What has the Labour government done for drama education? Zeena Rasheed discusses what intentions the country's new leaders seem to have in the area of arts education.
As a child, the Right Hon. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson MP was an extra in Byker Grove. In November 2022's podcast Political Thinking, she talks passionately about education as transformational. On 14 August 2023 she tweeted: ‘The arts, creativity, drama, music: they must be available to every child, to us all.’ In her March 2022 speech for ASCL (Association for School and College Leaders) she challenged binary dogmatic thinking and said: ‘When take-up of the creative arts has plummeted, we need to ask questions about the balance in the curriculum […] Supporting children to develop the literacy and numeracy skills they need is central to education, and so is supporting them to become ambitious, creative, confident young people who enjoy music, arts, sport and culture.’
We could infer that drama is being supported – but not as boldly as the drama and education community might like. No school must teach drama in KS1–3, and no government collects data on state schools providing KS1–3 drama education taught by specialists in appropriate spaces. The Cultural Learning Alliance (CLA) reports, shockingly, that the fall in entry to arts subjects at GCSE between 2015 and 2023 was 35%.
Six months in, have we seen any progress supporting drama for every child in primary and secondary schools?
Labour's Curriculum Review recently invited country-wide contributions. If Labour were to embrace an opportunity to enable all children to enjoy drama lessons equitably alongside other arts subjects, it would mean upskilling teachers in drama delivery, and ensuring potential new drama teachers access excellent training. Currently without bursaries (maths trainees can access up to £31,000, English £5,000) and facing an arts-free EBacc, drama graduates are thin on the ground The Labour Party's plan for education talks about the curriculum, inequality, teacher training and retention, Ofsted and SEND. All crucial, but no sign of arts or drama as priority areas.
National Drama is supporting a National Plan for Drama, which might be taken up by the Education Department and rolled out nationally, but there are no promises.
Given the fantastic endorsement for the arts in the CLA Report Card, and genuine enthusiasm from Bridget Phillipson and the now-Prime Minister Keir Starmer, we are in a more hopeful position. I would welcome both clarity and urgency in a commitment to drama and the arts, in all Key Stages and all schools.