As part of the 2019 Festival, Lauren staged a one-woman adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.
Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation is an educational charity which has spent 25 years working with schools, teachers and approximately 350,000 young people across the UK to build skills and confidence through the performing arts.
We welcome the new government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, and its aims, scope and ambition, and are delighted to have the opportunity to share some of our findings from 25 years of working with schools, teachers and young people from every walk of life and all corners of the UK. In particular, the specific focus on delivering ‘a broader curriculum, with improved access to music, art, sport and drama’ is a heartening development – we see every year in our programmes how access to the arts helps young people to build confidence and essential life skills. Every child should be entitled to a high-quality arts education.
We invite you to read our full submission to the Curriculum and Assessment Review panel below. The key proposals outlined are as follows:
- We propose establishing drama as a distinct foundational subject in the National Curriculum. This would require improved teacher training and resources, supported by accountability measures to ensure consistent implementation.
- We propose that assessment of GCSE Drama be rebalanced to recognise it as a practical subject.
- We propose that every child should perform in a play before they leave school.
- We support the adoption of the Skills Builder Universal Framework.
- We support the proposal contained in the Government’s Election Manifesto to update the Progress 8 performance measure to include creative arts subjects, encouraging participation in an arts subject up to the age of 16.
- We propose introducing an Arts Premium for schools, similar to the Sports Premium.
- We propose additional financial support for teacher CPDL in drama pedagogy and embedding creativity in the curriculum.
- We welcome the Oracy Education Commission’s ‘We need to talk’ report and its call for integration of oracy into the curriculum as the ‘fourth R’. We recommend the introduction of an oracy entitlement throughout the national curriculum.
Read more from our response to the Review here.