Our vision, shaped by you.
Creativity is a core skill
We believe every learner deserves the time, confidence and opportunity to create.
Creative subjects should be relevant, future-focused and always authentic. They should open up lifelong opportunities, lead to specialist careers for students who want them, and develop transferable skills for a wide range of career pathways.
Shaping the future of creative subjects
Tapping into our creative selves and learning to accentuate what we find there is fundamental to student success in education and beyond. It’s about nurturing what’s human and unique about each of us and seeing the difference it makes when we bring those qualities together.
By pairing flexibility with experience, ideas and knowledge, we are constructing creative qualifications that are accessible, inspiring and genuinely designed around the strengths and aspirations of every learner. Our vision – co-created with teachers, students and subject specialists – is for a curriculum that excels and adapts to whatever the future holds, building confidence and resilience to keep learners thriving in the jobs and opportunities of tomorrow.
Our aim? To sculpt a future for art and design, design and technology, drama and music that offers all students the chance to form an unshakable sense of achievement and self-worth, illuminating what’s possible for them now and in their lives to come.
Art and Design
A high-quality GCSE Art and Design education extends far beyond mastering technical skills. It empowers students to transform their creative curiosity into deliberate, reflective artistic practice.
Design & Technology
Through Design & Technology, students become creative problem-solvers, developing the confidence to question, experiment and create thoughtful solutions for a changing world.
Coming soon
Drama
Drama creates a space for students to find their voice, explore different perspectives and bring ideas to life through imagination, expression and collaboration.
Coming soon
Music
Music inspires students to explore sound, express themselves and connect with others, developing the creativity and confidence to shape their own musical identity.
Coming soon
Reform readiness checklist
Know what to focus on now and what comes next.
The classroom of today
What 400+ secondary creatives teachers told us about today's creative classroom.
The classroom of tomorrow
See what 400+ creatives teachers said about creative education tomorrow.
GCSE Art and Design Reform webinar series
Hear from guest speakers and Art and Design experts as they explore key topics shaping the subject, from supporting every learner to creativity in an AI-driven world and the latest on GCSE reform.
Creative Futures: The Shape of Music and Creative Education in the UK
What does the future of creative education look like for young people in the UK?
Our new Creative Futures report explores the role of music and creative subjects in building confidence, wellbeing and skills for the future, alongside the barriers that can prevent young people from taking part. Drawing on the views of almost 10,000 students, teachers, college tutors and members of the public, it explores what needs to change to make high-quality creative education accessible to every young person.
Help us create the best future for creative subjects
We believe that creative subjects have a bright and brilliant future, one that individuals and communities can shape together. We’d love for you to be a part of that process.
As part of our work to bring this vision to reality, we’ll be sharing thought‑leading perspectives, practical guidance and classroom-ready support that brings our vision for the future of creative subjects to life.
Sign up to receive updates as we work with students, teachers and the wider sector to expand the role of this important subject both inside and outside the classroom.
Creative Curriculum - Registration of Interest
Creative Curriculum - Registration of Interest
If you want to find out more and be part of our conversations on the future of the Creative Curriculum, register your interest and we'll keep you up to date with our programme of events, forums, insights gathering, updates and more.
Text Modal Art and Design
Our vision for Art and Design
Creativity and self-expression are the sparks that light up our interactions with the world, enabling us to engage with life in agile and meaningful ways. We believe every young person is inherently creative, regardless of background, prior experience or confidence level. Art and Design should be a space where every student feels they belong and find their voice.
When we study Art and Design, we bring together our experiences of what’s around us with what’s in ourselves. We build cultural understanding. We strengthen our power to interpret and creatively shape our environment – and develop our own voice and individuality.
The mark of a rich GCSE Art and Design education goes beyond building technical skill. It allows young people to turn creative curiosity into intentional, reflective practice. Whether experimenting with emerging mediums or refining ideas through iteration, studying Art and Design equips students with both the courage to take risks and the resilience to learn from failure.
Through this, the subject also bridges the growing gap between creative education and employment. By empowering the next generation to create boldly, we can help them build transferable skills that are essential for an evolving career landscape.
Illuminated futures
Nurturing human creativity in a digital age
As the world gets increasingly automated and AI-enabled, Art and Design plays an important role in championing human creativity and vision. It bridges imagination and tangible creation and encourages young people to draw on their own lived experiences -something technology simply can’t replicate.
It should support students to:
- Develop creative confidence: cultivate a distinct voice, trust their own ideas, and feel empowered to express their individuality without fear of judgment.
- Embrace risk-taking: engage in learning where experimentation, trial, and refining ideas through feedback build lifelong resilience.
- Master human-centred innovation alongside technology: harness imagination, empathy, and craft - alongside digital technologies - to produce original work.
Practical skills for an evolving world
Creative problem-solving is essential for navigating an emerging future.
Art and Design develops crucial transferable skills, such as critical thinking, project management, and research, that prepare young people to excel across a wide variety of pathways. Whether through traditional tactile craft or emerging areas like UX design, immersive tech, and digital content creation, students build skills that apply to any career.
It should support students to:
- Analyse visual media: thoughtfully interrogate images, design choices, and digital content with a critical eye to navigate an image-saturated world.
- Support wellbeing and belonging: experience the mental health benefits of tactile making, practical focus, and physical creation within an encouraging studio community.
