#SAVEOURSUBJECTS campaign responds to DFE

In July 2023, Save Our Subjects campaign submitted an open letter to Gillian Keegan calling on the government to:

- Review the impact of accountability measures (the EBacc and Progress 8) on arts and technology subjects

- Reform the Progress 8 accountability measure, giving pupils more freedom of choice at GCSE

- Deliver the Arts Premium promised in the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto

This month Nick Gibb, the former Minister for Schools, responded to the Save Our Subjects campaign letter. We are extremely disappointed that Gibb's response, Received four months after Save Our Subjects wrote to Keegan, defends government education policies that have damaged uptake of arts subjects in schools.

Despite a wealth of evidence, the DfE continue to ignore the damage they have done to arts and technology subjects in schools. Michele Gregson, NSEAD General Secretary says:

'Since 2010 we have had ten Secretaries of State for education. During this period of revolving door politics, one thing has been consistent — a wilful neglect of creative arts education and refusal by successive ministers to recognise the damage being wreaked on our children's education. The creative arts subjects have been dangerously undermined and diminished in our state schools, with access to music, drama, dance and the visual arts increasingly becoming the preserve of those who can afford to pay. We are losing specialist teachers at an alarming rate and failing to recruit new teachers with the subject-specific expertise to provide our children with the high quality creative and cultural learning experience they are entitled to. This is a crisis of the Government's making, and must be a priority for any Secretary of State worthy of the title.' 
 

Save Our Subjects has written a statement in response to Nick Gibb — read here. 

NSEAD stands united with our fellow Creative Arts subject associations leading the campaign to save our subjects.

#SaveOurSubjects is a group of 44 organisations from across the arts and education sectors, led by the ISM, the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD), One Dance UK and Edge Foundation, which is campaigning to reverse the dramatic decline of arts and technology subjects in English secondary schools. Find out more and get involved.