The writer is founding director of Wellington College Education
I have taught in British schools for 40 years. In that time, I’ve seen the intellectual skills of pupils grow but their creativity, social confidence and work-readiness decline. The arts have been pinched during those years, especially since the Conservative government introduced the EBacc in 2010, which downgraded arts subjects. A causal relationship? Other factors certainly contributed to the damage to young people, but my instinct is yes.
The arts are essential to a rounded education; they are social not solitary; and they require pupils to dig deep into their hearts and souls, learn who they are and how to relate better to others. As a headteacher, I battled to arrest the decline, with dance, singing and history of art for the whole student body. All the while, evidence was building about the damage done to young minds from a narrow, exclusively exam-focused education. We now have young people who are mentally unwell, uncreative and ill-prepared for work.