Creativity: should it be disruptive and playful or bounded by knowledge and discipline?

We have recently seen the beginning of a decline in entry at GCSE and A-level for arts subjects (see Thinktank report: A Step Backward, 2019). It can be tempting, in austere times, to concentrate on ‘core’ subjects: English, maths, science and humanities, included in Progress 8 and the EBacc. The curriculum has narrowed to the extent that Ofsted has admonished schools that have sought to maximise their chances in the new measures by reducing arts provision. The schools most likely to do this are often in the most culturally and materially disadvantaged catchments, and there are few incentives in the current system to slowly transform the culture in an area. The creative industries have increasingly become as dominated by those from privileged backgrounds as other sectors – another failure within the wider pattern of halted social mobility. Yet they are also one of the fastest growing and most profitable aspects of our economy – worth, in 2018, over £101.5 billion. At the very