Educational Opportunities: Working Classes — House of Lords, 2020-03-05
Topic: Education
Genista Mary McIntosh (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, like everyone else, I thank my noble friend Lady Morris for a genuinely inspirational opening speech for this debate. I agree with just about everything she said, particularly about early years and about teachers One range of opportunities that is increasingly unavailable to children in the maintained sector, as the curriculum narrows and budgets tighten, is access to the arts. We might ask why that matters. It matters because it is clear from plenty of evidence that for all children and young people, but particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, experience of the arts is a key way of building the social and cultural capital that is, I think, what the noble Lord, Lord Kirkham, was referring to in his own way—the social and cultural capital that they need to succeed In her excellent Lord Speaker’s lecture last month, the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, who is not able to participate today unfortunately, made this point with great cogency. If time allowed, I would reference in more detail one of her sources, the work of Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison in their book The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged, which looks at how class and parental income affect who gets to the top in elite professions. I commend that work to the Minister. High-performing independent schools—massively overrepresented in top jobs—have long understood the value of the arts in education and promote it heavily as a key part of their offer. That is fine for those who can afford around £20,000 per child per year but not so good for everyone else I wish to mention three organisations with which I have close connections, each of which, in different ways, is doing first-class work to bring the benefits of involvement in the arts to children and young people who really need it. The first, the Artis Foundation, is a very small organisation that has been working for the past 15 years placing performing artists of all kinds in schools, principally primary schools, to support and enhance the curriculum. It has been successful and highly valued work, with special impact on children with disadvantaged backgrounds. However, many schools now struggle to afford its services despite excellent outcomes The second organisation, Chickenshed, which will be known to some Members of this House, is a brilliant company in which children and young people of all abilities work together to create theatre of high quality. Chickenshed also provides pathways to BTEC and degree- level qualifications. One in four participants have disabilities or disadvantages, often reflecting challenges in their lives, including exclusion from mainstream education and other social settings. Involvement with Chickenshed is a lifesaver for many of these young people The Royal Shakespeare Company needs no introduction but I want to emphasise the work of its education department and to draw the Minister’s attention to research, called Time to Listen, commissioned jointly by the RSC, Tate and the University of Nottingham, which examines the benefits of arts and cultural education. This study brings out the voices and opinions of young people as well as teachers and gives insights into the positive difference that sustained engagement with the arts can bring to their lives. It also points to the increasing difficulties state-funded schools face in giving access and priority to this aspect of education I grew up in a large family where there was no money most of the time, but both my parents were university educated, both had a wide range of cultural interests and the house was full of books and music. Even at that time, many years ago, this set me apart from most of my fellow students in the grammar school I attended, and I am in no doubt that the cultural capital that I built up from that accident of birth has been a huge and entirely undeserved benefit to me all my life I hope that when the Minister comes to reply she will not only acknowledge the value of the arts in helping young people to find and make good use of their talents—I am sure she will—but also give an undertaking that she will do everything in her power to influence the more sceptical of her colleagues in the Department for Education who have yet to be persuaded.