Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to allow pupils who attend schools where is it not viable to offer an A-level in music due to low pupil demand to continue their studies in that subject up to A-level.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes in a high quality education for all pupils. Integral to this is cultural education, which includes drama, dance, music and art. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.
All pupils should have the opportunity to study arts subjects at GCSE and A level if they wish to do so, including music. It is up to individual schools and colleges to decide which Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 courses to offer. They may wish to work together with other schools and colleges to maximise choice.
The Government published the National Plan for Music Education last year. The new plan sets out clear actions to improve music education through to 2030, including providing £79 million of funding per year for the Music Hubs programme, up to and including 2024/25, as well as £25 million of capital funding for music instruments.
The National Plan includes the Model Music Curriculum (MMC), published in March 2021, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974358/Model_Music_Curriculum_Key_Stage_1__2_FINAL.pdf. The MMC provides a blueprint for progression through primary and secondary towards GCSE and other qualifications. The Plan is clear that undertaking formal music qualifications at school, college or elsewhere can be one way to unlock careers in music for young people. Where a pupil wishes to pursue music beyond Key Stage 3, head teachers should have a clear understanding of how their school or college enables the study of music at Key Stage 4 and beyond, including provision of music GCSE, A level and/or technical awards wherever possible.
The Department will also be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. The Plan will focus on how the Government can support participation and progression in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to ensure that all students up to Year 11 participate in art and creative subjects during the school week.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes in a high quality education for all pupils. Integral to this is cultural education, which includes drama, dance, music and art. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.
All pupils should have the opportunity to study arts subjects at GCSE and A level if they wish to do so, including music. It is up to individual schools and colleges to decide which Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 courses to offer. They may wish to work together with other schools and colleges to maximise choice.
The Government published the National Plan for Music Education last year. The new plan sets out clear actions to improve music education through to 2030, including providing £79 million of funding per year for the Music Hubs programme, up to and including 2024/25, as well as £25 million of capital funding for music instruments.
The National Plan includes the Model Music Curriculum (MMC), published in March 2021, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974358/Model_Music_Curriculum_Key_Stage_1__2_FINAL.pdf. The MMC provides a blueprint for progression through primary and secondary towards GCSE and other qualifications. The Plan is clear that undertaking formal music qualifications at school, college or elsewhere can be one way to unlock careers in music for young people. Where a pupil wishes to pursue music beyond Key Stage 3, head teachers should have a clear understanding of how their school or college enables the study of music at Key Stage 4 and beyond, including provision of music GCSE, A level and/or technical awards wherever possible.
The Department will also be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. The Plan will focus on how the Government can support participation and progression in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase the availability of music education for all students up to Year 11.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department believes in a high quality education for all pupils. Integral to this is cultural education, which includes drama, dance, music and art. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.
All pupils should have the opportunity to study arts subjects at GCSE and A level if they wish to do so, including music. It is up to individual schools and colleges to decide which Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 courses to offer. They may wish to work together with other schools and colleges to maximise choice.
The Government published the National Plan for Music Education last year. The new plan sets out clear actions to improve music education through to 2030, including providing £79 million of funding per year for the Music Hubs programme, up to and including 2024/25, as well as £25 million of capital funding for music instruments.
The National Plan includes the Model Music Curriculum (MMC), published in March 2021, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974358/Model_Music_Curriculum_Key_Stage_1__2_FINAL.pdf. The MMC provides a blueprint for progression through primary and secondary towards GCSE and other qualifications. The Plan is clear that undertaking formal music qualifications at school, college or elsewhere can be one way to unlock careers in music for young people. Where a pupil wishes to pursue music beyond Key Stage 3, head teachers should have a clear understanding of how their school or college enables the study of music at Key Stage 4 and beyond, including provision of music GCSE, A level and/or technical awards wherever possible.
