Cultural capital investments

A new Ofsted inspection framework has been in place since September 2019 and now gives great emphasis to the curriculum. By July 2021, schools need to have (or be on track to provide), a curriculum that is, ‘at least as broad, overall deep and ambitious as the national curriculum’.

Ofsted research revealed (unsurprisingly), that many primary schools have been narrowing their curriculum, to give extra teaching time to nationally tested subjects, often at the expense of the arts. As Drama is not a national curriculum subject, it easily becomes a curriculum casualty.

Ofsted is conducting ‘Deep Dives’ into a few national curriculum subjects during each primary inspection. These inform their judgements about the overall quality of education provided by the school. Drama gets just a few bullet points in the current English national curriculum, so won’t get its own ‘Deep Dive’ but is more likely to be reported on within English now, especially if the school clearly articulates that Drama is an important part of their planned curriculum, for example: