Is English Baccalaureate Killing Creativity In Our Schools?
The rapid decline of arts subjects and the corresponding growth of the core English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects in schools has continued into 2018. Detailed analysis of Government figures reveals that entries into GCSE arts subjects fell by a further 46,000 last year.
Whilst the creative sector in the UK contributes £91.8 billion per year and employs a staggering 1.96m people, the proportion of students taking arts subjects has fallen to lowest level in decade. So why are the creative subjects being squeezed out and how should creative organisations and programmes respond?
Mytime Active’s creative music programme ‘ArtsTrain’ worked in partnership with Creative & Cultural Skills and The Churchill Theatre’s Creative Learning team to host Bromley’s first ‘Creative Industries Event’.
The event opened our student’s eyes and minds to the opportunities within the creative sector and the various pathways into different roles.
(Head of Performing Arts)
The event engaged young people aged 15-18 and provided a space where young creatives can meet arts industry insiders and hear talks from inspirational people from within the creative sector. The event provide a series of workshops and talks to give the young people a broader sense of the size, scale and diversity of the creative sector.
Creative & Cultural Skills were delighted to have been part of this event bringing industry, young people and training providers together. The event helped to remove barriers to entry and to give a little more clarity around the roles available. It offered young people great opportunities to do some practical hands on work and see which skills they might like to develop and provided them with a basis on which to realise their ambitions.
(Creative & Cultural Skills)
This was the first event we have hosted working with both schools and the creative sector to inspire students to exlplore creative subject choices. We hope to repeat this event in the near future, so if your organisation has delivered similar events in the past drop us a comment to share some ideas.
