Government outlines next steps in developing universal culture offer for all children and young people, including Arts Council England review of funding for cultural education
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1 April 2010
The Government today confirmed the next steps in realising the ambition for every child and young person to experience at least five hours of high-quality cultural activities each week. This will transform the way in which youngsters relate to culture and the arts, and lay the foundations for future generations of creativity and cultural excellence.
Culture Minister Margaret Hodge said:
“Experiencing first class work in the arts – and having the chance to take part themselves – can bring great benefits to young people. Enjoying a wide range of cultural experiences lifts the spirits, fires the imagination and can draw out hidden talents and ambitions. Every child should have the right to feel this, and I am so pleased that this ambition can now become a reality, and build on work already completed to break down barriers to access to the arts for everyone.”
Schools Minister Diana Johnson said:
“Learning about the arts and literature can excite, inspire and open doors of opportunity for our children and young people.
“Every child should have the chance to receive a good cultural education at school, and be able to develop a lifelong passion for great literature or music by taking part in exciting activities in their free time.
“We're absolutely clear that learning about the great poets, musicians and artists of our day should not be the reserve of a privileged few. This is why we've freed up the curriculum to give teachers more flexibility to teach arts and culture and to let pupils explore things like music and dance in different ways.
“But we're going even further and, along with providing every child with basic entitlements to things like 1-1 tuition if they are falling behind in the three Rs, we're also giving all pupils the right to learn about our culture and have access to a variety of experiences through the first ever Pupil Guarantee.
“It's vital that our children leave school not only able to read, write and add up, but also with an appreciation for the fantastic culture we live in.”
A policy paper – A Place for Culture: Towards a local culture offer for all children and young people – published today, looks at what has been achieved so far and spells out our ambition for the future. Over the past 5 years there has been a huge investment in cultural education, with over £570m between 2008-2009, revised secondary programmes of study since 2007 covering art, literature, music and drama, an area of learning on understanding the arts in the new primary curriculum, as well as more and more primary school children getting the chance to learn an instrument.
The paper sets out the ways in which we will now make the offer universal by mainstreaming it into schools and local authorities, based on the learning from our successful Find Your Talent programme. This will include a review conducted by the Arts Council of its support for the delivery of the cultural offer.
Notes to Editors
A copy of the paper - A Place for Culture: Towards a local culture offer for all children and young people can be found on the DCMS Website.
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