Heads working at schools in the poorest areas are twice as likely to say that recruitment difficulties are affecting the arts subjects their schools can offer, a poll has found.
Nearly half (48 per cent) of school leaders working at schools in the most deprived areas said they do not offer one of art, music, drama, media or dance at GCSE or Btec as they are unable to find teachers.
A quarter of leaders (24 per cent) said this in the most affluent schools, according to Teacher Tapp poll data for the Arts and Minds Campaign.
Overall, a quarter of secondary heads said they did not have enough funding for teachers or resources, or they lacked the facilities, to offer all the creative subjects.
At primary, 92 per cent of heads said a lack of funding has negatively affected creative subjects.
‘Hamstrung by a lack of funding’
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools continue to be hamstrung by a lack of funding and teacher shortages.
He added: “It is disadvantaged pupils who are most severely affected by this because they are often at schools where teacher recruitment is most difficult and are less likely to be able to access the arts outside of school through clubs or other activities.”
The Arts and Minds Campaign, launching on Tuesday, is made up of more than 20 organisations including the NEU teaching union. It will call for all young people to be able to study creative subjects and for school arts funding to be restored.
The campaign is calling for the English Baccalaureate to be scrapped to increase arts take-up, the end of high-stakes assessments at primary and a reduction in the exam burden at GCSE. It also wants to see increased subject-specific CPD for teachers.
In total, the survey found two in three school leaders reported they could not offer all the creative subjects.
Sarah Kilpatrick, president of the NEU, said: “Creativity is central to the human experience and the growing disparity in access to art and creative education is devastating.
“It is more important than ever that we support and invest in the arts.”
The sector has repeatedly made calls to scrap the EBacc to help combat the reduction in students taking arts subjects.
Members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Performing Arts Education and Training recently called for the focus on Stem to be expanded to Steam (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths).
The curriculum and assessment review is due to make its recommendations this year. In its submission to the review, the National Society for Education in Art and Design said that accountability measures must be reformed to encourage take-up of creative subjects.
‘Distorted by policy’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “Schools want to offer a broad and balanced curriculum but are constrained by tight budgets, lack of specialist facilities, limited curriculum time and a severe recruitment and retention crisis.
“The curriculum and qualification offer has also been distorted by government policies including the publication of narrow, high-stakes performance measures.”
Mr Whiteman said the curriculum review is a chance to ensure schools have the “space and resources to boost the arts”. He further echoed calls to scrap primary assessments like the multiplication tables check, phonics screening check and key stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling tests.
Further research conducted for the campaign by WeThink/Omnisis found that 90 per cent of GCSE students said they wanted to study a creative subject.
One of the campaign’s ambassadors, Dr Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason - whose children are all classical musicians - said: “It is vital that arts education remains a core part of children’s learning. The school curriculum needs to encourage curiosity, experiment, commitment, teamwork and the widespread benefits of creative thinking.”
Teacher Tapp surveyed school leaders between December 2024 and January 2025. Responses were received from 618 secondary heads and 993 primary heads.
The Department for Education was contacted for comment.