The Department will also be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. The Plan will focus on how the Government can support participation and progression in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of (a) performing arts teachers and (b) associated curriculum hours in schools and further and higher education institutions.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information relating to ITT recruitment performance in England is published annually in the ITT census, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census/2022-23. In 2022/23, there were 329 postgraduate trainees who started an ITT course in drama, 301 in music, and 1,405 in physical education. Performance versus target in 2022/23 for drama was 113%, for music was 64%, and for physical education was 143%.
Information on the school workforce in England, including the number of subject teachers in state funded secondary schools, is collected each November as part of the annual school workforce census. Information is published in the ‘school workforce in England’ statistical publication, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. Those who are designated as teachers of dance are included within the total for physical education/sports teachers.
As of November 2021, there were 8,976 teachers of drama, 7,003 teachers of music, and 23,708 teachers of physical education/sport at Key Stages 3, 4, and 5 in state funded secondary schools in England. In a typical week, they taught 85,003 hours of drama, 86,480 hours of music, and 290,033 hours of physical education/sport. Drama, music and physical education/sport teachers designate any teacher timetabled to teach the subject for any period in a typical week in November. These teachers do not necessarily have a specific post-A level qualification. This timetabling does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the Department.
The Department does not hold data on the number of teachers who teach performing arts in further education institutions.
For 2022/23, the Department increased funding for world-leading specialist HE providers by an additional £5 million, from £53 million in 2021/22 to £58 million in 2022/23. This is on top of the increase of £10 million the Department provided in 2021/22. The Department wants to ensure that specialist institutions, many of which specialise in arts provision, receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of rises in the cost of living on the uptake of extracurricular performing arts classes in (a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) further and (d) higher education; and whether she is taking steps to increase engagement in the performing arts in (i) schools and (ii) other educational establishments.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development. The performing arts are a core part of the school curriculum and also supported through extracurricular activities to children and young people.
The Department regularly asks about pupil participation in extracurricular performing arts activities in ‘parent, pupil and learner panel’ surveys. In the most recent published wave in which the questions were asked (the November wave from the 2022/23 academic year), 19% of pupils reported that they had participated in extracurricular performing arts activities in that term. The Department will continue to monitor the uptake of performing arts and other extracurricular activities, and investigate reasons for any significant changes or trends.
An additional £1.6 billion in funding has been made available for 16-19 education between the 2021/22 and 2024/25 academic years. This includes an up-front cash boost which will see the rate of funding per student increase by over 8% in 2022/23.
The Department recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year which have affected university students. In addition to the cost of living measures already announced, the Department discusses cost of living pressures that are affecting students in its regular meetings with stakeholders, including the Office for Students (OfS), Universities UK and other HE representative groups. The Department also consulted with the National Association of Student Money Advisers to understand the ongoing situation in relation to increased requests from students for hardship awards from their universities.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum on cultural education over three years, through its music, arts and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
The Department will be publishing a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. The Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel was announced last year, and other panel members will be announced in due course. The Plan will focus on how the Government can support access and participation in a wide range of arts subjects and activities, particularly for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. It will also further support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative, cultural, and heritage industries.
In addition, the Department wants to ensure that HE specialist providers, many of which specialise in arts provision, receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.
On 8 December 2022, the OfS published the list of successful HE providers who have been identified as world-leading specialists by the Specialist Provider Panel. The current list of world-leading specialist providers includes 13 providers specialising in the arts. This funding will help improve the diversity and quality of creative education provision available to students.
Asked by: Baroness Benjamin (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current status of the Arts Premium funding for secondary schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department believes in a high-quality education for all pupils, and integral to this is cultural education, including teaching music and the wider arts. All state-funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through our music, arts and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
The department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high-quality music education. The National Plan for Music Education was jointly published by the department and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in June 2022, and sets out a vision for music education to 2030, to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally.
The department will also publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with DCMS and Arts Council England. The Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel was announced last year and other panel members will be announced in due course.
The plan will further support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries and will cover a range of wider arts subjects where appropriate, such as drama, dance and the wider performing arts. The department does not intend to produce detailed plans in other arts subjects, or to establish a Hub programme for arts subjects other than music. It is widely recognised that that there is a need for Music Hubs in addressing the unique challenges in supporting young people’s access to and progression in music.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration to the future of the Arts Premium in due course.
