News

Henley Review of Cultural Education

28 February 2012

The Henley Review of Cultural Education is published!

After months of wishing and wondering we can all finally draw breath, as the Henley Review of Cultural Education and the government's response were published today. We've read the documents, attended the live launch, and with this post we give you the headlines and our very first response to the findings and subsequent plans. You can also read our round-up article on the Guardian Professionals Network site. As ever, we will be following this up with a considered analysis in the next few days.

What’s in it?

Darren Henley recommends:

  • a call for cultural subjects to be recognised for their intellectual rigour and practical skills and their inclusion in the National Curriculum and English Baccalaureate
  • a set of minimum expectations for every child's cultural education experience, set out by age
  • the creation of a cross-Whitehall Ministerial Group on Cultural Education
  • the creation of a National Plan for Cultural Education
  • the creation of a Cultural Education Partnership Group (CEPG) which could include Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the British Film Institute, the Big Lottery Fund and English Heritage. This would 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.
  • a digital strategy for cultural education and a 'one-stop shop' website
  • the development of a 'cultural education passport' for young people, which encourages and records young people's wide-ranging cultural participation
  • the development of Local Cultural Education Hubs, possibly through the expansion of the ACE Bridge organisations
  • a call for school senior management champions and for cultural education governors in all schools
  • Design should be prioritised in the curriculum, and Dance and Drama should be recognised as subjects in their own right
  • Arts Award should be recognised as a valuable qualification, and Artsmark should be expanded to cover all cultural forms
  • Ofsted should develop guidance for schools and cultural organisations, and they should comment on individual school’s Cultural Education provision as part of their inspection process
  • a quality framework for cultural education should be developed
  • teacher's training, mentoring and on-going CPD related to teacher's own creative and cultural practice
  • funding for Creative and Cultural Higher Education and the retention and expansion of the Dance and Drama Awards to cover cultural forms
  • Downing Street medals for cultural education (given by the Prime Minister)
  • a National Schools Culture Week
  • Cultural Education Ambassadors to be appointed to meet with ministers and publicly promote cultural education

What have the Government said?

The government has responded very positively to the review. You can read the press release from the Department of Education here and from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport here.

Government is immediately responding by investing £15 million into a number of initiatives related to the sector which aim to inspire young people to engage in cultural activities. They have agreed to immediately adopt several of the recommendations.

These are:

  • the new cross-Ministerial Board
  • a National Plan for Cultural Education
  • 
the development of a cultural education passport – so that all children and young people can have a rich variety of cultural education
  • to work with Teaching Schools and sponsored bodies to improve the quality of cultural education in schools. This will receive £300,000 funding from DfE over three years and will be supported by non-departmental public bodies
  • a new National Youth Dance Company. This will provide opportunities for 30 young people – aged 16 to 19 – every year. The DfE and Arts Council England will each provide £600,000 over three years
  • funding for National Art & Design Saturday Clubs. Funding of £395,000 over three years, and additional funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, will be used to establish a network of clubs based on the model set up by Sir John Sorrell. The clubs give schoolchildren access to specialist equipment and tuition at local colleges and universities
  • Heritage Schools – a programme providing access to local history and cultural heritage for schools. English Heritage will work with schools to encourage them to explore historical sites in their local area. This will receive funding of £2.7m over three years
  • Museum education – to encourage and facilitate more school visits to museums and art galleries
  • a Film education academy - to inspire and train the next generation of British filmmakers. This will be led by the BFI. It will receive £3m from the Department for Education over three years
  • The Bridge Network bringing heritage and film as well as arts, museums and libraries closer to every school.

What do we think?

The Cultural Learning Alliance welcomes Darren Henley's Review of Cultural Education. He has made a robust and compelling argument for the value and purpose of Cultural Education, and his thoughts chime well with the CLA's ImagineNation: The Case for Cultural Learning report, and the research that we submitted to the Review. We are particularly pleased to note his emphasis on the need for every child to gain access to cultural knowledge, skills and understanding, underpinned by a minimum level of cultural experience for all children. We also welcome the emphasis on the importance of developing partnerships across the sector.

The CLA made a number of recommendations to the Review and are delighted to see that many of these have influenced the report. For example, the £300,000 allocated to Teaching Schools to support and develop teacher training and professional development, the cross-Ministerial Working Group for cultural education and the recommendation for cultural governors in schools, are all pragmatic and tangible ways to support practitioners and partners on the ground and are things we have long been advocating for.

Going forward, we do think that there will be a need to address some of the patchiness that Darren Henley has discussed, with mechanisms identified to support out-of school, informal and early years activity. We will all need to think of ways to build and support cultural learning in these areas.

At the Review launch, Michael Gove talked warmly about the need for everyone to experience cultural education and creativity. We welcome this recognition of the value of cultural learning, alongside their £15million investment into the sector today. However, we do strongly feel that we will need to see the 'clear signal from the coalition government of its belief in the importance of Cultural Education' that Darren Henley calls for; ideally in the form of a National Curriculum and English Baccalaureate which include the arts and culture.

The National Plan for Cultural Education that the Review proposes will need to shape this vision into a coherent strategy, and will need to robustly address the ways that Music Hubs, Bridge Organisations, Local Authorities, schools, Ofsted and practitioners will work together effectively. It will also need to clarify the funding, roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that are needed to make this strategy work. It is critical that demand for cultural learning is grown within schools, youth, family and learning settings, and that young people who are not able to access culture independently are effectively supported in their active engagement with the arts and heritage.

David Puttnam, Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance said:

'We warmly congratulate Darren Henley and the team on his well-considered Review of Cultural Education and are pleased to see a number of our recommendations and ideas reflected in his report. Overall, he has laid out a vision which offers real potential for effective cultural education for all children and young people.

We are pleased to note that the DfE will be funding some new projects as a result of the review, and look forward to finding out more about plans for the development of the Film Academy, the National Dance Company, Saturday Arts Clubs, and the Heritage Schools programme.

The forthcoming government National Plan for Cultural Education will be a critical document, as the infrastructure, funding and policy needed to make this vision a reality will centre on the place of cultural subjects in the National Curriculum and the English Baccalaureate, the role of Ofsted, quality support and training for teachers, governors and cultural practitioners.'

What did everyone else say?

You can read the responses from Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the British Film Institute and English Heritage. We will be talking to all our partners in the next few days and will bring you comprehensive coverage of media and partner responses as they emerge.

As always, get in touch to let us know what you think and how you are affected.