The Stage

Calls for compulsory drama teaching in National Curriculum

Published Thursday 12 January 2012 at 15:23 by Natalie Woolman

Lobbyists are campaigning for drama to be included as part of the new National Curriculum, as the government reviews core subjects.

Grass-roots organisation the Cultural Learning Alliance has reacted to the publication of responses to the government’s call last year for evidence about the curriculum in England. The Department for Education has also released a report by the expert panel it has appointed to discuss the new programme.

The panel recommends that arts subjects remain a statutory part of the National Curriculum, and in fact suggests that arts teaching should be part of every school’s basic curriculum at Key Stage 4, the equivalent of GCSE level.

The expert panel report states: “Apart from the intrinsic worth of including art and music in the statutory curriculum from 5 to 16 because of the importance of pupils acquiring knowledge of their cultural heritage(s), there is now substantial evidence that a good art and music education benefits individuals, their communities and the nation as a whole in other ways.”

However, CLA said it found discussion of drama lacking in the main document of 5,763 responses from teachers and parents in the section of its statement entitled “What is missing/of concern”.

It read: “We lobbied very strongly in our original submission for drama to be included in the English programme of study (or to be given its own Foundation status) and similarly for dance to be included in PE, or for it to become its own subject. This will be extremely important and will have significant implications for delivery of the curriculum. Although we did see some good analysis of this issue for dance in the summary of responses document, we did not see any reference to drama in the same way.”