Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to promote arts and creative subject provision in secondary schools.

All state-maintained secondary schools must teach art and design and music to pupils at Key Stage 3 (pupils aged 11 – 14). Drama is taught as part of the English curriculum and dance is included in PE & sport. At Key Stage 4 (pupils aged 14 – 16), there is a statutory entitlement for every pupil to take an arts subject, if they wish to do so. Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum.

Ofsted’s new education inspection framework, which comes into effect in September, has a strong emphasis on ensuring schools provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all their pupils.

Between 2016-20 we are spending almost £500 million on a range of arts and cultural education programmes.