Schools: Arts Subjects Debate

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Department: Department for Education

Schools: Arts Subjects

Baroness Janke Excerpts
Tuesday 20th January 2015

(9 years, 6 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Nash Portrait Lord Nash
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Ofsted does inspect on a broad and balanced curriculum; it looks in part at how pupils will participate in and respond to artistic, sporting and cultural opportunities. However, I refer to my earlier point, which the Benches opposite did not like: we started from a very low base. I should think that all Members of the House should be very pleased with the increase in and substantial enhancement of cultural and academic courses that we have produced.

Baroness Janke Portrait Baroness Janke (LD)
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My Lords, will the Minister say what plans the Government have to address teacher shortages in arts and languages subjects, and will he say if he has a plan to evaluate Progress 8 in the medium term?

Lord Nash Portrait Lord Nash
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We have our bursaries for arts. In music, for instance, there is £9,000 for music graduates with a first. We now have nearly 500 teaching schools and have designated 145 schools as specialist leaders of education in arts subjects. However, of course we will evaluate the performance of the Progress 8 measures as we go along.