Director's letter

The Creative Learning and Development Team (CLD) is working to expand and enrich the education children and young people receive in school and to create a wider culture that supports learning across society and throughout the life cycle. We believe this to be an essential pre-condition for the realisation of the RSA’s stated ambition of creating a 21st Century Enlightenment.

The tests, targets and high-stakes accountability that are such a defining feature of England’s education system have led to widespread gaming and teaching-to-the-test, the effect of which is to narrow and hollow-out the education children and young people receive. As a result, all-too-often, only those things that get measured, get done. We are determined that education should not just be about academic excellence, important as that is, but should also be about developing students’ creativity, curiosity, confidence and character. We believe every young person has a right to a broad and rich education that tends to the needs of the whole child, head, heart and hand. All of our projects, research, advocacy, engagement and other activities are designed to support this overarching goal.