaching through new online CPD for primary and secondary teachers through existing cultural provider offers
- supporting partnerships between Arts organisations and schools – DfE want to further enhance support for local and national partnerships with schools and Arts organisations.
The Centre will also play a key role with Music Hubs. Arts Council England will remain the fundholder for the Music Hub programme until August 2026 but from September 2026 it is DfE’s intention that one of the responsibilities of the new National Centre will be to lead the Hubs programme.
The DfE intends to appoint the management of the National Centre through an open, competitive procurement process. The news seems to be signalling a very firm commitment from government to support Arts subjects, learning and experiences, and to signpost opportunities. And it acknowledges the critical role of the Arts teaching workforce through its focus on CPD.
Some of the brokerage ambition (“supporting partnerships between arts organisations and schools”) seems almost ‘Bridge-like’ in intention, although it here extends to a national ambition and the Bridges each had a regional focus. Arts Council funding for ten Bridge organisations – which from 2012 brokered relationships between schools and cultural organisations in England – came to an end in 2023. It is really positive to see recognition of the need for effective brokerage.
We are all, of course, particularly intrigued by the announcement of the creation of a National Centre. We just have one note at this stage: does the National Centre really need the word music in the title? The separation of the two words is a hangover from Conservative government days when Michael Gove and Ed Vaizey declared music to be “the greatest of art forms” in their foreword to The Importance of Music: A National Plan for Music Education in 2016 (prefaced by quotes by Aristotle and Plato) and it is seen by many non-music colleagues in the sector as artificial and possibly divisive to separate music from art and design, dance, drama and other art forms.
CLA’s view is that the sector now needs to come together around this new ambition and support the DfE as it works to develop its plans for the Centre – which will succeed if it is a collective endeavour built on foundation stones of ambition, leadership, equity, experience and expertise – on behalf of all children and young people.
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND EXTENDS NATIONAL PORTFOLIO FUNDING ROUND BY A YEAR
In a news item on their website, Arts Council England (ACE) announced on 19 March that its National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding round would be extended for a year. “This Wednesday (19th March), our National Council met to discuss the timeline for the next National Portfolio Investment Programme. In the light of recent external developments, we are making changes to our plans. We are stopping the launch of our next Investment Process in April, and instead are recommending to government that our current National Portfolio extends to 31 March 2028.”
ACE goes on the explain the decision: “In December we announced that we would launch the next National Portfolio Investment Programme in April 2025. We said at the time that we’d keep this timeline under review, and since sharing it, our external context has changed.” They went on to highlight three reasons for the abrupt change:
- the scope of the government’s imminent spending review having become clearer – every budget line across all departments will be reviewed from scratch, including the money ACE receives – so ACE is saying that the government won’t be able to confirm its funding until after the spending review is concluded in June
- the government’s independent review of the Arts Council led by Baroness Hodge is underway, and due to report to the government in the autumn, with publication due in 2026
- the government has published a devolution White Paper in which it outlines its proposed devolution framework. This is likely to have a significant impact on local government structures, and how ACE works with them.
In light of these three things, ACE’s National Council decided the most appropriate course of action was to recommend to government that it extend the 2023-2027 National Portfolio through to 31 March 2028.
This was significant news for the publicly-funded Arts sector – and probably came as a relief for many NPOs, all actively working hard to prepare for a new NPO Investment Programme round next month which now won’t happen. The decision does reflect the precarity around public funding for Arts organisations right now within a challenging fiscal context.
According to ACE news when the current funding round was first announced for 2023, 79% of NPOs have learning programmes – and these programmes provide serve a vital role in the ecology of the Arts education sector.
In our last newsletter we said that we would love to know about the impact of NPO learning programmes on children and young people in the period 2023-2025; that we are concerned that no educator was appointed to the ACE Review expert panel; and that schools were not mentioned in the terms of reference for the ACE Review. These were concerning omissions.
In light of the announcement that ACE will no longer be the Music Hubs purse-holder from September 2026 we look forward to understanding more about ACE’s role in the cultural education space and their role in supporting schools to embed high-quality Arts provision. Artsmark and Arts Award are important. Much will depend now on which entity – or coalition of organisations – is appointed to run the National Centre. We look forward to understanding more about this as the DfE develops its thinking through structured engagement and consultation.
We look forward to submitting evidence to the Arts Council Review by the closing date of 24 April 2025 and will share more on this soon.
