It could just have been a tic. Yet, when the government announced, a few weeks
ago, a plan for every school pupil in Britain to have access to five hours
of “high-quality culture” a week, eyebrows were raised. Still, the scheme
seems like a godsend. Five hours? That’s enough time to sit through Kenneth
Branagh’s uncut Hamlet - with time for note-taking and tea breaks.
We can ask what schools will do with the policy, however; and, in a country
overflowing with artistic greats, you wonder whether some of this
“culturing” hasn’t been going on already. We tracked down the schools of
some of our leading cultural figures to see if they are on track to produce
another generation of Winslets and Hirsts, and to find out what culture, in
our schools, is made of today.
DAVID HOCKNEY
Bradford Grammar School, West Yorkshire
There are school trips and there are strokes of luck. How else do you
categorise a sixth-formers’ holiday at David Hockney’s beach house in
Malibu? Hockney is Bradford Grammar’s most famous former pupil. A few years
ago, he allowed current students to visit, then to exhibit the work they
created at his gallery back home. Another world, but one can dream.
Rob Walker, the school’s head of art and design, emphasises that there are
more normal things in the students’ cultural diet (though there are still
great trips: next up, Assisi). They have several hours a week to focus on
extracurricular activity, be it design, technology, art or sport. And this
is one of the rare schools in Britain to offer life drawing in the sixth
form - with parental consent, of course.
Walker only regrets that teachers can’t do more for their pupils, being
restricted by what he calls the “health-and-safety mafia”. “We have an art
gallery across the road, but I’d have to fill out a huge risk-assessment
form for us to be able to go on the spur of the moment - or not, as the case
may be.” For Walker, the key is to take risks, to understand the student. At
his previous school, in a difficult area of Bristol, art was vital. “We had
teenage boys doing whopping drawings of Arnold Schwarzenegger, learning
shading by shading in his muscles. There’s no point in taking them to the
opera at Covent Garden straightaway - you have to identify what would make
them think, ‘This is worth doing.’ If you get them to take that hook, you
have them for life.”
MIKE LEIGH
North Grecian Street Primary School, Salford
One of Britain’s least affluent areas, Salford is rarely in the news for the
right reasons, but for the head teacher, Robert Jackson, this is a shame.
“There’s a lot of good stuff going on here,” he says. “The schools are a
real haven.”
Jackson welcomes the new schemes, but is quick to point out that the school
already puts aside money for arts activities from its own budget - about
£4,000 a year. And it can be used in all sorts of ways.
“There’s been a lot of coverage of how working-class boys find it hard to
engage in schools, because they wonder, ‘What can school offer me?’” Jackson
says. Cultural activities are a way of connecting with them. “We are
participating in the Salford Schools Dance Festival this week, and, yes, a
lot of the boys take part. The Lowry theatre gives up its space to local
schools, so the children end up dancing on stage with the help of
professional choreographers.”
It’s not about getting children to the Royal Ballet, Jackson says. “It will
absolutely benefit their working life. If nothing else, it gives them
something to go home and talk about. And that’s important when they spend so
much time in front of screens.”
DARCEY BUSSELL
Fox Primary School, London W8
“There is so much on offer here, it would be criminal not to be tapping into
it.” The deputy head, Jacqui Steele, is not exaggerating: Fox Primary is
located mere minutes from the Albert Hall, and the Royal Philharmonic, Royal
College of Music (RCM) and National Theatre have all helped out here. Past
students include Darcey Bussell and the actress Sophia Myles. If, however,
the school produces another generation of English roses, it won’t be through
sitting about. It is keen to bring in arts professionals, because, as Steele
says: “They operate at a different level. They show children you really can
make a living from the arts.”
Once a week, the RCM offers saxophone and flute lessons, free of charge, to
those who would otherwise not have the opportunity. The scheme is called
Musicians of the Future, and the hope is to find the country’s next talents.
With Fox’s pedigree, few would bet against it.
MARK RAVENHILL
Warden Park School, West Sussex
The head teacher, Steve Johnson, welcomes the new scheme, but points out:
“I’d like to define the five hours as an average across the year, rather
than someone saying, ‘Hang on a minute, you’ve only done 4½ hours here –
you’d better go and see a French film, quickly.’
“We had about 150 children involved in the most recent school production, Oh!
What a Lovely War: that’s a good strike rate.”
The school already offers four hours of arts a week in the curriculum. As
Johnson says, with a little irony: “We could fill in a form and show that we
were already doing a fair bit.” For him, the exciting part of the scheme is
the idea that schools will branch out into the wider community. “What we
need is a kind of cultural co-ordinator to work in the area, to generate
ideas and create links. That’s the real way forward.”
JOANNE ROWLING
St Michael’s Primary School, Winterbourne, South Gloucestershire
“One of our biggest assets is the creativity of our staff,” says the head
teacher, Adrian Vye.
“One of our teachers is an artist, who runs the art club, and another takes
part in amateur opera. Last September, she took 10 children with her to an
opera open day, to sing Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.”
Students at St Michael’s get to enjoy culture at its most local and exotic.
“Another teacher is a member of the local morris-dancing group, and she
organises country dancing. After all, it’s part of our cultural heritage.”
At the other extreme, the local authority offers workshops for children with
gamelan, the Indonesian chimes, drums and gongs that seem to be all the rage
with educational facilities these days. “Yes,” Vye chuckles. “It’s music
that sounds harmonious even if you play the wrong note.”
The school’s most famous alumna is JK Rowling, a fact the children are proud
of. “She’s quite a private lady, but some of our students have written to
her, and she’s written back personally.” As yet, there have been no Harry
Potter events at the school, but perhaps that would provide the perfect
chance to invite her over? “Yes,” Vye says. “It’s all about getting creative
people in to have ideas and create opportunities.”
SIMON RATTLE
Liverpool College
Work, for the head of art and design, Brian Donnelly, centres on getting his
students to interact with the worlds of commerce and industry. They have
produced sculptures for a brewery in Warrington, even murals for Victoria
station, in London. A teenager specialising in photography used his skills
to provide press material for local businesses. “I want art students to see
that they have a valid role in the job market,” Donnelly says.
These activities at Simon Rattle’s alma mater are a taster of the seeds the
scheme would like to sow. It gives children pleasure, but also identifies
skills for the future. For Donnelly, it’s an acknowledgment by government of
the arts’ importance, and long overdue. “Working like this makes students
take themselves seriously as people with skills to offer, outside an
academic context. A creative credential is a valid qualification, one
everybody has a right to.”
