SAVE OUR SUBJECTS
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A campaign for broadening the curriculum
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GOVERNMENT SCRAPS THE EBACC AND WILL REFORM PROGRESS 8
CAMPAIGN STATEMENT: NOVEMBER 2025
Save Our Subjects celebrates a major campaign win with the announcement on 5 November 2025 that government will abolish the EBacc and reform Progress 8.
We warmly welcomes the government announcement that it will abolish the English Baccalaureate and reform the Progress 8 accountability measure.
The news is a major boost for arts subjects and a campaign win for Save Our Subjects. The campaign has been calling for a review and reform of accountability measures, which have contributed to the significant decline in arts subjects in English state schools since 2010.
The government announcement is in response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which published its final report on 5 November 2025. The report finds '...it is clear that the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measures have to some degree unnecessarily constrained students’ choices', affecting the time available for arts subjects, and it recommends abandoning the measure.
While the report does not recommend reforming Progress 8, the government's response states that alongside removing the EBacc there will be reforms of Progress 8 to encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects including the arts.
Save Our Subjects is a coalition of over 40 arts and education organisations led by the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) and One Dance UK. In 2023 leaders of the Save Our Subjects coalition delivered an open letter signed by over 1,200 organisations and individuals calling for the Education Secretary to take action on the EBacc and Progress 8.
Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive of the ISM, said, ‘The EBacc and Progress 8 have done immeasurable harm to arts subjects over the past 15 years. For the government to acknowledge this damage and both scrap the EBacc and reform Progress 8 is truly a historic moment and one that should give us hope for the future of arts education.’
Michele Gregson, General Secretary of NSEAD, said, 'The call for change has been heard. Politicians have seen the year-on-year impacts and consequences of the divisive and arts-devaluing Ebacc. It has taken 15 years of vocal, well-evidenced and creative campaigning to get here. Well done everyone who has raised their voice and united to end the EBacc.'
Andrew Hurst, Chief Executive of One Dance UK, said, 'This is a genuinely transformative moment for arts education. For too long, dance and other creative subjects have been squeezed to the margins. Removing the EBacc and reforming Progress 8 signals a long-overdue recognition that creativity and physical expression are central to a broad, balanced education, not an optional extra.'
Thank you to all our partners and supporters for being part of this historic change.
Save Our Subjects will respond to the government consultation on its proposed reforms to Progress 8, to ensure that the changes help to support arts subjects in schools and boost uptake at GCSE level. Find out more about the proposals.
Save Our Subjects celebrates a major campaign win with the announcement on 5 November 2025 that government will abolish the EBacc and reform Progress 8.
We warmly welcomes the government announcement that it will abolish the English Baccalaureate and reform the Progress 8 accountability measure.
The news is a major boost for arts subjects and a campaign win for Save Our Subjects. The campaign has been calling for a review and reform of accountability measures, which have contributed to the significant decline in arts subjects in English state schools since 2010.
The government announcement is in response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which published its final report on 5 November 2025. The report finds '...it is clear that the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measures have to some degree unnecessarily constrained students’ choices', affecting the time available for arts subjects, and it recommends abandoning the measure.
While the report does not recommend reforming Progress 8, the government's response states that alongside removing the EBacc there will be reforms of Progress 8 to encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects including the arts.
Save Our Subjects is a coalition of over 40 arts and education organisations led by the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) and One Dance UK. In 2023 leaders of the Save Our Subjects coalition delivered an open letter signed by over 1,200 organisations and individuals calling for the Education Secretary to take action on the EBacc and Progress 8.
Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive of the ISM, said, ‘The EBacc and Progress 8 have done immeasurable harm to arts subjects over the past 15 years. For the government to acknowledge this damage and both scrap the EBacc and reform Progress 8 is truly a historic moment and one that should give us hope for the future of arts education.’
Michele Gregson, General Secretary of NSEAD, said, 'The call for change has been heard. Politicians have seen the year-on-year impacts and consequences of the divisive and arts-devaluing Ebacc. It has taken 15 years of vocal, well-evidenced and creative campaigning to get here. Well done everyone who has raised their voice and united to end the EBacc.'
Andrew Hurst, Chief Executive of One Dance UK, said, 'This is a genuinely transformative moment for arts education. For too long, dance and other creative subjects have been squeezed to the margins. Removing the EBacc and reforming Progress 8 signals a long-overdue recognition that creativity and physical expression are central to a broad, balanced education, not an optional extra.'
Thank you to all our partners and supporters for being part of this historic change.
Save Our Subjects will respond to the government consultation on its proposed reforms to Progress 8, to ensure that the changes help to support arts subjects in schools and boost uptake at GCSE level. Find out more about the proposals.
Background to the Save Our Subjects campaign
Arts and technology subjects are in serious decline in English secondary schools.
School accountability measures have devalued arts and technology subjects in our secondary schools - the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) excludes all arts subjects and Progress 8 heavily weights league tables towards EBacc subjects. Arts and technology subjects are disappearing at a frightening rate, with a 40% fall in GCSE arts entries since 2010, and specialist teachers are in decline too. For a truly broad and balanced curriculum that supports the talent pipeline and teaches young people skills for the 21st-century workplace, we must #SaveOurSubjects.
Government must:
We urge you to join us in the campaign to help #SaveOurSubjects.
Arts and technology subjects are in serious decline in English secondary schools.
School accountability measures have devalued arts and technology subjects in our secondary schools - the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) excludes all arts subjects and Progress 8 heavily weights league tables towards EBacc subjects. Arts and technology subjects are disappearing at a frightening rate, with a 40% fall in GCSE arts entries since 2010, and specialist teachers are in decline too. For a truly broad and balanced curriculum that supports the talent pipeline and teaches young people skills for the 21st-century workplace, we must #SaveOurSubjects.
Government must:
- Review the impact of accountability measures (the EBacc and Progress 8) on arts and technology subjects
- Reform the Progress 8 accountability measure, giving pupils more freedom of choice at GCSE
- Commit to the Arts Premium which was promised in the Conservatives’ 2019 general election manifesto
We urge you to join us in the campaign to help #SaveOurSubjects.
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CAMPAIGN PARTNERS
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