Some schools are trying to make up for lost learning time during the Covid pandemic by reducing time for creative and practical subjects, a union has warned.

The NASUWT’s annual conference this afternoon voted to challenge schools that decrease pupils’ access to these subjects.

NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said: “Creative and practical subjects were already being reduced or removed in some schools prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, but this risk is even greater now.

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“Children and young people must not be deprived of their entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum.

“Creative and practical subjects, including art, music and drama, provide unique educational opportunities. They must be guaranteed and protected in all schools.”

Mover of a conference motion warning of the change, art and design teacher Paul Nesbitt, said “now more than ever” creative and practical subjects were needed to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing.

He said: “It alarms the NASUWT that some schools are reducing creative arts subjects to catch up on lost learning.”

National executive member Ruth Duncan, a teacher of textiles technology, said that while the government-funded National Tutoring Programme was helping pupils catch up, it did not apply to creative and practical subjects.

Fiona Hawksley, a geography teacher, from the NASUWT Sheffield branch said: “The decline in arts subjects is short-sighted and morally wrong”.

The union says it will also lobby governments and administrations to take effective action to intervene where schools plan to remove creative and practical subjects.