The article advocates for a deeper integration of creativity within schools, emphasizing the need for serious engagement with artists in the educational system. Highlighting the experience of Theatre Centre, it describes how sustained artist involvement transforms school culture, revitalizes teaching, and boosts student confidence. The decline of music education in schools, exacerbated by a mental health crisis, is also addressed, stressing music's developmental benefits and its potential role in addressing children's emotional challenges. To improve education, the arts must have institutional support and respect, fostering lifelong creative skills.
The arts teach essential skills: curiosity, critical thinking, the ability to collaborate and navigate uncertainty. Theatre Centre's mission to embed creativity at the centre of education continues.
Until recently, I was the artistic director at Theatre Centre, an organisation that’s spent more than seven decades putting artists at the heart of education.
In one recent residency, the artist became part of the everyday life of a school science department, co-creating with students, feeding into staff meetings, even rethinking how assemblies were run.
Between 2007 and 2023, GCSE music entries nearly halved. The decline was even steeper at A-level, which, research predicts, will disappear from state schools by 2033.
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