Teachers: Art and Design

(asked on 11th September 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Art, Craft and Design in Education entitled Art Now, published on 27 June 2023, whether her Department is taking steps to improve the quality of primary Initial Teacher Education for art and design related subjects.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 19th September 2023

The Government believes in providing a high quality education for all pupils, and integral to this is cultural education, including teaching music and the wider arts. All state funded schools are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and this includes promoting pupils' cultural development.

The Department will continue to invest around £115 million per annum in cultural education over three years, through the music, arts, and heritage programmes. With the real terms per pupil increases to core school funding and the nearly £5 billion that has been announced for education recovery, schools will continue to have the flexibility to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum and enrichment activities, including in arts and creative subjects.

The Department published the Model Music Curriculum in 2021 and a refreshed National Plan for Music Education (NPME) in 2022 to support teachers in delivering high quality music education. The NPME was jointly published with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in June 2022, and sets out a vision for music education to 2030 – to enable all pupils to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally.

The Department will also publish a Cultural Education Plan in 2023, working with DCMS and Arts Council England. This will include how best to support pupils who wish to pursue careers in creative and cultural industries.

High quality teaching is the most important in school factor in improving outcomes for pupils. The Department therefore published the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) in November 2019. The CCF, alongside the Early Career Framework, establishes an entitlement to a three or more year structured package of support for future generations of teachers.

The CCF has been designed to cover the content required by trainee teachers irrespective of subject or phase, though there is a strong emphasis on the need for training to be subject and phase specific.

Qualified Teacher Status continues to be awarded at the end of ITT against the Teachers’ Standards, which are reflected in the design of the CCF. Standard 3 requires teachers to ‘have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings’.

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