NFER REPORT ON THE CHALLENGE OF TEACHER RECRUITMENT
A new report has highlighted the challenge which the government faces in reaching its target to recruit 6,500 new teachers.
Analysis by the National Foundation of Educational Research (NFER) says unfilled vacancies are at a record high and recruitment into teacher training remains “persistently low.” All but five secondary subjects missed this year’s recruitment targets for new trainee teachers, which are set by the Department for Education (DfE). The headline paragraph for the report states that “England’s school system faces a substantial and growing challenge of ensuring there are sufficient numbers of teachers employed in schools. The nature of the teacher supply challenge is multi-faceted: the challenges vary between different phases and subjects, areas of the country and types of schools.”
The report says more funding will be needed from this summer’s spending review, which decides how much will be allocated to different government departments over the next few years, if the target is going to be met.
For primary schools, the number of teacher trainees has fallen from 94% of the government’s target last year, to 88% this year, according to DfE figures. And in secondary schools, though the number of teachers has grown by 3% since 2015, pupil numbers have grown by 15% in the same time period – meaning the number of students in class sizes above 30 has increased. The NFER’s school workforce lead, Jack Worth, says more students are now being taught by unqualified or non-specialist teachers, with the impact felt more acutely by students living in disadvantaged areas.
In response, the government said “work has already begun” to reach its target, including investing £233m next year to encourage more trainee teachers into shortage subjects. In particular the funding is to “to encourage more talented people into the classroom to teach subjects including maths, physics, chemistry and computing”. On top of last year’s 5.5% pay award, they said schools were also being encouraged to allow staff to work more flexibly to ease teachers’ workloads and improve wellbeing”.
This is a significant issue for Arts subjects. CLA charts Expressive Arts teaching workforce issues in its annual Report Card, the next edition of which is due out on 2 April (although we cannot always find any data for Dance teaching). Last year’s edition reported that there were 14% fewer Arts teachers than in 2010 and that teacher recruitment in music had fallen by 56% between 2010/11 and 2022/2023. In our Blueprint for an Arts-rich education we call for an entitlement to teacher training and teacher development opportunities for Expressive Arts subjects. Watch this space for the latest Arts teacher recruitment data.
NEW RESEARCH SHOWS LINKS BETWEEN ENRICHMENT AND ATTENDANCE
New research on enrichment and school attendance has been published by the Centre for Young Lives in its latest report: ‘Beyond the classroom: the role of enrichment in tackling the school absence crisis’.
The research reveals a positive correlation between participation in enrichment activities and increased school attendance. The study, conducted by the Centre for Young Lives, Leeds Beckett University, and YMCA George Williams College (the latter sadly now set for closure) examined the role of sports, Arts clubs, volunteering, social action, and other out-of-classroom experiences in tackling the ongoing school absence crisis.
The report provides examples of how enrichment can reach some of the most marginalised children with poor school attendance, some of whom are less likely to respond to other methods of engagement. While the evidence-base on links between education and enrichment needs further investment, the report’s case studies show the correlations between enrichment and attendance, with children and young people with higher attendance telling our researchers they are more likely to be attending school because of enrichment activities.
The research was commissioned by the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the NCS (National Citizenship Service) Trust and highlights the potential of enrichment activities to boost student engagement and improve attendance. It was conducted in response to the growing concern about school absenteeism, which has risen dramatically in recent years. In November the government announced that it was shutting down the NCS Trust (a David Cameron initiative).
Over the last decade, there has been a decline in young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in school, and children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds have been particularly adversely affected. At the same time, the pandemic has contributed to a crisis in school attendance with up to 300,000 children and young people missing from education entirely in England, a 40% increase from 2017.
The report suggests the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport could work in partnership to explore for example the following ideas:
- Introduce an enrichment guarantee (a minimum of at least 80 hours across the academic year) to enable equity of access to high quality provision for all young people.
- Introduce an enrichment premium to create a long-term funding stream for enrichment.
- Extending enrichment partnership pilots – which are already having a demonstrable impact on attendance in some schools – to additional schools with high rates of absence. The evaluation of these pilots should also look specifically at attendance.
- Develop a framework for enrichment provision to provide schools and colleges with standardised benchmarks of best practice on enrichment and personal development provision.
See our section on the government announcement of an Enrichment Framework at the top of this newsletter to see our thoughts on enrichment and how there is always a potential risk with this work that two things can happen: a) the Arts get left out and sports and non-Arts volunteering dominate; or b) Arts can be developed for enrichment but not sufficiently within the curriculum. CLA would always want the Arts to be firmly embedded as an enrichment strand, but this should always be seen as additional to – not instead of – essential Arts curriculum delivery.
ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP TO EXPLORE LOVE OF LEARNING
This enquiry and call for evidence from the Education All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) will focus on what is happening to a “love of learning” from KS1 through to Post 16 FE, and addressing the numerous factors which are in play.
The introduction to this piece of work states: “In recent years, the number of children being home schooled has surged to over 100,000 children, while at the same time, a crisis of attendance has gripped schools across the country. One increasing reason for this is the wellbeing of pupils, as parents report mental health issues as one of the primary reasons for keeping their children out of a school environment. For many children, school seems to no longer be a place of learning, but one of anxiety, with intense social and attainment pressure undermining their desire to learn. Indeed, anxiety is the most common reason given by parents for removing their children from school.”
The APPG sees class sizes, standardised lessons, “teaching to the test”, and the burden of assessment as being factors in an erosion of pupil enjoyment of learning, asking, “Does this decline speak to certain structural issues in the educational system that must be reformed? Does this point to wider societal issues around youth mental health that schools must adapt to? Is the load on teachers undermining their capacity to teach and foster a love for learning?”
The Inquiry is seeking written evidence in response to the following questions:
- Is there a current decline in the love of learning amongst students and teachers?
- What are the key factors involved in this decline, and are they more structural or societal?
- How can schools adapt to a changing society to serve as a better learning environment?
- How can we take pressure off teachers to facilitate better class time, and what are the opinions of teachers on this point? If so how?
- How can technology be harnessed to support richer and more engaging educational experiences?
To help the APPG create a practical set of approaches and recommendations they are asking:
a. What examples are there of schools doing particularly well in fostering a good learning environment for students and teachers?
b. What examples are there of schools dealing with youth mental health in a particularly cogent way?
The deadline for submissions is 22 April 2025.
CLA is pleased to see this focus on a “love of learning”. This is a term referenced in the interim report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review which states that “The national curriculum should empower teachers to foster a love of learning.” However, school attendance issues highlighted by the APPG and within the Centre for Young Lives report (see news item above) point to current problems in relation to pupil happiness and wellbeing and the APPG is right to want to explore this at time when fundamental aspects of our schooling system are under review.
CLA’s emerging Capabilities Framework (see our 2025 Report Card) identifies wellbeing as a key capability which is developed through studying Arts subjects, embracing (in summary) flourishing, resilience, and pleasure – and all of these play a role in developing a love of learning. We look forward to responding to the enquiry and call for evidence and hope they will hear from many colleagues in the Arts and cultural learning sector.
NEW ‘CHILD OF THE NORTH’ REPORT – THE VITAL ROLE OF THE ARTS
This new report from The Child of the North and The Centre For Young Lives covers an evidence-based approach to the impact and highlights the importance of the Arts and creativity for young people.
The introduction from Baroness Anne Longfield CBE (former Children’s Commissioner) and Dr Camilla Kingdon states that “Creativity and the expressive arts should be part and parcel of every child’s education from primary school, and teachers need to be supported to deliver singing, music, painting, drawing, acting, and playful activities. We need to move away from the view that creative learning is a bonus. It should be a requisite of a good education. Embedding teaching for creativity into the curriculum would have a transformative impact. At a time when some children feel disengaged from what they are taught, we should be looking at arts-based approaches to the teaching of subjects like history or science.”
This report proposes introducing an Arts premium fund to develop the existing primary school workforce and train the next generation of teachers. This new direction should be happening not only in primary and secondary schools, but in the proposed new nurseries attached to existing schools.
The report also calls on the Government to provide targeted “cultural activities funding” through establishing a dedicated Cultural Enrichment Fund to support children outside the normal school day, and to develop partnerships with local cultural institutions, enabling schools to host artist-led workshops, theatre productions, or music classes.
The report presents evidence showing that cultural institutions can provide fantastic opportunities to enrich children’s educational experiences, “rocket-boosting creativity”, and nurturing critical thinking skills. It recommends that Arts, heritage, and cultural programmes should be embedded in our schools and suggests that the development of educational partnerships with cultural institutions can engage those children who may not always find it easy to benefit from more traditional learning approaches.
The case is made for opening up and using cultural assets for the benefit of all children, including as part of a more inclusive education system: “The education system has often not nourished or prioritised childhood creativity beyond the early years. Education should not be about choosing between knowledge and creativity. Let’s encourage our children and young people to use their imaginations to create, imagine, experiment, and act so our economy can grow, and our society prosper.”
