400 schools needed to take part in culture trials

400 schools needed to take part in culture trials

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) has announced that 9,000 pupils in 400 schools across England will take part in five new trials.

The aim of the trials is to find out if different cultural learning approaches can boost primary pupils’ achievement.

The Learning About Culture programme includes five different projects – including whole-class music, drama sessions and illustration – to be evaluated through large randomised controlled trials that will test their impact on academic attainment, as well as on skills and behaviours like resilience, self-confidence and creativity.

In a separate strand of the project, the RSA will also research how arts-rich schools get the most out of this kind of activity and provide training to encourage more effective use of evidence in the design of cultural learning projects.

The delivery and evaluation of the programme is being funded through a partnership between the RSA and the EEF, with support from Arts Council England, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Foyle Foundation and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

All five projects will be evaluated by a team of independent evaluators led by the University of London - Institute of Education and the Behavioural Insights Team.

The evaluations will look at the impact on children’s learning and development, as well as how different approaches to delivery maximise the benefit to children and schools. Projects were chosen based on existing evidence to suggest that they might be likely to demonstrate an impact.

Each of the organisations delivering projects is seeking schools to take part in the trials in different parts of England, particularly those in areas where deprivation is high and arts participation is low.

Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “All children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, deserve a well-rounded, culturally rich, education.

“But with schools increasingly accountable for the impact of all of their spending decisions on pupil attainment, there is an urgent need for more and better evidence on the relative benefits of different approaches and strategies.

“Not only will the new trials provide cultural learning opportunities to thousands of primary pupils who might not otherwise have the opportunity, but they will give us much needed evidence on the impact of different approaches."

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