Extremely rough notes from this Channel 4 event inspired by government plans to offer all children five hours of access to arts and ‘high culture’ per week. I got tired towards the end, and gave up completely for the Question & Answer session.
Janey Walker, Head of Education
Channel 4 is interested in engagement and reach
"talent is our obsession"
Peter Jenkinson, cultural broker
5 hours a week, in and out of school
Difficult to implement?
On brink of a renaissance?
London and UK as world cultural hub
Boosterism?
Just a way to tackle anti-social behaviour
What's in it for artists, and are the children up to it?
Margaret Hodge, Secretary of State, DCMS
10 pilots, nearly150 expressions of interest (LEAs, voluntary orgs)
Reasons:
1) sheer joy in cultural experience
2) involvement in creativity raises standards
3) more jobs in creative sector
Experiment with 5 hours sports has had many benefits
Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport
Clash of culture and politics is often dangerous. Culture usually wins.
Sat through The Ring at age 10.
Used to be a Classic FM listener, but more sophisticated now.
"an aspiration not a target"
A pilot, no money assigned to roll out.
Many schools already doing 5 hours.
Can culture be packaged up and delivered as a target? Could infantilise what counts as culture.
Risk of forgetting what the real problem is e.g. difficulties of learning a music instrument
Good architecture is what helps you thrive not just survive.
Tony Lyng, Headteacher, Brockhill Park
5 hours is irrelevant.
Recognise fundamental worth of culture. Many schools working towards this for some time.
Thread of creative learning through all subjects.
5 hours is 20% of curriculum time, but less than 5% of waking time. As such it's not enough.
Culture is what we are.
Don't care much about 5 hours sport either.
Helen Reddington, musician and teacher
Risk of creativity getting tangled up with talent.
Talent implies competition, and want to take that out.
Anna Cutler, Head of Interpretation and Learning, Tate Modern
Told a story about a childhood cultural learning experience, and drew some lessons from it, which...
Estelle Morris
Told by teachers that creativity had been squeezed out of the curriculum. But on visits to the schools, they often showed off their creative achievements as what they were most proud of.
Targets and money are poor levers for dealing with culture.