CLA would obviously advocate for all of the above and is pleased to see this high-level endorsement of our ambitions and the adoption of the term ‘Expressive Arts’ in Baroness Longfield’s introduction to the report. To see how the education system needs to change, and how the education system has disadvantaged Expressive Arts subjects in recent years, see our Blueprint for an Arts-rich education and the latest edition of our Report Card.
MUSIC LEARNING HUB HOTSPOTS PLANNED FOR THE NORTH
The Glasshouse in Gateshead (formerly The Sage) is seeking to raise £20m to invest in a new Academy to develop the next generation of musicians. The Glasshouse Academy will open four “music learning hot spots” in Middlesbrough, Carlisle, Sunderland and Kendal over the next two years, each of which will support young musicians throughout their education and help them build a career in music.
The Glasshouse said the scheme had been designed to ensure young musicians could take their next step in developing their talent, whether that be picking up an instrument for the first time or pursuing a career. Glasshouse CEO Abigail Pogson said the centre had worked for the last 20 years to be a place people of all ages could make and experience music, stating that the Glasshouse Academy will build on this foundation by opening up more opportunities for young people and “ensuring the North East remains a thriving centre for music learning and professional development.”
As well as creating the four learning hot spots, The Glasshouse intends to double the number of places available to young people wishing to learn music and expand its financial support to help people buy instruments. It will start a series of summer schools for young people and establish an inclusive youth orchestra for both disabled and non-disabled musicians. The centre’s Make Music Young People’s programme is currently open for applications through April.
CLA’s upcoming 2025 Report Card will highlight that access to Arts subjects is a particular issue within specific regions of the UK, including the North East, so if funding can be raised, the Glasshouse Academy would target this.
VAT AND THE INDEPENDENT SECTOR – NO SIGN OF EXODUS TO STATE SECTOR
The Guardian has reported on a survey by the Press Association demonstrating that the predicted exodus of independent school pupils to the state sector has not happened. Researchers looked at school choices data and refuted that adding VAT to private school fees would set off a wave of parents moving children to the state sector, stating that these claims had been “proved wrong at their first key test” according to figures from councils in England.
London Councils, which represents the capital’s 33 local authorities, said there had been “no obvious impact” from the addition of VAT on private school fees. Surrey, which has large numbers of children in private education, recorded a dip in the proportion of families getting their first pick of schools for September but had “not seen a significant rise in the number of applications for a year 7 state school place for children currently in the independent sector compared to last year.”
This is an early first assessment and the article also states that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has forecast that adding VAT “would lead to a 3-7% reduction in private school attendance” in the medium to long term.
CLA’s annual Report Card draws attention to the differences in Arts access – in school and out of school – between young people from wealthier backgrounds compared to their peers from lower-income backgrounds. Research highlighted in our 2024 Report Card revealed that independent schools often have much better Arts facilities and staffing than their peers in the state sector; this allows independent schools to offer specialist provision such as photography, sculpture and digital media. The CVs of Arts teachers in independent schools also show strong industry backgrounds and networks that can be used to support pupils from these schools into professions in the Arts. Look out for our new ‘Arts entitlement gap’ and ‘Arts enrichment gap’ data in our 2025 Report Card in April.
GOVERNMENT TO LOOK AGAIN AT SMARTPHONES IN SCHOOLS
Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, is to begin in-depth scrutiny of smartphone bans in schools in England as pressure grows from MPs to act on the effect of social media on teenagers. DfE is to start monitoring a group of schools to understand the effectiveness of the guidance and will also, for the first time, do an in-depth analysis of the national behaviour survey in schools to look at the most successful ways of policing the bans, and the challenges schools are facing.
The existing guidance states that “all schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the school day – not only during lessons but break and lunchtimes as well”, but does not say how schools should enforce the bans. The Education Secretary is understood to have become frustrated that there is no monitoring of whether the guidance is being followed or proving useful to schools. There are no plans for the government to legislate to ban phones in schools, which ministers believe is fraught with problems.
The monitoring will look at how well schools are following policies, how many schools have bans in place, how schools implement bans, such as keeping phones in lockers or bags, and what impact it is having on behaviour. Specific further questions on smartphones will be added to future national behaviour surveys
According to an Ipsos poll in September 2024, almost half the UK public believe there should be a total ban on smartphones in schools. A majority of parents said their child’s school did not currently have a full ban in place. However a recent Senned inquiry in Wales ruled to move that smartphones would not be banned outright in Welsh schools.
