Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage more students to take up a creative, artistic and technical subject at GCSE.

At Key Stage 4, all pupils in maintained schools have an entitlement to study an arts subject and a design and technology subject.

In addition to the revised curriculum introduced into schools in 2014, new GCSEs in a number of creative, artistic, and technical subjects including music, art and design, dance, drama, design and technology, food preparation and nutrition, electronics and engineering have been developed to be more rigorous.

These GCSEs or any other GCSEs and technical awards from the Department approved list can count towards the open element of Progress and Attainment 8. These measures are designed to encourage schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum.