For nearly half the kids in this country, school is the only place they’ll ever set foot in the arts. Now imagine taking that away.
Problem is, you don’t have to imagine. It’s already happening.
Schools across England are cutting drama. Some are cutting it back, some are cutting it out completely. The number of young people taking drama at GCSE has dropped by around 40% since 2010. Between 2011 and 2017 alone, we lost one in five drama teachers. And once the specialist goes, the subject rarely comes back.
They don’t find it somewhere else
When a school cuts drama, those kids don’t go and find it elsewhere. They just go without, especially as most other options cost money and not everyone can afford them.
I volunteer with our local youth theatre, and groups like ours pick up some of the slack. But we charge fees. We need parents to do the lifts. We run on volunteers and goodwill. So the kids who needed the school version most are the ones least likely to walk through our door.
This isn’t about making actors
It’s about the kid who learns to stand up and speak without their voice shaking. The one who learns to listen, to read a room, to work with people they didn’t pick. Every employer I know wants those skills, and drama teaches them better than almost anything.
There’s a whole workforce behind it too. Not just the people on stage, but lighting, sound, set builders, stage managers, and a creative economy that’s growing faster than the rest of the country. That pipeline starts in a school hall.
The policy has moved. The teachers haven’t come back.
Here’s the frustrating part, because the policy has finally shifted. The government has agreed to scrap the EBacc, the measure that pushed arts subjects to the margins. And the curriculum review wants drama properly built into the timetable.
But a recommendation doesn’t rehire a teacher.
So, to the people who can actually change this
Headteachers and governors – when the budget gets tight, please don’t let drama be the first thing on the list. Ask what it costs to lose it, not just what it costs to keep it.
MPs and councillors, turn the curriculum review into funding that reaches schools. Words in a report won’t staff a department.
And parents: ask the question at your next parents’ evening. Is drama still on the timetable? If it isn’t, ask why. Then keep asking until you get an answer.
Because somewhere right now there’s a kid who hasn’t found their voice yet. School might be the only stage they ever get.
Don’t be the one who switches off the lights.
Photo by Liam McGarry on Unsplash