Unicorn Theatre cautions schools are 'failing young people'

The Unicorn Theatre has cautioned that there is a "growing divide" in the education system when it comes to cultural opportunities for young people.

The Unicorn, one of the UK's leading venues for children's theatre, is responding to concerns raised in the Warwick Commission report earlier this year that cultural education is being "squeezed out" of the curriculum in many schools, with pupils from low income families the most affected.

According to a press statement from the venue:

Nearly six months on since the Warwick Report, the Unicorn is seeing the
effects of this divide. The theatre, which serves schools from some of the
hardest to reach boroughs across London, is seeing the impact of pressure on
schools with an increasing focus onto the core curriculum and STEM subjects
and a subsequent drop in theatre trips – which is often the first and
perhaps only chance that many children get to experience theatre.

Between August and June this year the Unicorn reportedly saw a 6% drop in attendance by schools groups compared to the previous year. The "overwhelming reason" for cancellation, says the Unicorn, has been a "top-down change of focus" at the schools away from theatre.

Catherine Greenwood, the Unicorn's learning associate, said: "A visit to the theatre can provide schools with a rich context for learning across the curriculum – which many teachers take advantage of, and we have first-hand experience showing that it improves literacy and learning among less able pupils in particular.

"However we are in serious danger of creating a two tier system: those schools who choose to make the arts available to their pupils and those who don't. If we let that happen then we will be failing many young people."

Other findings of the Warwick Commission's report, titled Enriching Britain, included that the culture sector is failing to represent the diversity of the population.

It recommended that The Department for Education and Ofsted should work to ensure that all children in England up to the age of 16 receive a "broad cultural education", to match that in Scotland and Wales.

Former National Theatre artistic director Richard Eyre said in response to the report: "The 'choice' of going to the theatre or the opera or an art gallery is a choice that doesn't exist for vast numbers of people in this country, who, if they feel anything at all about art, feel disenfranchised."