CULTURAL FIGURES CAMPAIGN FOR ARTS IN SCHOOLS
An article published in advance of the publication of the interim report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review quoted a number of cultural figures expressing their thoughts about the EBacc, diversity in the cultural sector, decline in uptake of the Arts at GCSE and A level and the impact of AI. This is just an example of one of the ways that many figures and organisations in the Arts sector tried to get ahead of the publication of the interim report by publicly stressing the value of Arts subjects.
Lee Hall, writer of Billy Elliot and an ambassador for Arts and Minds, the National Education Union’s campaign for all children to have the right to study creative subjects and full restoration of Arts funding in schools was one of the figures quoted in the article, as was the artist Bob and Roberta Smith (real name Patrick Brill), who runs workshops for children interested in studying at London Metropolitan University.
Another Arts and Minds ambassador, the actor Jamie Kenna, said it was much harder now for children from a working-class background like him to study and work in the creative Arts: “The arts should be accessible to every child. The opportunity to follow your passions and dreams should not be determined by your wealth and status.” Arlene Phillips, a choreographer whose career took off after her local council awarded her a grant to study at a dance school in Manchester, said: “The arts feed the soul and the realisation that your life can be in the arts is the biggest gift for young people that desire it. To give everyone that chance through their school life will be life-changing for so many.”
The Independent Society of Musicians also sent an open letter to the Times, signed by many public figures, calling for the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review to signal “clear and imminent action” on reforming the EBacc.
CLA reported on the launch of the Arts and Minds campaign last month and hopes that the individuals quoted above will have been reassured by the publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s interim report which we cover in detail in the Latest Thinking of this newsletter. The interim report made clear that the Arts education sector’s responses to its call for evidence in November had been heard and we feel that the report did suggest a potential change in the weather for the Arts in the curriculum from 2026.
More and more campaigns and organisations are using CLA’s Report Card data to inform their work, from the Arts and Minds campaign, to Ed Sheeran’s new music foundation. CLA’s evidenced-based approach enables us to keep the sector informed with vital data about Arts education take-up and the factors influencing this. We look forward to seeing the sector using our important new data – on how there are social determinants in whether or not a child will study Arts subjects – in our 2025 Report Card from April.
IN BRIEF
Number of young people qualifying as NEET hits 11-year high
Latest ONS figures reveal that in the 16-24 age bracket, nearly 1 in 7 (987,000 young people) are now classed as NEET (Not in education, employments or training). More young men are more likely to be classed as NEET than young women (14.4% compared to 12.4%).
Arts sector’s use of unpaid interns may be illegal
A Guardian article in February explored the use of unpaid interns across the Arts sector and whether the use of such unpaid roles is working against developing greater Arts workforce diversity.
‘Leaders for Impact’ open for applications from school leaders
This Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO) programme is for headteachers and senior school leaders in a position to influence whole-school approaches to creative and cultural learning. They are currently seeking 20 committed and experienced professionals to join the 2025/26 cohort. The deadline for applications is 12 May 2025. You can apply here.
Inclusion in Practice: call for examples of inclusion
Inclusion in Practice is an initiative which runs alongside the work of the Expert Advisory Group for Inclusion, an independent advisory group providing expert advice to government on how to improve mainstream education for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The work is supported by CST, Ambition Institute and a range of leaders across the education system. They are inviting teachers, school leaders, and those involved in delivering education to contribute their experiences and insights through their open submission process. These will help them to develop “actionable insights to support schools across the country”. You can submit your examples here.
CLA Webinar: Launch of RAPS Report – Webinar Recording available to view online
The RAPS report was launched at the Cultural Learning Alliance’s first webinar on 25 February 2025. The report is the first of its kind and aims to develop an understanding of the conditions and factors that enable an arts-rich environment in primary schools and to identify the benefits for children of being in arts-rich schools. A full recording of the webinar can be accessed here.
Upcoming CLA Webinar: Launch of CLA Report Card 2025
Join us for the second CLA webinar in our series dedicated to exploring the role of Expressive Arts in schools, on Thursday 3 April 2025 at 7pm BST.
This webinar will mark the launch of the Cultural Learning Alliance’s second annual Report Card, which distils CLA evidence work and reporting into a clear set of five annual indicators, based – as far as possible – on national time series data drawn from government data sets. Book for the webinar via Eventbrite.
CLA’s Report Card 2025 is authored by Baz Ramaiah and will be available online from Wednesday 2 April 2025.