The department does not collect information on spending in arts education at independent schools. The department does publish information on entries in arts qualifications at Key Stage 4 by type of school, including in GCSEs. In the 2021/22 academic year, the proportion of Key Stage 4 pupils taking at least one arts qualification in state-funded schools was 52.4%, while the equivalent proportion for independent schools was 42.3%.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase opportunities for (a) exposure to and (b) engagement with the arts in secondary schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government believes in a high quality education for all pupils and cultural education, including the wider arts, music, and creative subjects, is integral to this. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes promoting pupils' cultural development.
The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The Department will publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023 to support arts and heritage, working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support young people who wish to pursue careers in the creative and cultural industries.
The Department will continue to spend around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through music, arts, and heritage programmes.
With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.
With the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education, the Department’s priorities have been to focus on education recovery in the recent Spending Review. The Government remains committed to the ambitions for a Cultural Education Plan and will give consideration for a future arts premium in due course.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) financial support and (b) guidance his Department provides to state schools on the provision and expansion of extra-curricular activities before, during and after school.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department is committed to ensuring young people have access to high-quality extra-curricular opportunities.
This is why we support a range of initiatives to expand access to high quality extra-curricular activities through schools, such as:
To support schools, the Department has produced a new menu of evidence-based approaches which will help schools to make effective decisions about pupil premium and recovery premium spend. This will help schools to balance their funding across high-quality teaching, targeted academic support, and wider strategies, including those focused on extra-curricular activities such as sports, outdoor activities, arts, culture, and trips.
The Department is looking to build on this foundation, going further to improve access to high-quality extra-curricular activities. The Department is exploring whether it can provide further guidance that will be helpful to schools, ensuring they can navigate the resources available to develop their extra-curricular offer and make these activities a success. We are also working with DCMS to help schools ensure their pupils are getting the most out of the National Youth Guarantee, ensuring that children and young people have offers available both inside and outside of school.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to provide more extra-curricular services and activities before and after the school day.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department is committed to ensuring young people have access to high-quality extra-curricular opportunities during the school day as well as before and after.
The Department has introduced a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours (the current average) for all state-funded, mainstream schools. The Department expects all state-funded mainstream schools to work towards meeting this expectation by September 2023 at the latest. The Department wants to bring all schools in line with the current average as a minimum.
In addition, before and after school activities can provide wraparound childcare, which is important for removing barriers for and supporting parents to work. The Department strongly encourages all schools to offer before and after school provision for their pupils. Schools should not refuse a request from parents to provide wraparound childcare without a reasonable justification, such as lack of demand.
The Department supports a range of initiatives to expand access to high-quality extra-curricular activities through schools, such as:
The Department is also working with DCMS to help schools ensure their pupils are getting the most out of the National Youth Guarantee, which expands access to youth provision and was announced as part of the Youth Review.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his latest estimate is of the number of primary schools that have a dedicated teacher for (a) music, (b) arts, (c) drama and (d) PE.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department does not collect primary school curriculum data in the annual school workforce census. The school workforce census collects information on teaching in a sample of secondary schools and this information is published in our national statistics, the latest of which refers to the November 2021 census and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Music, arts, drama, and physical education (PE) are vital aspects of primary school. The department supports this via the curriculum first and foremost, where music, arts, drama, and PE are part of the national curriculum, but we also want pupils to have the opportunity to engage in enrichment and physical activity, including sport. These are important for academic progress, for health and wellbeing, and for increasing life chances and future opportunities.
On 25 June 2022, the government published its refreshed national plan for music education, setting clear expectations for schools and announcing £25 million of new capital funding for musical instruments and equipment and £79 million per year until 2025 for the music hubs programme. The government also announced opportunities for pupils to stay active, continuing the £320 million PE and sport premium, as well as the School Games programme for the 2022/23 academic year. The update to the School Sport and Activity Action Plan will be published shortly and, in 2023, the government will be publishing a cultural education plan.