The value of an arts education

With another year of public exams behind us, the education sector continues to navigate its way through the government’s significant programme of reform at GCSE and A-level. These changes are aimed at raising standards, a mission that few would argue with; and in pursuit of this laudable goal, the independent school heads I’ve spoken with are broadly unopposed to the considerable amount of time that we have all devoted in recent years to implementing and adjusting to these reforms successfully.

However, heads are all grappling with the same challenge: how do we structure and focus our curriculums to provide the necessary time to deliver the new syllabi without compromising the important place that creative arts have in our schools, as well as other important aspects of our co-curricular programmes which contribute to the whole education of a young person?

There is a risk that the creative arts subjects get squeezed as curriculum time and funding is diverted to support the subjects the government deems to be more academic. The creative arts are noticeably being held in lesser regard than the core trio of English, maths and the sciences and the other ‘facilitating subjects’ — history, geography and languages — as universities and employers seemingly prioritise strong grades in these areas.

One of the strengths of the British system is a firm belief that schools exist to provide a rounded education, to inspire children to develop skills beyond the classroom and to pursue their passions in life. The creative arts subjects are an essential component of this and it is proven that developing skills in these areas aids both academic performance and emotional wellbeing.

Research has shown that pupils who play musical instruments achieve higher academic grades, but the creative arts are about more than results.