The head of King’s Ely has taken to the website of The Telegraph to slam the Government’s plans to roll out the English Baccalaureate qualification in almost all state schools.

Sue Freestone, who has been head at King’s since 2004, has criticised the Government’s proposed implementation of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) – a qualification that recognises students that achieve five or more A* to C GCSE grades in English, maths, science, history or geography and a language - at 90 per cent of state schools in the country, saying it fails to recognise achievements in more creative subjects.

She said: “As a nation we are struggling to maintain our position in so many areas of life, yet still we produce some of the greatest performers and artists in the world today.

“However the branch of our educational machine that enables children to discover and develop the relevant talents is being starved into enforced mediocrity.

“It is beginning to feel more and more as though creative and performing arts subjects are viewed as second class, little more than hobbies, and that they have no right to challenge the supremacy and allocation of time and funding enjoyed by core subjects.”

Mrs Freestone said that schools could become “factories churning out the Three Rs Gradgrind-style and imparting ‘facts’ with little space for intellectual consideration” if the EBacc is brought in across the majority of English secondary schools.

She also said the creative industries “drive growth, enrich our lives and are central to the country’s well-being and public life” and that “we should nurture the breadth of our offering” and “incubate the rich seam of talent inherent in our young people” rather than constricting it.

The full article can be found here.