Alison Balsom warns of the decline in music education in UK state schools. World-renowned trumpeter Alison Balsom, who will perform at this year’s Last Night of the Proms and has been presenting the Proms concerts on the BBC, recently gave an interview to The Times (30 August). When asked about…
To mark the publication of a major study into arts-rich primary schools, Professor Pat Thomson, the report’s co-author, presents its key findings, and reflects on what is needed to build an arts-rich school system. The RAPS report was launched at the Cultural Learning Alliance’s first webinar on 25 February. CLA’s annual…
Scottish pupil, Rebecca Young, who designed a solar-powered backpack with an electric blanket inside to help homeless people has been names on the first Time magazine Girls of the Year list. The budding engineer asked to be photographed in her grungy style in line with her dream of finding fame…
CATS is talking to Oxfordshire County Council about how the arts can help children with mental health problems. This arises from an approach from the County Council following on from a recent report the County received about the mental health of Oxfordshire’s children. The report said: Children living in poorer…
Ed Sheeran has urged Keir Starmer to fund 1,000 more music teachers and invest £250 million in music education in state schools “to repair decades of dismantling”. The singer songwriter has written to the Prime Minister to say that learning to play an instrument is “now a luxury not…
More than 700 singers, actors and dancers sign a letter calling for the government’s curriculum review to stop the arts becoming a ‘preserve of the wealthy’ Shirley Ballas, Dame Arlene Phillips and the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber are among hundreds of artists calling on the government to reverse cuts to…
Your support has enabled us to extend our work from 20 schools to over 40 this year and has impacted over 5,000 local children. By the end of this term we will be working in fifty schools and will reach over 6,000 children. Thank you! We are very grateful for…
It is “immoral” that working-class children are being denied the same opportunities to become Hollywood starts or musical icons as private school pupils, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The Labour leader said that “we are holding back masses of potential” because of a decline in arts subjects. An analysis by…
Meet Stuart & Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason and their family: seven children between 15 and 28 who have become a fixture in British cultural life. Sheku, a cellist and the third eldest, won the BBC young Musician of the Year award in 2016, performed at Prince Harry’s wedding and starred at the…
In March 2024 professional artists Alison Townley and Cally Bond took pupils in years 1-6 at Hook Norton Primary School into the jungle of clay-manipulation, inspiring the children to create their own animal faces. The artists and materials were supplied free of charge to the school by us, Cotswolds Arts…