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The president of the UK’s biggest education union has warned that education relating to the arts must not be reduced to day trips.

Gallery, theatre and concert trips offered valuable experiences, but there was a danger of schools seeing the arts as “done” afterwards, he said.

Appearing at an event calling for the “restoration” of the arts in schools, president Ed Harlow expressed concern that the curriculum had reverted to a “Dickensian or Victorian” model, with its prime focus being literacy and maths.

School budgets ‘running on empty’

During a question-and-answer session, Mr Harlow was asked what role visits to venues such as art galleries should play in education.

Mr Harlow said that galleries, orchestras and concert halls offered “hugely valuable” opportunities for schools but that they could be relied on too much, particularly at a time when school budgets are “running on empty”.

He added: “The danger, and my fear, is that sometimes headteachers look at a gallery trip and think, ‘Well, that’s art done with; now we can get back to English and maths’.”

The NEU president said that a day trip to a Tate gallery or an orchestral concert on its own did not mean that children had covered off the arts in a satisfactory way.

In December, the Arts and Minds campaign found that only 7 per cent of school leaders will spend more time on creative subjects despite the planned removal of the English Baccalaureate, or EBacc, following the recent Francis curriculum and assessment review.

Mr Harlow’s comments also come after a recent study found lower-income pupils being steered away from creative subjects such as art, music and drama.

‘Victorian vision of education’

In supporting calls for the “restoration” of arts, Mr Harlow argued that the curriculum is not setting up pupils for the world they will ultimately live in.

“It’s time for a proper nationwide discussion about what we want education to be - what is it for in the 21st century?” he asked.

“Because in many ways, we’ve just regressed to some kind of Dickensian, Victorian vision of what education should be.”

Speaking with ����Vlog after the event, Mr Harlow elaborated that political discussion on education often focused on literacy and numeracy.

Mr Harlow was speaking at an event exploring what will be next for arts in the curriculum following the EBacc.

Former children’s laureate Michael Rosen delivered the keynote speech at the event run by Arts and Minds, the coalition of national organisations representing the arts and education sectors. It announced the as its 50th member last week.

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