The creative industries have moved into first place to be the fastest growing economic sector in the UK, responsible for 5.6% of jobs, and worth £76.9bn to the UK economy.

Arts in school are a crucial ingredient in the making of UK’s creative life – one of the nation’s USPs. But artists, musicians, writers and actors are not born skilled.

Huge numbers of creative professionals can trace the igniting of their creativity back to experiences at school, whether it was encouragement from a school art teacher, acting in a play or singing a particular piece of music at school. This includes Lily Allen, Grayson Perry and Dave Grohl to name a few.

Five reasons to study creative subjects;

1 .The arts make self-starters and develop emotional intelligence

2. The arts are stretching

3. Arts students are highly sought after by employers

4. Arts ‘reach the parts other subjects can’t reach’

5. Arts ‘reach the students other subjects can’t reach’