- Connect with a range of perspectives: explore a rich range of cultural heritage, artistic movements, and contemporary practices that reflect varied identities.
- Take pride in authentic achievement: experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from turning abstract ideas into original, physical or digital outcomes.
As technology continues to reshape how we live and work, human insight and empathy are ever more important. Art and Design provides the foundation where students learn to harness those qualities, ensuring every young person can step into the world as a confident, innovative creator capable of shaping tomorrow.
Text Modal Time to create
Time to create
Making enough space for ideas to roam
Teachers currently face significant time-related challenges which include:
- an extensive amount of content to cover within two years, limiting creative student engagement
- marking and internal standardisation demands
- preparing samples for external moderation
- shortage of specialised staff and small departments
- less time scheduled in the timetable, yet with the same pressures to hit expected grades.
We want to help reduce these time pressures. This way, you can better support your students, encouraging them to experiment, take risks, and explore their curiosity.
We are constantly looking at time-saving ways to help you cut through the details as quickly and smoothly as possible. To this end, we have:
- developed enhanced exemplar libraries which give quicker access to relevant exemplars
- created regular live online and face-to-face training
- started to put together support guides on how to take video evidence for moderation
- recommended content reductions to creative subjects in our response to the curriculum and assessment review
- continued to meet with teachers and students to understand what matters to them, what they want to learn and how they want to learn, helping us shape the future of our creative subjects and qualifications.
Text Modal Confidence to create
Confidence to create
Strengthening teachers’ and leaders’ core talents
Creative subjects present both challenges and benefits. This is because coursework must be graded internally before outside moderation. The advantages include:
- providing students with an authentic, project-based learning experience
- reducing end-point assessment stress
- fostering autonomy and personal growth.
However, this process can be time-consuming and stressful for teachers. This is especially true when trying to understand exemplar marks and access exemplar materials.
We want to alleviate these challenges and for you to feel confident in using the mark and the moderation processes. This way, you can support your students to take risks, challenge themselves, and be eager to create.
What we’re doing:
- Introducing exemplar libraries across our creative subjects, to ensure students and teachers have a clear understanding of the assessment standards.
- Increasing our face-to-face marking training for Art & Design and Design & Technology.
- Refining and delivering online marking training to ensure everyone has access to live training.
- Developing enhanced training of our moderation team to ensure the highest level of consistency and communication with centres.
- Improving our moderation reports so that they give you meaningful and comprehensive feedback on your cohort after each series.
- Working with teachers and students to understand what gives them confidence to teach, learn and create, and using their experiences to help shape the future of our creative subjects and qualifications.
Text Modal Opportunity to create
Opportunity to create
Opening up new chances for connection and collaboration
The creative subjects have been under significant pressure in recent years for a variety of reasons, including:
- competition for curriculum time with EBacc subjects
- pressure on students to choose EBacc subjects over creative ones
- increased focus on writing at the expense of practical creation thus losing the authenticity of the creative subject
- financial barriers affecting access and outcomes
- negative perceptions about the value of creative subjects.
All learners deserve the chance to develop their creativity. That is why we're advocating for better recognition of creative subjects. These subjects should be valued as part of a complete education for all students.
We also want to see the financial burden on schools reduced. This way, no subject will be out of reach due to a lack of materials, equipment, or events.
At a subject content level, we're proposing the following changes:
- An increased weighting of NEA in Music, Design & Technology, and Drama to ensure learners have a more authentic creative experience.
- An earlier release date for externally set assignments for Art & Design.
We’ll also explore accessible pathways into creative subjects for those who feel they're currently out of reach. For example, we’ll be:
- highlighting and exemplifying the non-performance pathway through Drama GCSE
- increasing support for the digital pathway through Art & Design.
Art and Design
Art and Design webinar
3 December 2026
Supporting all learners to succeed in Art & Design
Date: 3 December - Time: 16:00 - 17:00 GMT
Overview: How can we help students to engage, thrive and progress in art and design? Join us and Susan Coles, Honorary Fellow of NSEAD, Trustee of AccessArt, Vice President of InSEA and Secretary to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Art, Craft & Design, for this FREE webinar exploring practical approaches to supporting learners with different starting points and ambitions. We’ll discuss ways to build and develop creative confidence, technical skills, personal expression and assessment while breaking down barriers to participation and ensuring equitable access to high-quality arts education.
Speaker: Susan Coles, Honorary Fellow of NSEAD, Trustee of AccessArt, Vice President of InSEA and Secretary to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Art, Craft & Design
Art and Design webinar
24 February 2027
The human touch: creativity, drawing and the future of art in an AI-driven world
Date: 24 February 2027 - Time: 16:00 - 17:00 GMT
Overview: In the second of our free webinars, we’re exploring the value of drawing and foundational art skills in an era of AI-generated imagery with Andrew Schlussel.
Having worked in leading animation and visual effects roles at studios including Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Netflix and Framestore, and now as Senior Director at DNEG, Andrew will share his experience of how drawing, observation and visual communication remain vital for careers across industries – and how human creativity, judgement and original thinking can help students stand out.
You'll take away practical tips on bringing these skills to life and connecting classroom learning with post-16 progression and future creative careers.
Speaker: Andrew Schlussel, Senior Director at DNED