There are days in education that feel like turning points. Co-hosting the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) Teacher Development Fund (TDF) TeachMeet on 20 May 2026, alongside the wonderful Andria Zafirakou, was a day like this. For two fabulous hours, teachers from England, Scotland and Wales shared their experiences of leading and participating in TDF arts-based learning projects. The teachers brought to life what engaging with creative artists for professional development had meant to them, how it had changed them, and how this had impacted on their pupils. The stories of growth were inspiring, from spoken word poetry in Redbridge, traditional Gaelic music in the Highlands, to creative dance in Lancashire; all teachers reported how their progressing confidence in creative arts teaching was creating happy classrooms with eager learners.
The teaching taking place as part of the TDF projects clearly unlocked inclusive opportunities for pupil participation. Playfulness and joy were reported as key outcomes as creativity in lessons (and lesson transitions) was encouraged. This reminded me of Eisner’s (2003) work on the way the arts can transform brains into minds in school. Eisner stated in 2003 (p. 23) that:
Over 20 years later and this statement remains relevant and timely, as we see a significant and positive policy repositioning of the arts coming from the 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) chaired by Professor Becky Francis (Department for Education (DfE), 2025) and the 2026 Department for Education’s White Paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving (DfE, 2026).
The CAR resulted in the removal of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) accountability measure, long condemned as a structural driver of arts curriculum narrowing. The Cultural Learning Alliance (2025, para. 3) noted this change as ‘a brave and necessary decision ’. The CAR is clear that the creative arts are an essential part of the curriculum:
The White Paper went further, committing to giving ‘parity for creative subjects’ in the revised accountability framework, and framing the arts as essential to social mobility (DfE, 2026: 36).
However, policy ambition and classroom reality do not always run hand in hand. Only 7% of school leaders reported plans to increase time on creative subjects (DfE, 2026). There is a gap in the professional development of teachers to support the creative arts, particularly in primary schools, which is what makes TDF so important. The teachers reporting on their TDF projects in the TeachMeet are not waiting for an enrichment framework; they have proactively committed to working with arts practitioners to develop their teaching of creative arts with rigour and intentionality. Teachers in TDF projects engage in what Darling-Hammond et al. (2017) identify as the hallmarks of genuinely effective professional development: sustained, collaborative, content-focused learning embedded in real classroom practice over two years, not a one-off training day. Professional development is not being delivered to these teachers; it is being built with them.
It is encouraging that policy frameworks are being developed to support creative arts in the classroom, but they cannot substitute for the relational, sustained professional learning that the TDF model enables. At the TeachMeet, I was struck not simply by what teachers are doing, but by who they are becoming: artists, risk-takers and advocates for their pupils. The White Paper’s commitment to enrichment as a ‘common entitlement’ (DfE, 2026) is a genuine step forward, and the scrapping of the EBacc removes a structural barrier that has held back creative subjects for too long. But change happens through people, in schools this is through teachers who dare to be vulnerable, to write poetry, choreograph lessons with a dance artist, and discover that a beat-boxing workshop is, in fact, transformative professional learning. The policy window is now open. My hope is that the system will invest with the depth, duration and humanity that will enable the creative arts to create creative minds.
