NSEAD are here to be a champion for our members and art, craft and design education. Here are just a few of the ways in which we have worked together to make positive change for every educator, every learner in 2024/25.
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Art and design education + the climate emergency
In September 2024, we published issue 41 of AD magazine. This special issue focused on the theme, Art and the Earth Crisis, with every page highlighting how our subject can help address the environment and climate emergency. Read AD #41 online.
Government policy – speaking up for art education
At the end of September, NSEAD held a joint fringe event with the National Education Union (NEU) at the Trade Unions Congress, bringing together NSEAD speakers with NEU, Equity and UAL representatives to debate the impact of government policy on art education.
The Raw Marks Campaign
In October 2024 we published the NSEAD Raw Marks Survey Report, which aimed to identify the impact on teachers and learners of giving centre-assessed raw marks to GCSE, AS and A level art and design candidates.
We met with JCQ and Ofqual to share the report, our findings and recommendations that the process is reviewed or ends as soon as possible. Ofqual have stated that there will be no change to the process. Consequently, NSEAD is continuing our campaign and calling for a review to fully evidence this decision. Find out what our next steps will be.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review – art and design education matters
NSEAD submitted a detailed 10,000-word response to the government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) call for evidence in December 2024, making the case for a revised curriculum for art, craft and design that is future facing, learner-centred and meets the needs of all learners. In addition, NSEAD submitted joint responses with the Design Council focusing on design education, and the Save Our Subjects campaign, focusing on accountability. We provided research data and subject-specific guidance to support other organisations’ submissions.
NSEAD has attended stakeholder meetings, round tables and one-to-one meetings with the DfE and CAR team throughout the year, advising on key recommendations for the curriculum and the planned National Centre for Music and Arts Education.
The CAR interim report was published in March 2025.
Prof. Andy Ash, NSEAD President, says,
As society changes, art changes – and so should our curriculum. Although our subject continues to be a popular choice for learners, the curriculum does not reflect their world and it does not look to the future that they will build. Our subject has been held in low regard by too many policy makers.
We need this curriculum review to recognise what our learners know – art, craft and design is a vital part of their education, and our society. We need an inclusive curriculum that is fit for the future, and the world we live in today.
Read NSEAD's full response and recommendations.
Gender and the transformative power art education
In January 2025, we published the Gender, Art & Transformative Education special issue of AD magazine (#42). Informed by the work of NSEAD's special interest group of the same name, this AD explores ways that art education can be a gateway to creating spaces where all learners can see themselves represented, heard and celebrated. Read AD #42 online.
AD issues #41 and #42.
The Arts & Minds Campaign calls for change
The Arts & Minds Campaign launched in February 2025. NSEAD have been a core supporter of this coalition, made up of over 20 organisations including the NEU, Equity & the Musicians’ Union. The campaign is calling for all children and young people to have the right to study creative subjects and for arts funding in schools to be fully restored. Together, we aim to draw attention to the ‘creative gap’ in schools and are calling for the government to put creativity at the heart of learning.
In July, NSEAD General Secretary Michele Gregson spoke at the 15th annual Festival of Education at Wellington College. In the session, ‘Arts and Minds: creativity and what it means for social justice’, Michele shared the work of the Arts & Minds Campaign and spoke about the importance of arts education and the growing equity gap.
In the last 15 years we know there has been a decrease in art and design provision in schools - a decrease in hours taught, in teacher numbers and funding too. A focus on SATs in primary schools and arts carousals in key stage 3 for example, have reduced time studying the arts; whilst the Ebacc has removed arts options and therefore life-choices for a generation. And, we know that the playing fields of arts opportunity are not level across the independent and state schools.
As an Arts and Minds coalition member, we urge the government to remove these barriers, open the gates and access to the arts, so that every child can thrive and reach their full potential.
- Michele Gregson, NSEAD General Secretary & CEO
Save Our Subjects
NSEAD meet regularly with the subject associations for dance and music, One Dance UK and the Independent Society for Musicians (ISM), as part of our ongoing work on the Save Our Subjects campaign, which has called for an end to the Ebacc and reform of accountability measures since 2023.
In March 2025, an open letter calling on the CAR to address the harmful impact of the Ebacc and Progress 8 was published in The Times. The letter was signed by over 700 people, including leading arts figures such as NSEAD patrons Bob and Roberta Smith and Dr Janina Ramirez. Read the letter here.
Anti-racist art education – our actions continue
In May 2025, we published an Anti-Racist, Art Education Action (ARAEA) newsletter, marking five years since the killing of George Floyd in 2020. In the days, weeks, months and years that followed his death and the international protests in response, the ARAEA group was formed - working together to create accessible and practical anti-racist art education resources. ARAEA's work has continued and this newsletter reflects on some of the actions undertaken by ARAEA and the United Black Art Educators (UBAE) network in 2024-25. Read the ARAEA newsletter.
The 2025 anniversary ARAEA newsletter and #SaveOurSubjects letter published in The Times.
The Creative Education Coalition and NSEAD
NSEAD continue to be a core member of the Creative Education Coalition, taking part in a ‘hackathon’ event in May 2025: mapping the significant organisations, campaigns and advocacy for arts education across the UK.
Also in May, Michele Gregson wrote an opinion piece for Schools Week, warning that art, craft and design should not be assumed to be thriving on the basis of GCSE entry figures, and calling for more radical, whole system change to close the equity gaps. 'How to avoid a managed decline of art and design' reflects on the way the curriculum review’s evidence that art and design are thriving masks concerning statistics and some very real weaknesses in our national offer. Subject specialist research, including the School Art: Where is it? report, challenges the claim that our subject is stable.
NSEAD will continue to engage with the curriculum review panel and DfE to highlight the importance of addressing quality and relevance in the provision.
The power and importance of design in Art & Design
Since it was re-formed in 2024, NSEAD's Design in Art & Design special interest group has been working across our partnerships with design-focused agencies, organisations and educators to ensure that ‘design’ within art and design is both clearly understood and articulated to members, policy makers and the wider educational community.
One such initiative, published in June 2025, is The Design Council's 'Skills for Planet Blueprint', which tackles the green design skills gap, providing a shared language and practical steps for a regenerative future. NSEAD support the Design Council’s vision that ‘“green design” becomes so interwoven into design practice that it simply becomes part of what we mean by “good design”’.
NSEAD are also part of the DfE’s Design and Technology Curriculum and Assessment Review Stakeholder group, advocating for design education within Design & Technology and Art & Design as distinct curriculum areas which complement, not duplicate.
The Creative Education Commission
Michele Gregson also joined the Creative Education Commission this year, launched by UAL. The commission will present a series of recommendations to improve the quality and status of arts education in our schools in Autumn 2025.
Your trade union
Throughout the year, our dedicated Trade Union Officer has been providing subject specialist professional and legal support to our Trade Union members, advocating for their rights and interests in the workplace. This summer, NSEAD members joined colleagues in strike action and led negotiations with school management to successfully resolve their dispute over pension rights and the right to be recognised. This historic, first action was made possible by the resolve and determination of an art and design department where every art teacher is an NSEAD member.