School enrichment like music and sport offers an ‘untapped opportunity’ to improve educational standards, social mobility, and young people’s readiness for work, says a new report from centre-right thinktank Onward.
The report, entitled ‘Beyond School: Why we need a new approach to school enrichment’, argues that extra-curricular activities hold the key to tackling student underperformance and ‘deepening’ socioeconomic inequalities.
Soft skills and cultural capital
Young people – particularly those from disadvantaged families – would benefit from the ‘soft skills’, cultural capital, and improved academic attainment that extra-curricular activities like music can provide, says the thinktank.
The widening disadvantage gap, the report argues, means that the children who would benefit the most are not being reached.
Meanwhile, the report praises education reform as ‘one of the defining achievements’ of the last 12 years of Conservative government.
Onward was co-founded by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien and Will Tanner, Rishi Sunak’s new deputy chief of staff.
Wealthy children make more music
As part of its evidence for unequal access to enrichment, the report cites data from 2015 that shows that young people in the wealthiest decile are three times more likely to sing in a choir or play in a band or orchestra weekly than those in the most deprived decile.
Similarly, over half of children in the wealthiest decile play a musical instrument compared to under a third in the most deprived decile.
Evidence of a north-south divide is also cited: young people in the South East are twice as likely to say they play music outside of school than young people in the North East.
Recommendations to government
Three barriers to schools offering ‘more enrichment’ are identified by the report: capacity, timing, and ensuring that enrichment reaches the most disadvantaged children and young people.
At just under 50 pages long, the report offers five recommendations that the thinktank argues will mitigate these barriers.
These include the introduction of a ring-fenced ‘enrichment premium’ for every primary and secondary school pupil, as well as a ‘strengthened accountability model’ for the spending of the premium.
Additionally, the report calls for new guidance from the government recommending that schools add an extra two hours to their week for enrichment, and recruit an ‘army’ of parent volunteers to support this.
Enrichment or arts premium?
In August this year, left-wing thinktank the Fabian Society called on the government to establish a national music service, as well as introduce the previously promised ‘arts premium’ to support curricular and extra-curricular music in schools.
The new National Plan for Music Education was debated in the House of Lords on 9 November, during which two crossbenchers called for the ‘resuscitation’ of the arts premium.
Onward’s ‘Beyond School’ report can be read in full online.
