What artists are saying

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

‘Without the amazing opportunities I had in my secondary school I would not be where I am today. I support #BaccfortheFuture and join the thousands of voices calling for the #EBacc policy to be urgently reversed or reformed to save creative education in schools.’

Jess Gillam

'Bacc for the Future is such an important initiative - we need to promote and nurture creativity within education now more than ever and as the arts are being undermined as subjects, we are in danger of crushing creativity.'

Jack Pepper

'A curriculum should be all about developing well-rounded human beings, and the arts are an important part of this. The EBacc in effect makes a statement of intent to students, a valuation: in neglecting the arts, the Ebacc suggests that these subjects are not necessary in the modern world. By recommending some subjects and not others, the EBacc is placing school subjects in rank – yet another league table, this time of academic subjects – with the arts not just at the back of the room, but entirely out of the classroom. By taking the arts out of the school day, it is only reinforcing the perception of the arts as an unnecessary luxury, a box to tick.

Without the supportive teachers I had at my secondary school, and without the encouragement of my family and piano teacher, I doubt I would be where I am today. But a wide-ranging and encouraging music education shouldn’t be left to chance.

A curriculum should be about presenting options, not reducing them. The arts are not an unnecessary luxury for a privileged few, but a crucial part of a wider whole to which all young people should have access. The onus should not be on the student to pursue the arts out of school hours; it’s time we stopped ghettoising the arts in our curriculum. I support #BaccfortheFuture and call for the Ebacc policy to be rapidly reviewed and reformed.’