If you blinked you probably missed the fact that for a little while every child had the

If you blinked you probably missed the fact that for a little while every child had the right to study art and music up to the age of 16. The arts were an early casualty in the battles over the national curriculum. Schools may be legally required to promote their pupils’ “social, moral, cultural and spiritual development” – but an obvious way to do it, through creative activities, is now only optional at 14. Teachers of creative subjects bitterly regret the loss of what was supposed to be a broad and balanced curriculum. But for a long time many of their colleagues shrugged their shoulders as they tried to fit the remaining national curriculum quart into the pint-pot of a timetable.

Faced with fierce competition from a second language, three separate sciences, technology and the rest, it looked as though creative subjects for older pupils might wither and die unlamented.
So why are an increasing number of schools beginning to feel that the loss of the arts might be damaging to more than the rather abstract ideal of a broad and balanced education? Why are headteachers in tough schools where a quick course at 14 in vocational skills might seem to be the obvious way forward, turning instead to GCSEs in art and design, music, drama and dance?Evidence is patchy, but there is an increasing feeling that participation in the arts actually improves students’ performance and behaviour across the board. In music it is known as “the Mozart effect”, and has been substantiated by research. It shows that children who are given instrumental music tuition also perform well in other subjects, particularly in mathematics.Kenneth Robinson, professor of arts education at Warwick University, argues that the arts play a fundamental role in helping young people to meet the challenge of the future. He criticises the school improvement movement for concentrating too much on management and too little on the curriculum and children’s diverse abilities.”The arts are essential in realising the potential of individuals.

They can give children some idea of success and confidence, both of which are vitamins for achievement.”Peter Downes, headteacher of Hinchingbrooke School in Cambridgeshire, who is a passionate supporter of arts education, took part in a National Foundation for Educational Research project at his school to assess the common factors in under- and over-achievement among pupils at GCSE. He found not unexpected links with family breakdown and smoking among under- achievers.But over-achievement was linked most clearly with active participation in music. Among 50 musically active young people, 44 were achieving substantially better than the school anticipated in all their subjects at GCSE. At his school, drama and dance were taken by too few pupils to enable conclusions to be drawn.”But we found a really big effect – up to three grades better than expected in five subjects – with our musicians, whether they were involved in classical music or rock.

Achievement in sport, on the other hand, appeared to have no effect on performance in the rest of the curriculum at all,” Downes says.What makes the difference? Downes thinks it is all to do with the fact that performers (and he sees no reason why this should not apply to performers in the other arts as well as music) learn skills which they can apply to other activities, in school and out.To have learnt an instrument and still be playing at 16, he thinks, implies that students have learnt self-control, perseverance, concentration, and the ability to set targets and work to meet them. Through performance itself, they are likely to have gained in self-confidence and self-esteem and quite possibly how to work as team members – all attributes sought by employers as well as schools.Schools are increasingly demanding answers to some of the questions raised by Prof Robinson. The Royal Society of Arts, as part of its “the Arts Matter” initiative, has launched a three-year project with the National Foundation for Educational Research which is intended to look at the effects of arts education in the widest sense.The RSA accepts that there is a considerable weight of opinion which argues that arts education has aesthetic, personal, social and economic value, but says that there is very little evidence to prove exactly what its outcomes are. The project will try to establish the relationship between outcomes and what schools offer, define good practice and try to discover how far involvement in arts education is linked to school improvement and effectiveness.Sue Harries, the former head of education at the Arts Council, will be working on the project for the RSA.

“I know schools which put enormous effort into the arts and have very little truancy and poor behaviour. But at the moment it is difficult to prove that this is a case of cause and effect. That link will make up one aspect of the research.”But there are other issues. All the indications are that in future we are going to need people coming out of school with very broad abilities and interests. There is a huge area there to be explored”n’Suddenly there is an incentive to work ‘In the bleak streets around Cardiff Bay, Willows High School is building an arts centre in the shadow of the Tremorfa steelworks.