Can all children benefit from studying performing arts at secondary school?
Yes. Our college has had the courage to invest in the arts, although we specialise in maths, science and technology. Eleven-to-14-year-olds have dance, drama, music and fine art for an hour each week. And we arrange vibrant cross-curriculum activities. Some of my students have just studied the slave trade in history, while in performing arts looking at and celebrating African culture, including African drumming and story songs. In this way we try to challenge kids to connect and come to terms with the world around them, and make them hungry to learn. This has a staggering spin-off around the curriculum; every time the pupils have to make a business presentation somewhere they win! What’s your opinion of the Government’s scheme to recruit good teachers to inner-city schools with “golden handcuffs” payments? If it takes such an incentive to get talented teachers into inner cities, we need the courage to say so. But it’s the whole regime of an institution that makes a bigger difference. I
