At the end of March 2022 the Department for Education published its first White Paper for six years. Tightly focussed on literacy and numeracy, it sets out ambitions and plans to improve behaviour and attendance, teacher recruitment and retention, and for all schools to join a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT). It also includes a pledge for the Department to work with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and Arts Council England (ACE) to develop a National Plan for Cultural Education: something that the CLA has been calling for since 2014. This post gives you the headlines.

This month we bring you an update to our 20 years of cultural education policy timeline; news of research from Engage on Art & Design Education in Scotland; changes to Education Scotland, including a new national education agency; Future Fwd conference, and the Researching the Arts in Primary Schools blog.

This month we welcome a third Co-Director, Ranjit Atwal, begin a process of transition and change to strengthen the CLA governance, mission and structure and had our second Advisory Panel meeting with inspiring speakers including Sanaz Amidi, CEO & Trustee, Rosetta Arts, a hub for art and creative learning in East London and much discussion on what we mean by Levelling Up through Cultural Learning.

The government’s Levelling Up agenda has had a significant impact on public funding for the arts and for cultural learning, with new directives from the Secretary of State to prioritise investment in specific geographic areas, and to re-distribute funding away from London taking immediate effect.

This post gives you the headlines, what this might mean for cultural learning, and calls for your experiences on how your work will be funded and supported going forward.

The government’s Levelling Up White Paper contains complex, complicated, and refreshingly long-term ambitions to make significant changes to places and placemaking in the UK. It aims to align all relevant government investment and policy towards the achievement of these goals over the next 8 years, and to create a comprehensive placemaking strategy that will create a new kind of industrial revolution and systemic change for the UK.

This month we bring you news of the fate of BTECs; the Culture in Crisis report from the Centre for Cultural Value; a new Representation in Dance Education resource; an ask for Art Teachers to fill in a survey from NSEAD; a new guide for governors from Arts Council England; and a July Artsmark Celebration ‘Day to Create’.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the regulator for Higher Education (HE) in England. On 20 January it launched three consultations on new policies which have significant implications for Arts degrees. If the proposals go ahead all degrees will need to have at least 60% of students go on to managerial or professional employment within 15 months.

When everyone’s identity is shaped by ethnicity, culture and racism, instead of avoiding conversations shouldn’t we better equip our children and ourselves to understand one another and connect? The Arts provide many ways to explore these conversations, and truly diverse representation enables deeper engagement.

mezze eade (CLA’s 2021 Special Advisor on Representation in the Curriculum) discusses the value and importance of work to improve representation in Arts subject curriculums, the broader impacts and what support is available for educators.

This month we bring you news of a select committee call for changes to curriculum and accountability in England to improve take up of creative subjects; how the arts have transformed the fantastic Feversham Primary in Bradford; the Drama and Theatre Education Alliance Seize the Day programme on 18 March; Youth Voice Census 2021 data; and the National Saturday Club’s online Exhibition of Self-Portraits.

This is our annual round-up of the Cultural Learning Alliance’s (CLA) activity over the year. We spent 2021 continuing to champion the right of every child to arts and culture, with social justice as the driver for our work.