Henley Review of Cultural Education

Recommendation 1: Broad Cultural Education for all children — There should be a minimum level of Cultural Education that a child should expect to receive during his or her schooling as a whole. For children to leave full-time education without having engaged in the spectrum of Cultural Education outlined below would be a failure of a system which sets out to create young people who are not only academically able, but also have a fully-rounded appreciation of the world around them.

Recommendation 10: Dance and Drama in Schools — Consideration should be given to promoting Dance and Drama to subject areas in their own right, rather than being seen as junior partners to P.E. and English.

Recommendation 11: The Arts Award — Most children and young people should be encouraged to take part in the Arts Award and Junior Arts Award, which should be regarded as a valuable qualification.

Recommendation 12: Artsmark — The scope of the Artsmark Award should be widened to include all areas of cultural education covered by this Review.

Recommendation 13: New guidance from Ofsted — Ofsted should be commissioned to create a guide to working with schools for cultural organisations. This would clearly and unambiguously set out the criteria, which Ofsted uses to judge whether learning is of a high standard. Classroom teachers are currently judged on these criteria and it seems both sensible and desirable for education professionals from the cultural sector to have their work assessed in the same way. The guide would also be of use to Headteachers who are making decisions about what to commission in their own schools.

Recommendation 14: Cultural Education in Ofsted inspections — Ofsted should be encouraged to undertake a review of the standards across all Cultural Education subjects, rather than looking at them in standalone silos. The outcome of this Review would enable a more detailed understanding of the place of Cultural Education in schools in England today. Ofsted should also be encouraged to comment on each individual school's Cultural Education provision as a specific part of their inspections. These comments would focus on the quantity and quality of cultural activities that take place within the school outside of lesson times, as well as within the school curriculum. It would also take note of the partnership links developed by the school with local cultural organisations.

Recommendation 15: Connecting teachers to industry — A new scheme should be developed across the entire cultural sector to allow teachers to remain in touch with relevant professional developments outside of education. This scheme should include a mechanism for the further dissemination of this learning to other teachers in a local area. Teachers should be helped to build links with industry to ensure that their knowledge remains up-to-date. This could be through relationships with a local design company, theatre or higher education institution. Headteachers should consider whether this would be an effective use of Inset Days for teachers of Cultural Education subjects. Teachers themselves should be encouraged to continue with their artistic practice wherever possible. Many are themselves highly talented in their particular field (as artists, designers, writers, poets, actors, musicians, dancers etc.), but this can sometimes be forgotten. There should be a moment in each school year where this is celebrated either through a performance or exhibition.

Recommendation 16: Training Teachers — Greater focus should be placed on demonstrating both to Newly Qualified Teachers and to experienced teachers the benefits and value of Cultural Education to children and young people. Working with the Cultural Education Partnership Group and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education should consider commissioning the creation of a package of resources from which teachers of all levels of experience can draw across each art form. Schools should cluster to share expertise in particular areas to show off best practice to Newly Qualified Teachers and mentoring from more experienced teachers should be made available.

Recommendation 17: New qualifications for cultural practitioners — New qualifications aimed at cultural practitioners who also work in the education field should continue to be developed, as these qualifications professionalise and give greater recognition to this part of the workforce.

Recommendation 18: Protecting Funding for the best professional training — The government should recognise the need for exceptional funding for culturally based conservatoires, which train the artists, actors, dancers and musicians who will create and perform the culture of the future. The funding settlements for these conservatoires should be secured for the long-term.

Recommendation 19: A new National Youth Dance Company — A new permanent national youth dance company should be created and funded under the auspices of the Music and Dance Scheme.

Recommendation 2: Cross-departmental government co-operation — A new cross-Whitehall ministerial group on Cultural Education should be set up, under the chairmanship of the Culture Minister or an Education Minister.

Recommendation 20: Dance and Drama Awards — The government should continue to fund specialist training in Dance and Drama. However, it should ensure that any future arrangement offers a coherent approach to managing and funding support for the identification and training of exceptionally talented performers. This support should be targeted towards those students who would not otherwise be able to afford to undertake the training courses.

Recommendation 21: Downing Street Medals — The government should consider the creation of Downing Street Cultural Education Medals, presented by the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister.

Recommendation 22: National Schools Culture Week — In partnership with commercial sponsors, the government should consider the introduction of a National Schools Culture Week across England.

Recommendation 23: Royal Patronage — Arts Council England should consider requesting Royal Patronage for the Arts Award.

Recommendation 24: Cultural Education Ambassadors — It is vitally important that government maintains a strong relationship with cultural practitioners, so it is suggested that an advisory group of top level practitioners, who are household names and well respected for their particular areas of expertise, be recruited to champion Cultural Education to the public at large.

Recommendation 3: A New National Plan — There is currently no over-arching strategy for the commissioning and delivery of Cultural Education in England. The government should develop a single National Cultural Education Plan. This document should set out its ambitions for children and young people in this area, while ensuring the development of a framework that enables these ambitions to be delivered.

Recommendation 4: Arms-length Bodies working together as a partnership — Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the British Film Institute, the Big Lottery Fund and English Heritage should work together to ensure that their individual strategies/plans in the area of Cultural Education cohere in a way that adds up to a single over-arching strategy in line with the government's stated ambitions. By coming together as a new Cultural Education Partnership Group, this could ultimately result in a single strategic commissioning fund for Cultural Education money in England.

Recommendation 5: A Cultural Education Passport — The CEPG should consider establishing a new Cultural Education Passport scheme for children between the ages of five and nineteen, which records all of their in-school and out of school cultural activities, enabling parents, carers and teachers to understand what each child has achieved and to plug any gaps in knowledge and experience. This would be particularly useful during the transition between primary and secondary schools, where Year 7 pupils may enter a secondary school from a variety of different feeder primaries, each of which has a slightly different programme of Cultural Education.

Recommendation 6: A Cultural Education Website — A single destination website should be created, bringing all Cultural Education resources together in one easily accessible place online.

Recommendation 7: New Local Partnerships — In my Review of Music Education, I stressed the importance of partnerships between classroom teachers, specialist music teachers and professional musicians in the delivery of a truly excellent Music Education to young people. To this end, I recommended the creation of a series of Local Music Education Hubs through which funding would be channeled. The government agreed with the recommendation in its response to my Review and the National Plan for Music Education has detailed how these Hubs will operate. Consideration should now be given to rolling a structure out across the rest of the Cultural Education spectrum, to enable meaningful partnerships on the ground across different art forms and using all of the expertise and venues that are available in a given area. This could be achieved through the further development of Arts Council England's Bridge Organisations, which currently focus on the arts, to include other cultural areas.

Recommendation 8: Managing Closer Partnerships — More can be done - both by cultural organisations and by schools - to foster closer working partnerships. Each primary and secondary school should nominate a member of the Senior Management Team to act as a Cultural Education Champion. All schools should also have a member of the governing body who has a particular responsibility for and interest in cultural education. This would increase with the recruitment of a greater number of school governors from among the Creative and Cultural Industries. This position should be mirrored in cultural organisations, which should themselves be encouraged to appoint a trustee with particular responsibility for and interest in education. One method for building closer ties would be for each school in England to be adopted by a cultural organisation to build meaningful long-term bonds between the two entities.

Recommendation 9: Design in the Curriculum — Greater priority should be given to the importance of Design as a curriculum subject within schools.