BRIT Trust Diaries: The BRIT Trust hails the BRIT School’s 'Outstanding' Ofsted status

In this edition of the BRIT Trust Diaries, BRIT Trust Chair, Tony Wadsworth CBE reflects on the brilliant achievement of The BRIT School in having been ranked “Outstanding” by Ofsted across all its categories, and how our industry needs to use this special moment to focus its efforts in securing greater government commitment to creative arts education.

Funded largely by The BRIT Awards and the MITS, the BRIT Trust draws on the power of music and the creative arts to improve lives.  Since its foundation by record labels and the BPI in 1989, it has made around 300 grants totaling over £30 million to a range of charities across the UK that promote education and wellbeing, including to its two leading beneficiaries, The BRIT School and Nordoff and Robbins. 

Tony Wadsworth CBE, Chair of the BRIT Trust:

In case you missed the wonderful news in January, the BRIT School, which is the UK’s first and leading free performing and creative arts school for 1,400 young people aged 14 to 19, was rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted.  It achieved this in each of the five core categories in which it was evaluated during a November inspection.  The top-line take away in Ofsted’s report kind of says it all: “Pupils love to learn here… and are set up for success”. 

In fact, to really emphasise the point, let me set out what Ofsted said in its summary in full.

“Pupils love to learn here. From the moment they begin at BRIT, pupils respond positively to the school’s very high academic and behavioural expectations. The school helps pupils to learn together and to develop leadership skills. These qualities are role-modelled by students in the sixth form, who exhibit responsibility, teamwork and empathy. This creates a school culture that simulates a professional workplace. Within this safe space, pupils know that they can be themselves, and that they are free from prejudice.”

For a school situated in the London Borough of Croydon, and with so many of its students having to overcome significant life obstacles, it’s a truly remarkable outcome, and one that should be celebrated by everyone in our industry that benefits from the talent the School consistently produces.  Just last week, Lola Young became the latest in an illustrious list of alumni, including Amy Winehouse, Adele and Jessie J, and more recently Loyle Carner, Olivia Dean and Cat Burns, who have earned BRITs nominations and gone on collectively to sell tens of millions of records and be streamed billions of times globally.

But to make all this possible, each academic year, the School has to raise £3.2 million (the equivalent of £2,200 per student) over and above its government funding, if it is to continue providing the world-class training and life-changing opportunities for each one of its young creatives that pass through its doors.

Consider further the context of the School’s achievements – data from recent years points to 60% of alumni going on to work in the creative industries. With a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, the School has 40% of students from Global Majority heritage and 47% from low income households. These are telling statistics, which also speak hugely to the fundamental role the School’s inspirational Principal, Stuart Worden, and his talented staff play in shaping the School’s identity, culture and outstanding outcomes, despite being so massively stretched and under-resourced. I also congratulate Josh Berger CBE, Chair of Trustees of The BRIT School, and its trustees on the excellent support they give Stuart and his team in guiding the School so effectively.

As Chair of the BRIT Trust – the music industry’s charity funded largely by the BRIT Awards and the MITS, and which has supported the School since it came into being in 1992, I can’t tell you how proud and happy this Ofsted news has made me. And I know that goes for all the Trustees and for everyone working in music and across the creative industries.

Given its irrefutable impact on economic  growth and its benefits to the well-being of the  UK as a whole, it’s been hard to  witness the decline in state funding of creative arts education over the last decade or more. This inevitably threatens the UK’s ability to nurture young, diverse creative talent and undermines  the UK’s  talent pipeline. We are hopeful that the new government makes good on their assurances that they will restore creative arts education to the core of the curriculum.  In addition to the careful stewarding of the advent of AI – an exciting technology, but, if left unchecked, with the potential to eradicate the value of copyright – this is the support that the creative industries need to maintain our strength on the world stage, at a time when the importance of ‘soft power ‘ is undeniable. 

That’s why creative arts education is so essential.  The cost-of-living crisis is now making it harder to break into the creative industries.  For this reason, the BRIT School ensures every young person attends for free regardless of their background. However, to be able to continue to provide our world class service and opportunities to every young creative its welcomes, the School needs better and more meaningful government support, as well as from industry and individuals passionate about access to arts education – if it is to remain free to attend and if it is to continue its outstanding level of impact in the long-term.