Education

A performing arts group serving children, adults and people with special educational needs is at risk of closure due to cutbacks by Thurrock Council in Essex.

The council has debts totalling around £1.5bn and has announced plans to withdraw £126,000 in funding for youth work, the BBC reported.

Victoria Jarmyn, CEO and Founder of JTD Arts, said that her group had received funding from the council for 14 years but that she had no promise of further funds from April.

JTD also receives funding from Active Essex, but the uncertainty over continued funding from the council has left her “a bit petrified", she told the BBC.

“These adults have been coming here and they have relied on this service and it has helped them integrate within the community to be able to become a lot stronger within society,” she said.

“To take that away has quite a lot of impact on their life skills.”

The group operates from the Thameside theatre complex in Grays, which is under threat of sale. A 2021 report found that the venue cost £500,000 annually in running costs and that refurbishment would cost £16m.

Councillors are due to discuss the complex’s future next week.

Conservative Council Leader Mark Coxshall denied that the Thameside would be closing.
 

Over 500,000 music performance grades assessed by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) have been completed remotely since the board launched online examinations two and a half years ago.

The online music assessment, which was introduced during the pandemic to meet demand from music learners unable to take traditional face-to-face exams, is assessed entirely digitally via video recordings.

Since its launch, ABRSM examiners have assessed more than 8m minutes of videoed submissions performed on 42 different instruments, with Grade 5 piano being the most popular online exam.

Students from 82 countries have completed this method of music examination.

ABRSM’s Deputy Chief Executive Penny Milsom said while face-to-face exam bookings continue to “build strongly” following the pandemic, appetite for online music assessment remains.

“It is fantastic that teachers and learners are taking advantage of the choice now available between digital and face-to-face, and practical and performance grades,” she said.

“Many candidates benefit from recording their exam in familiar surroundings. We also know that these exams work well for adult learners who are either returning to exams or learning for the first time.”

Plans to cut an arts programme and qualification that supports mental wellbeing have been criticised by a concerned parent.

Brighton and Hove City Council hopes to save £48,000 by scrapping the Arts Award scheme in its 2023/24 budget.

But mother Atlanta Cook has challenged the decision, arguing that the impact of lockdown on teenagers makes the programme more needed than ever.

If the council follows through with the cuts, her own daughter will be directly impacted.

Cook said: “We tried to get my daughter into college but haven’t been able to get her to go in. 

“The creative arts are the number one stream where they would get an education. This is it. There is nothing else.”

Cook added that lockdown had been particularly detrimental for teenagers who “had their 15th and 16th birthdays during this nightmare". 

The Arts Award programme can be studied at home and is accessed through the council's wellbeing services.

“It’s the only thing I’ve found in the last two years of trying to get my daughter into college," said Cook.

The Margate School has announced it is at risk of closure due to a funding shortfall of £150,000. 

The independent postgraduate school of arts, established in 2018, is facing a financial dead-end after several failed attempts to secure funding. 

The set-up of the school and its technical facilities was funded by the Coastal Community Fund, which also financed the support of students, studio holders and the community for a period of two years.

The non-profit school was intended to subsequently generate 50% of its budget independently and secure the other 50% through public funding.

But the lack of anticipated public funding, coupled with the impact of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis on the school’s independent income, has resulted in an existential threat.  

The school’s Founder and Director, Uwe Derkson, said it operates on “an extremely lean budget,” funnelling any profits into community investment.

The Margate School is the only higher education provider on the Isle of Thanet. Its current community consists of nine members of staff, 25 students, 17 tutors, 12 fellows and 42 studio holders, as well as a team of volunteers. 

To ensure its survival, the school needs to raise £150,000 which it is seeking to do via a crowdfunding campaign. 

If successful, it will aim to triple the size of its community in the next 10 years by creating additional courses and increasing student numbers, Derksen said. He also pledged that the school would increase its share of independent income and decrease its reliance on public funding.

“The Margate School is a brilliant local creative space that holds a variety of events and caters to a diverse section of society. The sense of community loss is devastating,” said Thanet District Council councillor Rob Yates. 

The school attracts over 16,000 visitors to the area annually, thanks to its programme of exhibitions, talks and events.