Curriculum and Assessment Review: An opportunity not to be missed

As we await the publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, government has the chance to do something truly transformational and make good on its promise for every young person to be able to study a creative subject until the age of 16. 

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is one of 50 arts organisations calling on government to make Expressive Arts subjects accessible to all children and young people in England.

Research from the Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) shows an arts entitlement gap with significant disparities between those who get access and those who doesn’t, dependant on where they live and the kind of school they go to.

The UK’s creative industries are one of its greatest assets. But its success is fragile and depends on as many young people as possible having the opportunity to explore their creative potential from an early age. A process that starts in schools.

Call on government

As a collective of 50 organisations and alongside the CLA, we are calling for:

• Reform to accountability measures  

Removal of the EBacc and inclusion of arts/vocations subjects in Progress 8. 

• Mandatory and strengthened arts provision through increased investment

A minimum weekly entitlement delivered within the school day, not optional/extracurricular provision.

• Support for workforce development

Investment in teacher training, development and support to facilitate creative teaching and high-quality arts education.

• Leverage the experience of the UK’s arts sector

Harness existing networks, expertise and programmes to deliver a network of expertise, and existing programmes to deliver a range of arts education provision in partnership with our leading cultural and creative sector. 

Universal and targeted work

The announcement of a new National Centre for Music and Arts Education earlier this year initially buoyed the sector, but concern is growing that its value is limited without mandatory and strengthened arts provision. The Centre will also need to balance delivering a universal entitlement with targeted responses to address inequalities in access to arts education.  

That principle of both universal and targeted work is at the heart of the RSC approach to learning. In addition to courses, activities, workshops and experiences open to all, we work in long term partnership with 16 theatres and 280 primary, secondary and SEND schools across the country as part of our Associate Schools Programme (ASP).

Next year, we will celebrate a 20-year commitment to long-term school partnerships that deliberately target areas where there has been an under-investment in arts, culture, infrastructure and the kinds of opportunities that ensure young people can thrive. 

Communities of practice

The ASP is built around the principle of schools working in local partnerships to develop communities of practice. In addition to teacher professional development, performance festivals and artists in residence, the programme includes talent development and youth leadership pathways for young people.

Our talent development programme Next Generation is in its 8^th year and has given over 500 young people the chance to develop transferable skills in acting, directing or backstage roles. This summer our Next Generation Act company performed Timon of Athens supported by a trainee assistant director, a trainee wardrobe assistant and a trainee costume assistant: all working in their first paid professional roles since graduating from the programme.

All Next Gen members are recruited through the ASP alongside young leaders who want to make positive change in their schools as well as advise the RSC on how to better meet the needs of young people. 

Continues…

RSC’s First Encounters: Twelfth Night – for many schoolchildren it was their first experience of theatre. Photo: Joe Bailey

The ASP is also at the centre of our touring strategy. This autumn, thousands of young people will experience our new 80-minute First Encounters with Shakespeare production of King Lear on its 12-week tour to school halls, local theatres and community venues across the country. For many, it will be their first experience of theatre or of Shakespeare’s plays in performance and for some, it will be a gateway to a new world.

This kind of inter-connected programme was developed from a need for consistent opportunities throughout a child’s education to learn about, make and shape artistic work. In contrast to a one-off experience, its impact is cumulative for child, teacher, school and community. 

Significant impact on learning and confidence

Over the years we’ve trained thousands of teachers to use the sorts of approaches our actors use in rehearsals, with their own students. Desks are pushed to one side and the plays are explored through movement, speaking the words out loud and shared interpretation. It’s embodied, inclusive and works with all learners. 

Its impact is also backed by hard evidence. Our 2024 Time to Act study used a randomised controlled trial in 45 state primary schools with half of the Year 5 classes taught using RSC rehearsal-based methods and half following their usual curriculum. After 20 hours of teaching, both groups were asked to complete the same writing tasks.

The results were striking. Children taught using RSC methods outperformed their peers in 41 of 42 of the measures used to evaluate their writing. They developed richer vocabularies, used more sophisticated sentence structures, sharper comprehension and crucially, displayed greater confidence in using words and language.

The study also found that attitudes to school and learning; oracy, collaboration and communication skills; confidence and the way young people saw themselves as learners, capable of tackling and solving problems, significantly improved. Overall, language development improved by 18.9% between the intervention and control group. 

Pathways into sector remain too invisible

Arts organisations across the UK undertake work that makes a profound difference to young people. A challenge remains in how we create better, more joined up systems of opportunity. Pathways into the sector still remain all too invisible. It will take collaboration between cultural and civic organisations, schools, colleges and businesses to really connect the classroom with employment.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is landing the message that the expressive arts matter because they are about how we become more human; they are about how we learn to make sense of ourselves, each other and the world. And without them, we’re in trouble.

I wonder to what extent that message will be evident in the Curriculum Review and to what extent it will drive the vision for a National Centre.  

First Encounters: King Lear is on tour between 10 September and 12 December.