From Little Things.
I was listening to the Gospel in church this week. Two of the stories Jesus told — about the impact of a little yeast on a bowl of flour, and the ability of a mustard seed to grow into a tree (I have always struggled with that one, since mustard is a form of brassica and as a gardener I have never seen it resemble a tree) — made me want to say something about how Cotswold Arts Through Schools has grown. Not to congratulate those of us who have been part of it, but to show how a simple idea can have a big impact and be replicated elsewhere.
How it started
Back in 2018, the Sculpture at Kingham Lodge show had half a dozen schools exhibiting, and they were clearly struggling — short of materials, short of teachers, short of everything. We offered help. By 2021, with professional artist support, more schools were taking part. Two people offered £1,000 each to do more work in schools — two mustard seeds. From the sculpture show itself we added £5,000, and in 2023 we invited the nearest schools to create an exhibit, providing an artist and materials. The result was 20 schools exhibiting and 2,500 children coming to see their work alongside that of professional sculptors from England and Zimbabwe. Some 9,000 people attended that show, and were as enthusiastic about what the schoolchildren had made as about everything else they saw.
What became clear during that work was the scale of what had been lost. The arts budget in most of our partner schools was £1 per child per year — for art materials, that is, for the whole year. Few teachers had training or experience in teaching art. Music, drama, dance, and oracy had largely gone the same way.
To say I was horrified would be an understatement. I remember my own school days well — the joys of country dancing, performing in school plays, acting out stories, reciting to the class and to the school, singing (perhaps somewhat tunelessly) in choral assemblies and choirs. The position was much the same when our own children were going through primary school thirty years ago. This near-complete absence of the arts in state primary schools today traces back to Gove’s insistence that the three Rs were all that mattered — and as resources and timetable were squeezed, the arts withered away in most schools. It should be no surprise that we are now seeing mental health difficulties, absenteeism, and disengagement in primary schools on a scale never seen before.
Someone told me her story this week. She had been in a state primary school twenty years ago — not doing well academically, but good at art. A teacher kept telling her she was good at it, and kept boosting her confidence. It was that sustained encouragement — the sense that there was something she could do well — that carried her through the rest of a curriculum she found hard. Today she is a confident young woman holding down a senior role in an international sales organisation. To meet her you would never guess she had struggled at school. She is adamant that it was art that maintained her confidence and helped her get to where she is.
We have many examples of arts activities boosting confidence and enthusiasm. One of the best is about the SEN children doing African dance and drumming. Initially scared by the noise and unusual movement, they soon got into the rhythm. Come week five, each child had to create a routine, demonstrate it to the class and have them copy it. It was huge fun for everybody. The unforeseen bonus was for the SEN children: this was the first time in their lives that other people had done what they demonstrated. They led. The boost to their confidence reported by class teachers rubbed off on all engagement all week.
These stories are not unusual. The evidence is now overwhelming that where children have an arts-rich environment, they do better academically, their attendance improves, and mental health difficulties reduce. The University of Nottingham’s RAPS project (2025) found that 77% of arts-rich schools perform as well as or better than comparable schools academically. A review of 1,176 studies published in 2026 by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Cultural Learning Alliance concluded that arts education is “not a luxury or add-on to children’s education: it is a fundamental component of a well-rounded educational experience that supports human flourishing in its fullest sense.”
Combine that with less screen time — and the social media experiment with our children’s mental health should be urgently curtailed — and children will thrive. From the state’s point of view that means big savings in future benefits. The Milburn Review (2026) estimated the annual cost of youth economic inactivity at £125 billion; it found that children not school-ready at four or five are nearly three times as likely to be NEET by sixteen or seventeen. The arts build precisely the skills that school-readiness requires.
For conservatoires and universities it means more people wanting to train in the arts. For arts organisations it means more secure audiences and participants. Most of all, it means healthy, creative, enthusiastic, and empathetic young people joining their communities and the workforce. It is a win for everyone.
Where we are now
CATS is the response of a group of local arts organisations who came to understand what was missing in our primary schools and decided to help. What started with two donations of £1,000 each and £5,000 from the sculpture show, helping 20 schools, has grown into a programme spending over £300,000 a year and reaching over 13,000 children in 70 schools. Donations have come in from £5 to £50,000. Artists, musicians, and arts organisations have come together with extraordinary imagination and generosity. Funders have rallied round in ways that continue to astonish us.
Whether you liken it to the growth of a loaf from a pinch of yeast, or a snowball becoming an avalanche, what is clear is that there was a desperate need and people have risen to meet it. The question now is whether others across the country will see what has happened here and try to replicate it — and whether we can sustain the funding growth to keep adding schools and deepening the range of what we offer. The people with skills are there; new ideas emerge weekly. But they need to earn a living, and that means the funding momentum matters as much as anything else.
Show children the vision, and they can have the ambition. All that is needed for children to thrive is for all of us to rise to the challenge — with a donation, by helping to teach in a school, by leading a choir, by running an art club. In a community where every village helps to raise a child, we can all make a difference. We don’t have to wait for paralysed governments to get their act together.
