Dear Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education and Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Today, too many children are missing out on the chance to study a broad range of arts subjects and discover where their talents truly lie. Decades of underfunded, exam-driven education have devalued the arts and pushed skilled teachers out of classrooms.

The government has taken some steps to restore the value of creative subjects in schools. There is a renewed focus on the arts curriculum and new enrichment entitlements. Ending the EBacc could also open the door for more children to study the arts.

But deep-rooted challenges mean schools are struggling to make this ambition real. Only 7% of school leaders feel able to increase the amount of classroom time spent on arts subjects (Teacher Tapp, December 2025).

• 50% say a crowded curriculum squeezes out the arts.
• 47% of primary heads say statutory assessments must be reduced.
• 23% of secondary school leaders cannot recruit specialist arts teachers.
• one in three want more funding for the arts.

We are calling on you to act now to ensure every school can put creativity at the heart of its curriculum.

• Create space in the curriculum

A curriculum dominated by English, maths and science leaves too little room for creative subjects. New programmes of study must reduce content across subjects and enable schools to offer a full range of arts options.

• End the exam factory culture

Government exams dominate school life from primary. Reducing this burden is the singular most popular policy change among school leaders. It is time to scrap SATs, reduce high-stakes testing at every stage and replace it with broader, more flexible qualifications that allow young people to thrive.

• Restore funding

Years of cuts have created a crisis in arts provision. School budgets must rise every year of this parliament, and any new reforms must be fully resourced, based on a rigorous assessment of need.

• Recruit teachers

Teacher recruitment across creative subjects is in crisis, with a 27% drop in specialist teachers in secondary schools since 2010. Government must target recruitment and retention in arts subjects, reinstating bursaries for arts trainees and restoring at least pre-2010 numbers of recruits.

We are a broad coalition of creative organisations, school leaders, teachers, researchers, parents and students united in a single aim: to remove the barriers that stop young people accessing and studying the arts.

You have the power to turn words into deeds and give the next generation the creative education they deserve. We urge you to act now.

Yours sincerely